New Year's Eve: Chinese Food

Day 74

We had planned to order out, but apparently the Chinese restaurants weren't answering the phones today, hahaha. So, I headed to Sobeys and got a box of egg rolls a 6-pack of spring rolls, some rice and some veggies. Also, some green onions and cream cheese for rangoons.

Cheese rangoons, egg roll, vegetable fried rice

Vegetable Fried Rice

2 Dainty fried rice packages
1/4 oz mushrooms
1/2 cup snap peas
1 cup broccoli, cauliflower/carrot mix
10 asparagus spears
1 large onion

Vegetable fried rice

Cooked the rice in veggie broth. Chopped all the veggies and cooked them in a bit of soy sauce, then added them to the rice.

Cheese Rangoons

We had egg roll wraps in the freezer, so I only had to get cream cheese and green onions. Cream cheese was on sale! 2.99. Not going through the rangoon process again, but if you want to know how I make them, check out the Cheese Rangoons post from November.

Ingredients

1 package cream cheese
3 green onions, chopped fine
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 package of egg roll wrappers

Cheese rangoons

Vegetarian Egg Rolls & Spring Rolls

These are just simple freezer-to-oven fare, so nothing much to discuss. I love the spring rolls.

Vegetarian egg rolls & spring rolls

Condiments

As usual, we had no shortage of choices for condiments. hahaha

Variety of sauces

Reviews/Comments

It was nearly as good as take out. The rangoons probably made it better, actually. I rate it an 8. Laura rates it a 8 and says "Everything was yummy." Now she is bumping it up to a 9 because of the rangoons.

Riverside Subs & Shoestring Fries

Day 73

Again with the fried food. But, it's all stuff we had on hand except the bag of coleslaw, and I haven't had a Riverside Sub for a few years and really wanted to try making them. The plan was to reheat the fried potatoes from yesterday but fries sounded better.

Riverside Subs & Shoestring Fries

Riverside Subs

Riverside Inn is a restaurant in Presque Isle, ME and their signature sub was something very similar to this. I've eaten pretty much everything on their menu over the years, but I would often order this sandwich which was one of my all-time favorites.

Riverside Inn served their Riverside Sub on a 12" sub bun with black forest ham, provolone and topped with grated cabbage & carrots and Italian dressing. I know it sounds weird, but it's super yummy. The differences between mine and theirs are:

• the type of bun - theirs is a 12" sub bun, mine is a round deli bun 
• the cheese - they use provolone, mine is cheddar
• the meat (or lack thereof) - they use black forest ham, I use veggie ham

If you ever find yourself in Presque Isle, stop in for a bite at Riverside Inn. They're tucked in between Main St and the Presque Isle river and have lots of delicious options and very inexpensive specials. 

Veggie Ham

Let's talk about the veggie ham. Today was my first time trying it. I had a couple deli sandwiches made with it for lunch at work and was pretty impressed. Not bad at all. The texture is more like salami, but the taste is smoky like ham, but also peppery like pepperoni...like a cross between the two.

Yves Veggie Ham

In two days, we will have been vegetarian for one full year (although I have had fish on a few occasions) and yet this is our first time trying this product. The reasons for that could be a number of things, but the top of the list is that we are seriously trying to stay away from food that contains preservatives, particularly nitrates. Another reason would be that we try to avoid soy. You'll notice that very few of our meals contain it. That's because we are of the belief that too much soy may contribute to breast cancer, so we don't want to chance it. Plus, it's nearly all genetically modified. And a third reason we have never tried this product was because there are soooo many other things to eat! But, it's not a bad product when you feel that it's high time to have a deli sandwich (which I soooo enjoyed) or a Riverside Sub. It's a great substitute and best of all, no piggies were harmed. It was on sale too! And, cheaper than ham.

Coleslaw Mix

You can get this at the grocery store already grated. It contains grated cabbage and carrots. So simple. Like, seriously, anyone can make coleslaw anytime, even if you're not particularly culinarily (please someone, provide the right word for that) inclined. Plus, it's good in other recipes, like this one, for instance, or for making homemade eggrolls. 

Coleslaw mix

And, it's inexpensive. This bag was 1.99 but I've seen other brands (maybe at the other store?) for 1.29, and on sale for 0.99. So, cheap, nutritious food that people could be taking advantage of, since the two things don't often go hand in hand.

