Quick Yummy Veggie Burger

I'll just go ahead and say it, this is not a recipe for homemade veggie burgers!! haha. Remember, this blog is called the BEGINNER vegetarian!

One of my first discoveries as a vegetarian was Boca Burgers. They are veggie burgers you find in the frozen food section of pretty much any grocery store. They are cheap and super easy to make.

This was another one of those things that Jeremy said "ewww!!!!!" to when he heard that is what we were having for lunch one day. By the time we were finished eating, he had proclaimed that veggie burgers were wayyyy better than beef burgers. Who would have thought??!!

Last night when I got off work I was hungry and didn't really feel like cooking so I threw a few frozen veggie burgers into a pan and started to cook them when I thought- "hmmmm, what can I do to spice these up?". Not literally make them spicy, but just make them better than a plain burger. I looked in the fridge and found half an onion and some left over baby bella mushrooms from the hunters stew. I threw them in the same pan as the burgers with a little olive oil and sauteed them until they were done. Once the burgers were done, I put the onion and mushroom on top of each burger and then placed a piece of provolone cheese over top. I put a lid on the pan and let the cheese melt.

I had leftover french bread from making the croutons for the hunters stew so I lightly toasted that and used it for the bread. It was sosososososososoooooo good!!!! I think I even heard Jeremy moan a couple of times while eating it!

Super fast, super easy, and super good.

Enjoy!

Scrambled Tofu Breakfast

After making the tofu stir-fry the other night, the leftover block of tofu has been staring at me every time I open the refrigerator. I knew it was going to go bad soon and I needed to make something fast and easy (you know I love easy).

I woke up super early this morning to meet someone at the Front Porch Cafe in Manteo to register voters. After getting a hot tea and waiting around for 20 minutes I finally decided to check the date and make sure I wasn't there on the wrong day. Sure enough, I was there a day early!

The good thing about the story is that it gave me some time before I had to go to work (I'm helping out at a friends law firm this week) to make some breakfast. I decided to try making scrambled eggs using the leftover tofu.

I had some squash, zucchini, and onion in the fridge so I chopped them up and sauteed them for a few minutes. Meanwhile, I had a pickle jar of water sitting on top of the block of tofu (I wrapped the tofu in paper towels) to drain the water out. Once the veggies were ready I crumbled the tofu on top.

For spices I used cumin, paprika, curry, garlic salt, and salt and pep. I also added my favorite, Texas Pete hot sauce! I added some cayenne too but the dish ended up really spicy so unless you like really spicy food you might want to leave that out.

Basically I just stirred it around for a few minutes and it was ready to go.

It tasted just like eggs, but better! I would really recommend adding your favorite veggies to this because the combo of that with the crumbled tofu was really delicious.

Even though I am not going vegan, I still want to try and cut out eggs as much as possible. Maybe still eat some things that are made with eggs but try not to cook plain old eggs by themselves. After eating this today, I think I would really rather have the scrambled tofu than eggs anyways.

By the way- you could TOTALLY trick your tofu hating friends into thinking these are legit scrambled eggs!!!

I am not going to put cooking directions or ingredients because I listed it all above and it is literally the easiest recipe ever!

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Grill Night!

Yet another reason why I could never do the vegetarian thing.....I didn't want to miss out on burgers on the grill, steaks on the grill, basically anything on the grill! Nothing is better than food with grill marks on it. Yet, I was proven wrong once again. What is just as good as a grilled steak or burger you ask? Surprisingly, it's a grilled portabella mushroom!!!

I mean, it doesn't taste exactly the same....but it works!

Jeremy and I decided to have a grill night until we realized two things; we were eating vegetarian AND we left the grill at the Democratic Headquarters cookout. But we improvised and thought of using portabellas instead of meat, and the handy-dandy George Foreman instead of the outdoor grill.

The very best part of this meal was our butternut squash fries. While we were at the store Jeremy said "Hey, why don't we get a vegetable that we don't usually buy. Let's try something new." So we picked out a butternut squash. I cut it up into french fries and put some sea salt on them. I broiled them in the oven for 5 minutes, turned them over and broiled the other side for 5 minutes. THEY WERE AMAZING!!!!!! I think maybe our favorite thing we have cooked in a really long time. We made them again for lunch the next day along side veggie burgers.


It was a great end of summer meal and super super easy with literally very little cleanup. (Easy is my favorite) This isn't really a recipe, just an idea for something to make that doesn't include meat.

Cooking Instructions:
-place mushrooms on grill whole. Pour a small amount of balsamic vinegar over top.
-add salt and pepper and continue to grill until they look done. 5-10 minutes
-cut red, yellow, and orange (or whichever you like) peppers into large chunks and place on grill with salt and pep.
-cook sweet potatoes in oven.

Cooking for butternut Squash Fries:
-cut into french fry size
-sprinkle with sea salt
-let them "sweat" for 10 minutes
-broil in oven on a cookie sheet (each side for 5 minutes)


It's super simple but still a really delicious meal!!!

