I got this recipe on Pinterest; I was attracted to the picture, so bright, colorful and fresh looking. Here’s the food blog that it’s from: http://www.prouditaliancook.com/2012/07/summer-veggie-slaw.html

I wasn’t sure it was going to taste as good as it looked as I’m not usually fond of raw zucchini and squash, but luckily it tasted wonderful. I made it the night before and I think that helped as the lemon dressing had soaked into the veggies. The great part about this recipe is that there are no directions on amounts; just use whatever you have on hand. Here is what I used:

2 medium zucchini

1 medium yellow squash

2 carrots

½ red pepper

½ yellow pepper

½ small purple onion

1 bunch green onions

5 radishes

½ bunch Italian parsley

1 handful of spinach

Parmesan cheese to taste

Dressing:

Juice of one lemon

1 ½ times olive oil

Salt

Pepper

The recipe calls for a spiral veggie dicer to make beautiful strips of veggies. I don’t have one so I spent a good half hour finely slicing the veggies as you want them to be thin sticks of veggies (with the exception of the parsley, spinach and green onions which I chopped). Other than the slicing/chopping there is no work to this recipe. Place all the veggies in a large bowl. Add the dressing to it and mix. I added the cheese the next morning so that it didn’t get soggy. So fresh, healthy and easy!

I’m still not sure why I made these but I’m glad I did. I certainly have nothing against tortillas, in fact I recently I found some blue corn tortillas that I really love. But as I was skimming through Pinterest the other day, this recipe caught my eye as the tortillas looked so good, my family likes cauliflower, and I thought why not see if this could replace a tortilla once in a while since I am trying to cut back on bread/carbs. So when I was at the grocery store I grabbed a cauliflower and took the plunge. Ingredients are bare minimum and so simple - cauliflower, egg, salt and pepper. I made half the recipe of 6 tortillas so I only made 3 tortillas. (I guess I didn’t really expect to like these!) After I made them and saw how great they came out, I looked more carefully at the Pinterest site that had posted it and I checked out the blog called SlimPalate and I was shocked to see that a 17 year old young man writes this blog! I’m so impressed with him that I will now be following all his recipes. Good job SlimPalate!

http://slimpalate.com/

1. In a food processor add chopped up cauliflower and process until very fine. For a full recipe you will want two cups packed. I used 1 cup packed for a half recipe.
2. Microwave cauliflower for 2 minutes, stir, microwave for an additional 2 minutes.
3. Put the cauliflower in a hand towel and squeeze out the water. It will be very hot so be careful. Put cauliflower in a bowl. At this point it will look like mashed potatoes (making those are next on my agenda).
4. Add salt, pepper, and two eggs (I used one egg since I cut the cauliflower in half) and mix well.
5. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the mixture into six tortillas (or three for 1/2 order) spreading the mixture into small circles for each tortilla.
6. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Turn with a spatula. Bake for an additional 6 minutes. Let them cool on a wire rack.
7. When ready to eat them, warm in pan on top of oven so they get a little crisp.

Last week, I said week 4 of Vegetarian Cooking Class was my favorite, but I must now change that to week 5.  Again we made three recipes and they were all amazing and allow for lots of creativity in exchanging ingredients.

Mexican Lasagna – FAVORITE recipe, this was so good, I just can’t think of anyone that wouldn’t love this meal and I can’t imagine anyone missing the meat. The beautiful colors of this dish make it so appetizing, and the flavors are so yummy and satisfying. I ate this on Wednesday in my cooking class and by Friday I was craving it so I made it at home. At home I followed the recipe like we did in class using roasted sweet potatoes, but I also added sauted red pepper as an additional veggie. The idea of this recipe is to use leftover roasted veggies that you have from  another meal, but I purposely roasted two small sweet potatoes the night before just so I could have them for this recipe.

Quinoa Veggie Patties – these remind me of the salmon patties I make, but the salmon is replaced by quinoa. They were surprisingly flavorful as quinoa can be sort of tasteless. Also the texture of quinoa can be annoying to me, but in this recipe the texture is not an issue. I took two of these that I had leftover to work and people loved them.

Secret Ingredient Brownies (and the secret is…black beans, don’t let anyone know as they’ll never be able to tell). Seriously no one will know the secret ingredient. Why? Probably because these have good quality chocolate and sugar in them, so it’s not like you’re just eating black beans, but you’re getting the benefit of the protein from the beans and there’s no flour so they’re gluten free. They are really delicious and this is coming from a big time brownie lover!

Mexican Lasagna (Serves 6)

Ingredients:

1.     2 tbl olive oil
2.     2 small diced onions or 1 large onion
3.     2 cloves garlic chopped
4.     2 tsp ground cumin
5.     1 tsp ground coriander
6.     1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
7.     ¼ cup chopped cilantro
8.     3 tbl lime juice
9.     1 cup roasted vegetables (we used sweet potatoes in class, but other suggestions are squash, turnips, beets, etc.) When I made this at home, I used two small sweet potatoes (roasted the night before) and I added 1/2 of a red pepper to the 2nd batch of onions.
10.  1-2 cups frozen corn defrosted
11.  ½ tbl chili powder
12.  1 small jalapeno pepper chopped
13.  ¼ cup prepared salsa
14.  8 six inch blue corn tortillas (can use your favorite tortillas)
15.  1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 350. Coat 9X9 baking dish with oil.