Sub Assembly

Buns

Buns with grated cheddar

Buns with grated cheddar and veggie ham

Cooked subs: grated cheddar, veggie ham, coleslaw mix and Italian dressing

I baked these in the oven at 300 degrees F while I cooked the fries, so about 25 minutes, turning them up to 450 to brown a bit for the last couple minutes. I wanted the coleslaw veggies to have a chance to soften a bit, hence the longer cooking time. The veggies were the perfect done-ness, so that was a good call.

Shoestring Fries

I just cut them smaller so they would cook faster. Plus, this is what Riverside served. You know what big fans of fries we are here. Are they healthier than restaurant fries? Hmm...probably would depend on how restaurants make them. At least we know what type of oil they're cooked in, and that the potatoes are organic and non-GMO, which are two important factors for us-for anyone-although it does seem that most people don't really care much. Or, am I wrong?

Eco-Spud potatoes

But yeah, these fries? Just as fattening as most. Not as unhealthy as ones fried in lard or GMO corn oil or anything, but not quite as healthy as a boiled potato either. Not that boiled potatoes have a great deal of nutrition, either. I feel like I'm babbling. Done.

Shoestrings frying

Riverside Subs with shoestring fries

Reviews/Comments

OMG, it's just as I remember it. I would recommend these to any vegetarian or vegan (sans cheese) who is looking for a hot sandwich, or even something different to try. Or, even a carnivore who wants to make it the traditional way. I am giving this fantastic restaurant-y meal of mine a big ol' 10.

Laura: "Very impressive, Erin." (yay!) 9, for sure...

Fried Eggs & Potatoes with Fruit

Day 72

Breakfast for supper again. Somehow it's better for supper than it is for breakfast. I really enjoy oatmeal for breakfast. And smoothies, mmmm. But, I like almost anything, so there you have it.

Fried Eggs & Potatoes with Fruit

Fresh Fruit

Blackberries were on sale for 1.99 so I got a half pint of those. Oranges were on 4 for 3.00 so I got a couple of those too. And some kiwi, just because they looked good.

Blackberries, orange & kiwi slices

Eggs

One egg each, since there are a lot of potatoes and other stuff. And that's all we had left! lol

Eggs frying

Potatoes

Not too much to report about the prep, but we made wayyyy too many potatoes (5 large baked potatoes). We didn't eat them all, obviously, there are leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Fried in the new electric frying pan with an onion, butter, salt and pepper. Standard fried potatoes.

Potatoes in electric frying pan

Toasted Potato Bread

Yummm...with real butter. For the eggs, you know?

Fried eggs & potatoes with toast & fruit

Reviews/Comments

I always enjoy breakfast for supper, especially fried potatoes. I give this one an 8. Maybe I'm too easily pleased? I thought it was so enjoyable!

Laura gives it a "Well. It could have been a 10. The egg was perfect. The fruit was delicious. The toast was delicious. But the potatoes were too soft and the onions too crunchy. I like them done more. But! I still give it an 8."

Guess we're on the same page tonight. I will definitely try to hone my potato frying skills for next time!

Butter Bean Burgers with Spicy Mayo

Day 71

We first tried these fantastic veggie burgers back in November, and immediately decided that they were the best burger in the world. They have a crispy coating but inside they are flaky and white and have almost the texture of a fish fillet, but without a fish flavor, of course. The flavor combines onions, jalapenos, cheese and garlic, with beans being more of a vehicle to house it all in.

Butter Bean Burger with Spicy Mayo

Butter Bean Burgers

Made the same way every time, so you can check our Butter Bean Burgers link from Nov 19th for the recipe, but here are some pics of the process again. Since I took them.

Laura making patties

Four patties ready to fry

The original recipe makes 4 patties but Laura always doubles it and freezes the rest. There is nothing better than having ready-to-cook food that you know still contains nutrients but without the preservatives and whatever other crap companies put into processed, ready-to-eat food.

Buns toasting

Burger Toppings

Tonight, we topped them with grilled red onion, avocado and spicy mayo. The mayo recipe is shown below.

Red onions grilling

Spicy Mayo

Laura made this fancy spicy mayo to have as a condiment with our burgers today, because she wasn't in a ketchup-y mood. Laur said she only found stupid spicy mayo recipes online so she made this one up. It's delicious! It lends itself to these burgers perfectly.

Spicy mayo

Spicy Mayo Recipe 

1/2 cup Compliments salad dressing (mayo)
2 small cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp Sriracha sauce

Combine all ingredients. This mayo can be as spicy as you like! This version is very mild.