Enjoy!

Warm Quinoa Salad

Have you ever just wanted something good to eat but didn't feel like making the trek to the grocery store? I often feel that way, and make a challenge out of it. The challenge is to see if I can make something yummy to eat with whatever I already have in the kitchen. In this case, it was Inca Red Quinoa, squash, zucchini, feta cheese, and balsamic vinegar.  It's pretty much as simple as that. 

-saute the dices squash and zucchini

-cook the Quinoa

-put them together with a bowl and sprinkle on the feta 

-splash some balsamic on top

-DONE! 

We ate this with the collard greens recipe I posted earlier and it turned out to be a delish meal! Great to eat cold the next day as well! 

Enjoy!

Fall Vegetarian Stew

HOLY COW THIS WAS SO FREAKING GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found this recipe online for a vegetarian stew and I just had to try it. I didn't really totally follow the recipe but it gave me a great base for this awesome dish! It was filling, earthy, and so so cozy! The perfect dish for the coming cold weather! Whenever I think of comfort food I always think pot roast, or steak and mashed potatoes.....but it really is true that you can have a comfort meal without the meat! Hope you guys try this and love it!

Ingredients (I didn't really use any measurements, just put in what I thought looked like a good amount:
-Light Life Gimmie Lean Ground Sausage (you can find this at Harris Teeter in the meat substitute section)
-onion
-baby red potatoes
-carrots
-kale
-baby bella mushrooms
-yellow split peas (I used these but I think next time I would try lentils instead)
-organic vegetable broth
-parsley
-garlic
(any spices you want to add. I used cayenne, salt and pep, oregano, thyme)

Cooking instructions:
-Heat oil in bottom of soup pot
-saute onions until clear
-add mushrooms and cook until golden/add kale
-add garlic and sausage and cook until browned
-add all other ingredients with veg. broth and bring to a boil
-turn down heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

You can make homemade croutons to go on top which I would really recommend. I just cubed some french bread and broiled it in the oven for 5 minutes so it was a little toasted but still soft. I seasoned the croutons before cooking with olive oil infused with garlic and parm. Add a little salt and pep and you are ready to go!

Enjoy!

Tofu Stir Fry

It's the one ingredient I was really nervous about trying: TOFU! When I mentioned to Jeremy that we were going to have this for dinner he was less than excited about it. He actually didn't say anything, just made the face like something smelled really, really bad. Anyways, I figured if I was going to be a vegetarian I might as well dive and and try one of the staple vegetarian foods.

We love making chicken stir fry so I thought I would try making it like usual but with the tofu in place of the chicken. I knew it was going to have to taste pretty good in order to get Jeremy on board with eating it for dinner.

At the store I wasn't sure which type of tofu to buy but I went with the FIRM because I had tasted the really spongy stuff before and really didn't like it. I probably could have even got the extra firm but went with this this time. I looked online for the best way to cook it and found something called "dry frying".

First I cut a big chunk of the tofu off and covered it in paper towels. Then I put a cutting board on top to drain some of the water out. After about 10 minutes I cut the tofu in triangles and pushed down on them with paper towels to get more water out. You can see how I cut them in the pictures below.

Cooking instructions for Tofu:
-heat a pan on medium heat
-place tofu evenly on the pan with NO oil or butter, just dry
-use a spatula to flip them and move them around so that they don't stick to the pan.
-also use the spatula to squeeze more of the water out as they cook.
-cook until golden brown on each side.

After you have cooked the tofu you can put in in a marinade. I used a mix of soy sauce, brown sugar, hot sauce, rice wine vinegar, salt and pep, and sliced sweet onions. Let the tofu sit in the marinade for 15-20 minutes.

While the tofu is marinading you can cook the veggies. For veggies you can use whatever you want.
I used:
-broccoli
-yellow squash
-zucchini
-sweet onion

Cooking instructions for Veggies:
-heat oil in pan
-throw in veggies and stir in soy sauce (don't put too much because it will become very salty)
- stir and cook until they look done!

About 5 minutes before you are ready to eat heat the tofu pan up on medium heat and put tofu back in pan to reheat. I poured the marinade in the pan as well. Once they are hot take them off and serve!

I made this with plain brown rice.

Me and Jeremy both really loved this! He said that he was tricked into thinking it was chicken. It was a good "beginner" tofu dish!

Enjoy!

Immie

Quick Collards

I got this recipe from my mom a long long time ago and now that I am trying to eat meat free- it is a definite staple snack!!!! Most people cook their collards for a very long time but this way of cooking them only takes 5 minutes. They are TO DIE FOR! Like seriously, so so good. I could eat a huge bowl of them. Whenever I make these, I eat every single last bite. 

I really hope you all like these as much as I do!!!

Ingredients:

-Fresh Collard Greens

-1 chopped onion

-1/2 lime

-Texas Pete hot sauce

Cooking:

-saute chopped onion

-add chopped collar greens (medium heat)

-saute while stirring the greens up for 3-5 minutes. 

