Pan Patty Squash Tacos

After the last few posts you are probably beginning to wonder if I have made a serious lifestyle switch. Has mommy gone green?? If you follow us along on Facebook then you already know the answer is no, or I guess only partially. While we do try to eat one vegetarian dinner a week on a regular basis I thought it might be fun to challenge ourselves and stretch things a bit further with a week straight of vegetarian dinners. It has been something we have been talking about for a while now and since our CSA is in full swing I figured what better time to give it a shot. Please remember that while I love vegetables, the Mr. only tolerates most of them so this is really a true test of his love for me.

 Since Mr. loves all Mexican food and we have a boat load of squash on our hands I decided to give a veggie taco recipe a try. I chopped up a ton of fresh vegetables and added black beans to increase the protein. This quick prep dish was ready in less than 30 minutes from start to finish and made a delicious and nutritious vegetarian meal for the family that everyone enjoyed. The best things about this recipe is that it is super quick and easy. Yes, chopping takes some time but I did some of the prep the night before so that we would have a quick and dirty meal on the table minutes after we returned home tonight. After all, the cooking time is 10 minutes which is perfect for a week night wonder meal.

Pan Patty Squash Tacos
2 -3 Pan patty squash, chopped (depending upon size)

½ medium onion, thinly sliced

1 sweet pepper, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 large mild chili, chopped (not sure what I used, it was long and light green and came in my CSA crate)

1 tsp of ground cumin

½ tsp of oregano

1 tbs taco seasoning

1 C tomatoes, chopped

¼ C cilantro, chopped

1 can black beans

EVOO

Toppings include

Shredded cabbage

Salsa

Shredded jack cheese

Avocado cream (1/2 an avocado and 2 tbs Greek Yogurt, lime juice, cumin, S&P)

Rinse black beans and set aside. Heat EVOO in a skillet, add all the ingredients together in a skillet and sauté on medium heat for 10 minutes or until all the vegies are cooked to your liking. Serve in tortillas with choice of toppings.

Sarah's Veggie Burgers and "Fried” Potatoes

 Sarah here, last night I had the perfect opportunity to try making these veggie
burgers from My Father's Daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook, because
our house guest for the week is vegetarian.  I adapted the recipe to
take advantage of using some of the summer squash we received in our
CSA delivery earlier in the day. They were delish!  Even my meat
loving husband didn't miss the lack of meat in this meal. And they
were super easy to make. The recipe calls for the patties to sit in
the refrigerator for a couple of hours, so it would be the perfect
thing to make ahead and refrigerate while you head to the pool with
the kids.  I, however, hadn't read that part of the recipe so I ended
up throwing mine in the freezer for 20 minutes.  That worked fine too!


Ingredients:
1 yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 can of black beans, drained
1/2 cooked brown rice
1 pattypan squash, finely grated
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbsp Flour
4 burger buns (we used Martin's Famous Whole Wheat Potato Rolls)

Sauté the onions, garlic and cumin with a little bit of olive oil for
about 7 minutes.  Add black beans, brown rice, squash, salt and pepper
and cook for an additional 2 minutes.  Mash all the ingredients
together, but be sure not to mash it too much, you want the burgers to
have some texture. Form mixture into 4 patties and refrigerate for a
couple of hours (again, waiting at the pool is strongly recommended).
To cook coat the patties with flour and fry in a heavy skillet with
olive oil.

Serve with your favorite burger condiments.  We served them with
sliced tomatoes, red onion, and avocado. Yum!

For the "Fried" Potatoes I sliced two large potatoes into 1/4 inch
rounds, leaving the skin (best part!) on.  I sprayed a cookie sheet
with coconut oil, laid out the potatoes in a single layer and then
gave them another spray.  Bake at 350 until they reach your desired
crispness.