The Finished Burger

In the pic below, you can see how crispy brown the burger gets. Inside it's soft and white and very tasty. These toppings are perfect for it.

Toppings on left, burger on right

Review/Comments

Always so good. I could eat these every week and never get sick of them. We have had them four times already in the past (almost) 6 weeks.

Hot Lentil Loaf Sandwiches

Day 70

We have had Vegetarian Strata for brunch these past three days, as that's what Laura made for "breakfast" on Christmas Day. It's sooo good. Each day we covered the baking dish with foil and set it back into the oven to reheat for 1/2 hour or so, till it was steamy hot again. I love this stuff, and I thought it was worth sharing. Takes a bit of chopping but is otherwise very easy to make.

Hot Lentil Loaf Sandwiches

Just like a hot turkey or a hot hamburg sandwich...same idea.

Hot Lentil Loaf Sandwich

We Used:

• Lentil loaf
• Cornbread stuffing
• Mushroom gravy
• Cranberry sauce
• Red Island potato bread

I sliced the lentil loaf and stuffing into 1/2" slices and placed all the slices in a foil loaf tray and covered with foil. I heated them in a 450 degrees F oven for about 35 minutes. 

The gravy was mixed with a bit more veggie broth to thin it and simmered on low while the loaf and stuffing heated.

The one on the plate below is Laura's. She spread her cranberry sauce over top of the sandwich while I had mine on the side. 

Laura's lentil loaf sandwich

Reviews/Comments

I have to say, this was better than I thought it was going to be. I give it a 7.

Laura: 8

Boxing Day: Leftovers

Day 69

It was a relaxing, no-cook day! All we had to do was heat everything up. Nothing is better than that.

Leftovers

Lentil Loaf, Stuffing, Yorkshire Pudding & Veggies

To make it easy, I decided to put it all in a pie plate and cover it with foil, then heat in the oven at 400 degrees F for 25 - 30 minutes.

Lentil Loaf, Stuffing, Yorkshire Pudding & Veggies

Food in oven

Mushroom Gravy

The gravy had to be done on the stove top. I added more vegetable broth to thin it a bit and simmered it while the rest was heating.

Mushroom gravy

Mushroom gravy, heating

Yorkshire Pudding

These had been covered with foil since last evening, so they just had to be placed in the oven...after I took a pic...

Yorkshire pudding

Everything Out of Oven

Here is the cooked food. The puddings are browner and the veggies, stuffing and lentil loaf are steaming. The gravy has been simmering and is ready, too.

Heated leftovers

Cranberries

We both filled our plates and both forgot to get cranberries. We're stuffed...again.

Boxing Day dinner

Reviews/Comments

Leftovers of a meal we both gave a 10 is an easy one. 10 again!

Christmas Dinner: Lentil Loaf, Veggies, Cornbread Stuffing & Gravy

Day 67: Christmas Eve. I honestly did not even eat supper...picked at a bit of food here and there...

Day 68: Christmas Day

I didn't save a lot of time for blogging, but here is a pic of Christmas supper and a list of the dishes contained therein.

Christmas Dinner

Mom's Christmas Dinner

I had my first Christmas dinner at Mom's house at 2 pm, and it was fantastic! She had a hot turkey dinner with lots of vegetables so there were plenty of choices. Mom and Dad are both good cooks. Naturally, I stuffed myself and then had dessert because it's Christmas, a day of indulgence. :) I wish I had taken a pic of my plate. I did get a pic of Lily going with dessert!

Lily with blueberry cake & brown sauce

Laura's Christmas Dinner

Then, Laura made us a fabulous meal for supper with a lot of the same things, but a couple differences. A lentil loaf was our meat replacement and our gravy was mushroom-based. And she made little Yorkshire puddings, which were so good!

Christmas Dinner

From left to right:

• Cranberry sauce
• Lentil loaf with cranberry glaze
• Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy
• Buttercup squash
• Carrots
• Cranberry-cornbread stuffing
• Turnips

Center:

• Yorkshire pudding

Lentil Loaf

The lentil loaf was so good. If you are interested in the recipe, it was posted in a previous blog, Glazed Lentil Loaf, back in November.

Chopped & grated veggies for the lentil loaf

Cranberry glazed lentil loaf

We used a different, glaze for this one; something more festive.