2.     Heat 1 tbl oil in skillet over medium heat. Add 1/2 the chopped onion and sauté 5 minutes. Add 1 tsp cumin and coriander, cook 5 minutes. Add these onions into a bowl with the black beans, cilantro and lime juice.

3.     Heat 1 tbl oil in same skillet over medium heat. Saute remaining onion as above. Stir in chili powder, garlic, jalapeno and remaining cumin, cook 3 minutes. Add salsa, pre-roasted veggies and corn, turn off heat.

4.     Layer in your pan as follows: 4 tortillas, ½ bean mixture, ½ veggie mixture, then repeat all three layers. Top with cheese. Bake 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.

These are the best tortillas!

This is the bean mixture (with sauted onions, cilantro, lime juice)

This is the veggie mixture (2nd batch of onions, jalapena, sweet potatoes, red pepper, corn, salsa). There are no hotdogs in there, for some reason the sweet potatoes look like hotdogs I think.

All ready to eat! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Since I am so enthusiastic about this recipe I wanted to know about how many calories was in this. So I calculated and it is pretty low considering all the ingredients in this. I even added 100 calories for the onion, red pepper, jalapena and salsa as those items are so low in calories I didn’t want to do them individually. Maybe I calculated something wrong, but I am an accountant so I think it’s correct.

My calculations for the entire casserole are:

• 8 tortillas 560
• 1 cup cheese   440
• 1 can beans    350
• 1 1/2 cup corn      120
• 2 small sweet potatoes 108
• 3 tbl olive oil 360 (2 to cook onions, 1 to cook sweet potato)
• other  100
• Total   2,038 divided by six servings = 340 calories

Quinoa Veggie Patties

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup quinoa, cooked and cooled to room temperature
2. 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3. 1/4 tsp sea salt
4. 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives
5. 1/2 cup finely chopped kale or greens of choice
6. 1/2 yellow onion finely chopped
7. 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
8. 2 tsp dried dill
9. 1/2 tsp cumin
10. 1/2 cup whole grain bread crumbs
11. 1/2 tsp baking powder
12. 3 tbl crumbled feta
13. 2 tsp olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Combine quinoa, eggs and salt in medium bowl. Stir in the chives, dill, kale, onion, garlic and cumin. Stir well. Add baking powder and bread crumbs and stir. Gently stir in feta. Shape the mixture into patties. Oil a baking sheet and arrange the patties on the sheet with space between each. Bake for 20 minutes, flip, and bake for 5 minutes more. They should brown in the the oven.

Secret Ingredient Brownies

Ingredients:

1. 1 can no salt added black beans, drained and rinsed
2. 3 large eggs
3. 1/3 cup melted butter
4. 1/4 cup cocoa powder
5. 1/4 tsp salt
6. 2 tsp vanilla
7. 1/2 cup sugar
8. 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
9. 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
10. Optional add ins: cinnamon, sea salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Butter an 8 inch baking pan. Place the beans, eggs, melted butter, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla and sugar in a food processor and blend until smooth. Remove the blade and stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Transfer to pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until set in the center. Cool and cut into squares. Keep in fridge.

Week 4  of vegetarian cooking has been my favorite so far. We made three recipes:

1. Gluten-free Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
2. Saag Paneer with Swiss Chard
3. Detox Salad

The muffins are made with coconut flour instead of regular flour and if you like coconut, you’ll love these. I didn’t know anything about coconut flour, but I learned that it is simply ground coconut. You use 1/4 the amount of coconut flour than you would use of regular flour, but you use more liquid ingredients. So even though coconut flour is more expensive, you’re using much less of it. I definitely want to make these again and to play around with coconut flour for other recipes. If you like coconut you’ll love the smell and taste of these muffins. One great tip that I learned in making the muffins is that you can make your own buttermilk. Most of us don’t have buttermilk at home and it is expensive to buy, so instead just mix one cup regular milk with 1 tbl vinegar or lemon juice, let sit for 5-10 minutes until it curdles - sounds gross, but I learned that’s what buttermilk is.

Saag Paneer is an Indian dish that is usually made with spinach, but in class we used chard and spinach. It was very good, but a bit of work so I’m not sure I’ll make this at home.

The Detox Salad was delicious and so very healthy of course. It is just a variety of cruciferous vegetables chopped up very fine with the addition of sunflower seeds, raisins and currants, with a simple dressing of lemon and a touch of sweetener such as agave. I would eat this for a side dish or even as a snack.

Muffins:

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup coconut flour
2. 1/2 tsp sea salt
3. 1/4 tsp baking soda
4. 4 eggs
5. 1/3 cup buttermilk (see above to make your own)
6. 1/3 cup honey or agave
7. 1 tbl poppy seeds
8. 1 tbl chia seeds
9. 1 tbl lemon zest (I would add more lemon next time including some lemon juice as I didn’t think they were lemony enough).