Chickpea Salad Roll

We have about two dozen hot dog rolls left from our 4^th of July party so I am working on figuring out ways to use them up. My first inclination was lobster rolls! I mean who doesn’t want a delicious treat like that. Unfortunately, lobster is a bit pricy for this family so I started looking for other more cost effective options. I came across a Vegan “Lobster” Roll recipe on the the runningwithtongs blog and thought … she might be on to something here. Obviously they would be nothing like the original but the recipe was really intriguing as an alternative to  mayo based seafood and meat salads which the Mr. hates. I made a couple adaptations to her original recipe including adding old bay seasoning for flavor, and using a mixture of mayo and Greek yogurt as a creamy base. I must admit that the result was quite tasty. While I would never claim it was anywhere near as tasty as a lobster roll I will say that it is a great budget friendly, healthy and vegetarian option that totally made my whole family smile.

1 can of chick peas

¼ C corn

1 stalk of celery, minced

½ a small zucchini, minced

1 green onion, minced

5 sun dried tomatoes in EVOO, minced

3 tbs Greek Yogurt

3 tbs Mayo (the original recipe called for ¼ C vegan mayo but I subbed for mayo and Greek yogurt)

½ lemon juiced

½ tsp old bay seasoning (for a bit of sea flavor)

1 tbs fresh parsley, minced

Pepper to taste

Rinse the chickpeas and smash them with a fork in a large bowl until most of them are broken into pieces. Mix all other ingredients with the chickpeas and taste. Season more if needed and then refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

Spaghetti with Asparagus, Shiitake Mushrooms, Lemon, and Chives

I'm really excited to share this recipe with the 703 Mommy and Me family. I discovered it 6 years ago in Bon Appetit magazine, while on a quest to find recipes that I could easily turn dairy free. There are several aspects that excite me about this recipe. First, mushrooms! And not just regular old mushrooms but the buttery flavor of shiitake mushrooms which are also a great source of iron. Second, it is a refreshing take on a pasta dish. And third, it incorporates my requirement of having a green vegetable with each dinner with asparagus in the pasta. The original recipe requires butter, I use the non-dairy version of butter called Earth Balance. I find that it cooks and tastes the closest to butter. I also omitted the last step of putting shaved Asiago cheese on the pasta prior to serving.


12 ounces spaghetti
4 tbs earth balance butter substitute
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
1 lb shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
6 tbs lemon juice
1 3/4 cups vegetable broth
1 tbs grated lemon peel
1 lb asparagus, ends snapped and cut crosswise into thirds
1/4 chopped fresh chives


Cook spaghetti in pot. Drain when tender. Meanwhile, melt 2 tbs of earth balance in large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and saute for 1 minute. Add shiitake mushrooms, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute until mixture is soft, approx 6 minutes. Add lemon juice and cook 1 minute. Add vegetable broth and lemon peel and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until liquid is reduced by half. Add asparagus to shiitake mixture until asparagus turns bright green. Add chives and remaining earth balance. Stir until butter is melted. Season sauce with salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over pasta and toss to coat.

Raw Kale Salad

My sister was the first one to make this super healthy and tasty treat. I had never eaten raw kale before but I found I really like it in this satisfying salad and I love that it is SOO darn nutritious.

The avocado dressing on this salad helps the rather tough raw kale to break down essentially cooking it without the heat. For my version I used purple kale because its pretty but you can feel free to use any type you want. In fact, if you are really scared of kale a good hearty curly leaf spinach would also do the trick.

Raw Kale Salad

1 head of kale shredded or chopped into bite size pieces
1 c grape tomatoes cut in half
1 avocado, ½ cut into chunks and the other ½ reserved for the dressing
2 tbs EVOO
½ lemon (juiced)
½ tsp sea salt
¼ sweet onion thinly sliced
In a large mixing bowl smash ½ avocado and mix with EVOO, lemon and salt to make the dressing. Mix in onion, tomato, avocado and kale and toss until everything is covered. If you like spice try adding ⅛ tsp of cayenne pepper to the dressing for an extra bit of bite!