Orange-Cranberry Glaze

• 1 cup cranberries
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Put cranberries in dry frying pan and heat until they're poppable. Mash the cranberries and add a teaspoon of sugar. Add maple syrup and balsamic vinegar, and caramelize. Pour over lentil loaf.

Mushroom Gravy

• 1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 box vegetable broth
• Sea salt
• Gravy Master

Sauté mushrooms with some salt. Add one tablespoon of butter when liquid is cooked out of them and let them brown a bit. Remove mushrooms from pan and set aside. Melt two more tablespoons butter, stir in the flour and cook about a minute on medium-low. Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer until thickened. Add Gravy Master until desired color is achieved. Add mushrooms.

Yorkshire Pudding

Actual recipe here

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 cup water
• 16 tsp butter (in place of beef drippings)

Laura basically followed the recipe above. This required 2 muffin pans for the amount of batter, since it made 8 or 9 puddings. The recipe called for beef drippings, but we used 2 teaspoons of butter in each muffin cup instead. Served with gravy (pictured below).

Yorkshire pudding in front

Cranberry Sauce

We used to buy canned cranberries, but now we just buy a bag of cranberries and make our own sauce. It's super easy and all you really need is sugar, although we also add orange zest and juice when we have an orange on hand. And, if we don't have an orange on hand we go get one.

• 1 bag cranberries
• Juice of 1 orange, then add water to make 1 cup
• 1 tbsp minced orange zest
• 1 cup sugar

Cranberry sauce ingredients

In a small saucepan, add all ingredients, bring to a simmer until berries pop (takes about 2 minutes), and continue to simmer about 3 or 4 more minutes. It will already be thickening. This is seriously so easy and quick it's not much more work than opening that can used to be. You could also just use a cup of OJ in place of juicing and zesting an orange. Or, a lemon, if you don't have an orange or any OJ. Some people like to add cinnamon too. You can make it however you like, but it's just a matter of cooking everything for about 5 minutes. Transfer to a pretty serving dish and cool.

Cranberry sauce

Cornbread Stuffing

Laura spent Christmas Eve making cornbread and white bread to use in the stuffing. Then she left them out to dry out overnight.

• 1 batch of corn bread, crumbled
• 1 loaf white bread, cubed
• 1 tsp thyme  (dried)
• 1 tsp rosemary  (dried)
• 1/4 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
• 1 large onion
• 1 tsp butter
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 - 1 box of vegetable broth

Mix the crumbled batch of corn bread and loaf of cubed white bread together with the craisins.

Cornbread crumbs and breadcrumbs

Sauté an onion in tbsp butter. Stir in the thyme and rosemary. Toss into the crumb mixture and add vegetable broth and eggs until well-moistened. Press into baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes in 350 degree oven.

The Veggies

Turnips

Potatoes

Boiled, mashed and whipped with cream, butter, salt and pepper.

Turnips

Boiled, and mashed with a tablespoon of butter.

Squash

Roasted, and mashed with a tablespoon of butter.

Carrots

Boiled, tablespoon of butter melted over them.

The aftermath

Inexpressibly Good

I couldn't finish everything but I gave it my best try. Lots of leftovers, thankfully! Ten from both of us.

Cheese Tortellini with Texas Toast

Day 65

Yayyyy, pasta! I'm almost always in the mood for noodles. And cheese...

Cheese Tortellini with Texas Toast

Marinara

I bought a jar of Spinach & Cheese Classico sauce for this and Laura added the following embellishments to it:

• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1 "ice cube" of basil & olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic

Frozen Basil

As mentioned above, we have basil and olive oil frozen from the summer/fall harvest. Basically, each cube contains about 2 tbsp of chopped basil and 1 tbsp olive oil. Thought I should explain that one.

"Ice cubes" of basil & olive oil

Extra large freezer bag full of "ice cube" basil/olive oil

Marinara sauce

Cheese Tortellini

Even before we stopped eating meat, we both preferred cheese tortellini to the meat-based ones. Tonight we had Compliments cheese tortellini. A small package serves at least 4, because it's filling.

Cooked cheese tortellini

Serve It Up!

We served it with grated parm and sautéed mushrooms on top and Texas toast on the side. Another fairly quick meal.

Sautéed mushrooms

Cheese tortellini with Texas toast

Reviews/Comments

Me: 7. The sauce was good, but could have used a sprinkle of BS (brown sugar) in it.
Laura: 5. It was ok. Not great sauce...but-it was easy...