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350
2. Combine all dry ingredients and blend well.
3. Add eggs, buttermilk and honey/agave to the dry mixture.
4. Add lemon zest, chia seeds and poppy seeds and mix well.
5. Fill 8 muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes.

Saag Paneer

Ingredients:

1. 2 tbl oil
   
2. 12 oz paneer cheese
3. 1 16 oz package frozen chopped spinach
4. 1 bunch swiss chard
5. 1 white onion chopped
6. 1 tbl fresh ginger minced
7. 5 cloves garlic minced
8. 1 jalapeno chili finely chopped
9. 2 tsp garam masala
10. 1 tsp tumeric
11. 1/2 cup plain yogurt
12. squeeze of fresh lemon juice

The Saag Paneer is not very photogenic so don’t judge it based on this picture!

Directions:

1. Thaw the spinach in the microwave
2. Rinse swiss chard, discard stems and roughly chop. Add to food processor with spinach and blend or chop very fine.
3. Add 1 tbl oil to large pan. Add onions, garlic and ginger and saute the mixture about 5 minutes Add a bit of water if is starts to dry out.
4. Add chili, tumeric, garam masala, and two tbl water to keep the spices from burning. Cook stirring often about three minutes.
5. Add the chopped greens to the pan and stir. Add salt and continue to stir and cook for a few minutes.
6. In a separate pan, heat a little oil and add the paneer cheese in 1/2 thick slices. Brown the cheese on each side. Remove cheese and cut into cubes.
7. Turn heat to low on greens, add yogurt to the greens and mix well. Add the paneer to the greens and cook until warmed through. Squeeze lemon juice and serve over rice or grain.

Detox Salad

Ingredients:

1. 1 bunch broccoli (2 heads), stems removed
2. 1/2 head cauliflower, stems removed
3. 4 carrots, peeled, cut in quarters
4. 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
5. 1/2 cup currents
6. 1/2 cup raisins
7. 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
8. 4 tbl fresh lemon juice
9. salt and pepper to taste
10. honey or agave to drizzle on

Directions:

1. In a food processor (or by hand) process the broccoli until fine. Add to large bowl.
2. Do the same to the cauliflower and the carrots adding to bowl as complete.
3. Stir in sunflower seeds, currents, raisins, and parsley.
4. Add lemon juice and seasoning.
5. Drizzle with honey/agave.

I’ve been talking about taking some classes since I became an empty nester over two years ago…well I finally put my money where my mouth is and signed up for two classes that started this month; French and Vegetarian cooking. Je ne pas parle francais here as I’m not too good at that, but I will be posting my vegetarian recipes here for one and all. There are 5 classes so expect 5 exciting vegetarian posts! Last week we made lentil soup,  chickpea salad and roasted chickpeas. We make enough to sit down and eat dinner together which is pretty cool, I just have to remember not to eat dinner before class! I’ve already made two of the recipes at home as I really liked them. And then there’s the chickpea salad which I really didn’t love, it wasn’t horrible, but it’s sort of like a replacement for tuna or chicken salad and seeing as I’m not fond of mayo type dishes, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. But everyone else liked it so I’m sure it’s just me and I’ll post it here anyway.

Lentil soup - I’ve made lentil soup before but never with red lentils which I really liked; they’re mild and fall apart in the soup; the spices and the lemon in the soup really give it a beautiful flavor. At home I made this soup but I added a few more veggies to it for added veggie healthiness!

My soup in class

My soup at home where I added kale and carrots. Looks like I forgot to take the picture and took it after I had eaten half the soup!

Ingredients used in class:

1. 1 cup red lentils
2. 1 onion chopped
3. 5 cloves garlic chopped
4. 1 tbl minced ginger root
5. 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
6. 1 tbl cumin
7. 1 can diced tomatoes
8. 4 cups vegetable broth
9. 1 organic lemon sliced
10. Optional - green onions, cilantro, parsley

Directions:

Heat pan with oil, add onions, garlic, and ginger for 5 minutes until soft. Add spices and mix around. Add tomatoes, lentils, 3 slices of lemon and broth. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until lentils are done. Squeeze in more lemon juice, serve with green onions, cilantro or parsley.

Roasted Chickpeas - These are a great little snack or salad topper. Make sure you keep them in the over until they are crispy/crunchy, they should not be soft.

Ingredients:

1. Chickpeas - I used a can at home, but you can certainly cook them from dry ones like my teacher did prior to our class
2. Spices of your choice, we used smoked paprika, salt, cumin, cayenne
3. 1 tbl oil
4. 2 tsp maple syrup or agave

Directions:

Place all ingredients on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until crispy. Shake the pan half way through to turn over.

Chickpea salad

Ingredients

1. 1 can of chickpeas (or cook from dried ones)
2. 2 tbl mayo
3. 2 tbsp lemon juice
4. 2 tsp dijon mustard
5. 2 stalks celery chopped
6. 1-2 tbsp dill
7. 1 pickle chopped (optional)

Directions:

Mash the chickpeas with the mayo and lemon or use a food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients. Eat as a salad or add to a pita as a sandwich.