-while sauteing add lime juice and hot sauce (however limey and spicy you like it!)

-eat, breathe, eat, breathe......

Textured Vegetable Protien Vegetarian Tacos

One of the main reasons why I never could follow through with being a vegetarian was because I couldn't imagine not being able to have some of my favorite foods, like tacos. After I discovered the TVP spaghetti I thought of trying to use the TVP in tacos. The result was beyond delicious! Basically, it tasted just like ground beef tacos but minus the grease! Super super fast and easy recipe that you can make in about 10 minutes!

Again, you can measure your own spices out just the way you like it.

Enjoy and please post if you have a question!

Immie

TVP Tacos

Ingredients: 

-1 cup Textured Vegetable Protein

-1 half onion

-pico de gallo

-jar salsa

-chili powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper, garlic powder

-taco shells

-lettuce, tomato, sour cream, cheese

Cooking:

-Follow TVP cooking instructions (1 cup water, 7/8 cup TVP in boiling water stir and remove from heat)

-add chopped onion, pico de gallo, and jar salsa in a pan and saute 3-5 minutes. Add cooked TVP and all spices. 

-Stir and heat 5-10 minutes.

-Serve on a taco shell with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sour cream! Don't forget the hot sauce!

TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) Spaghetti

This was the first meal I made when I decided to try cooking vegetarian a few weeks ago. I got the recipe from my sister. The first thing you should know as I write this first recipe post is that I never really follow a recipe, especially when it comes to seasoning. I think what works best is to add a little of this and a little of that and taste it as you go until it tastes good.

If you have never cooked with TVP before you are in for a treat. In spaghetti  it basically takes the place of ground beef. It has the same texture so it fools you into thinking you have meat in your pasta, but it is much healthier! The other thing I love about it is that it is way easier to cook than preparing a meat dish. It takes no time at all! You can find TVP at Harris Teeter and other health food stores.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Immie

Here is the run down of how I made this amazing delicious pasta.

Ingredients:
-1 can of organic tomato sauce
-1 half yellow squash (chopped in very small pieces)
-1 half zucchini (chopped in very small pieces)
-1 half onion
-garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin, basil, oregano, rosemary. (As far as the spices go I usually add a bit of each and then just keep adding more of whatever depending on how it tastes as it cooks.)

Cooking:
-Saute squash, zucchini, and onion for 3-5 minutes in pan. Add tomato sauce and spices and let cook 10-15 minutes.

To cook Textured Vegetable Protein
-Cooking directions come on the back of the bag but it is SUPER easy. All you do is put one cup water in a pot and bring to a boil. Then add about 7/8 cup TVP, stir, and take off burner. Let the TVP set for about 10 minutes then add to sauce.

Serve with your favorite pasta noodles!

How It All Started

For the last few years I have tried to become a vegetarian over and over again. Honestly, I could never even last a whole day. I would make it to dinner or lunch and end up either cooking meat or ordering it out at a restaurant. I think that I just didn't think it was possible and I must not have wanted to stop that bad. Being a veg-head hadn't crossed my mind for a while until my sister Maggie came down for a visit. When I say visit, I mean came to live in our house for a few months. She is the free-spirit world traveler type (and my very very best friend) and so we usually get to have her with us for a month or two in between her adventures.

Maggie's trip home is really what inspired me to give being a vegetarian a real shot. Every night me and Jeremy (my boyfriend) would cook something to eat and Maggs would cook her own meal. A few times she let us try what she made and MAN was it good! Throughout her visit I started noticing how much more interesting her food seemed than mine. Something that really got me was that whenever I was hungry for lunch or just a snack I would pull out something either junky or with meat in it. I thought cooking something uber healthy would take forever. I WAS WRONG! Maggie would cook up some greens, or make some oatmeal, or throw a bunch of veggies in a pan. I was like, damn that looks good and it was so easy!

Anyways, on to the story. One night my brother and his family came over (they are becoming vegetarian too) and everyone got into a conversation about eating meat and dairy products. It really freaked me out! Talking about how they put so many hormones in the chicken that their breast get so big they can't even stand up. The whole conversation just grossed me out.

Maggies last week in the US I  just felt  my body rejecting the thought of eating meat. We went out to lunch in Winchester while visiting my mom and I was STARVING! I said to Maggie "I am going to get a greasy burger because I need something with some substance". The nice thing about Mag is that she never would say "ewww that's disgusting", she just says "Ok, that's up to you". Right after I said that I got this really grossed out feeling.....I was picturing the raw ground beef. All of the sudden, it just didn't sound good anymore. I went with a small homemade roma tomato pizza instead. Since that day, I have eaten one hamburger, and one pig in a blanket (the pig in blanket was a total mistake!). That was a little over a week ago now.

Since I got back from taking Maggie to the airport I have tried really hard to not eat any meat, and I think I am doing pretty good! It has turned out to be a lot of fun (much more than expected) and all of the food has turned out great. I have been documenting our cooking so that I can share it with everyone. I will try to keep you all updated!