I'd like to say that my first week without meat was a success. However, I did learn something about myself: I'm not the kind of person who wants to ask questions about the food I order, hence cheating-by-poutine. Also, I'm not the kind of person who wants to give up food that I love simply because it may have been made with meat hence, again, cheating by poutine. But I digress.....
To mark the end of a (semi) productive reading week, I decided to make myself something delicious (and comforting) for dinner on Sunday night...and I went with a vegetarian pot pie. Super simple...just make a couple of changes to this recipe: omit the chicken (obviously) as well as the chicken stock, and replace those with mushrooms (add at the same time as the potatoes in the original recipe) and vegetable broth.
I had leftovers on Monday, so I didn't cook again until Tuesday when I decided to haul out the slow cooker to make a nice big batch of marinara sauce. And by big I do mean BIG...the recipe I followed makes 12 cups of marinara...I froze half of it immediately and still had enough to try it out in several different ways during the.
Ingredients
-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
-3 cups chopped onion
-3/4 cup diced carrot
-1/2 cup diced celery
-3 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 3 tsp dried)
-1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (red pepper flakes)
-2 tbsp tomato paste (or ketchup)
-1/2 cup dry red wine (such as cabernet sauvignon)
-5 1/2 pounds plum (roma) tomatoes, peeled and chopped
-3/4 cup chopped fresh basil (or 3 tbsp dried)
-1 1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp black pepper
Directions
Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion and next 5 ingredients (through red pepper); saute 8 minutes. Add tomato paste; cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add wine; cook 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Combine vegetables and tomatoes in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove 3 cups tomato mixture and place in blender; blend until smooth; return to slow cooker. (Alternatively, use an immersion blender to achieve your desired consistency.) Add basil, salt, and pepper. Cook uncovered on high for 30 minutes...then enjoy however you like!
Making this reminded me of how much I love my slow cooker! It's brilliant...you throw all of the ingredients together first thing in the morning, turn it on low, and leave...and when you come back in 8 hours you have created something delicious. And in the case of marinara sauce, all you really have to do when you get home is boil water for pasta. I, however, decided to try a different way to enjoy my marinara sauce: I used it to poach an egg (heat sauce to simmer, add egg). The motive behind using eggs is simple: they're cheap, as well as a great source of protein. But while breakfast for dinner is delicious, I'm just not the kind of girl who wants to eat fried eggs in the evening. The idea of eggs with marinara sauce was just a little bit fancier...and turned out to be not even a little more time consuming (once the sauce is made of course).
Wednesday and Thursday each brought with them new applications of this lovingly made sauce...
By Friday I was starting to get tired of tomatoes, and I was starting to crave something just a little bit meatier. And I thought to myself: how about a veggie burger? So I tossed some lentils and mushrooms into my food processor; added salt, pepper, and dijon mustard as well as an egg and some breadcrumbs to bind the mixture together and then threw the result on my handy indoor grill!
Honest verdict? While they had the right amount of "meat-y" substance to them they lacked the texture that I was craving. Suffice to say that bean-based burgers will probably not make my menu again; next time I think I will go with a grilled portobello instead.
Friday night's results brings me to an important point about cooking at home: mistakes are going to happen. Every so often you're going to make something that either doesn't work out or just isn't that great...and that's okay. Every home cook goes through that learning process. There are the rare recipes that work brilliantly the first time, but for the most part cooking is a process of trial, error, and improvement. Don't let one poor showing put you off of cooking for life: take note of what happened, try to figure out what went wrong, and you'll do better next time.
Trust me though...it's worth the effort!
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| Option to add more mushroom flavor: instead of going with fresh mushrooms, pick up some dried ones. Since you have to soak them before cooking you can use the soaking liquid (strained of course) in place of vegetable broth. |
Ingredients
-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
-3 cups chopped onion
-3/4 cup diced carrot
-1/2 cup diced celery
-3 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 3 tsp dried)
-1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (red pepper flakes)
-2 tbsp tomato paste (or ketchup)
-1/2 cup dry red wine (such as cabernet sauvignon)
-5 1/2 pounds plum (roma) tomatoes, peeled and chopped
-3/4 cup chopped fresh basil (or 3 tbsp dried)
-1 1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp black pepper
Directions
Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion and next 5 ingredients (through red pepper); saute 8 minutes. Add tomato paste; cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add wine; cook 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Combine vegetables and tomatoes in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove 3 cups tomato mixture and place in blender; blend until smooth; return to slow cooker. (Alternatively, use an immersion blender to achieve your desired consistency.) Add basil, salt, and pepper. Cook uncovered on high for 30 minutes...then enjoy however you like!
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| Recipe makes about 12 cups...6 for now, 6 in the freezer for later! |
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| Served with toast...and some of the red wine that I used to make the sauce :) |
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| Wednesday: Open faced eggplant sandwiches with mozzarella and marinara |
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| Thursday: Simple and straightforward...spinach and cheese ravioli tossed with marinara sauce. |
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| They certainly look right... |
Friday night's results brings me to an important point about cooking at home: mistakes are going to happen. Every so often you're going to make something that either doesn't work out or just isn't that great...and that's okay. Every home cook goes through that learning process. There are the rare recipes that work brilliantly the first time, but for the most part cooking is a process of trial, error, and improvement. Don't let one poor showing put you off of cooking for life: take note of what happened, try to figure out what went wrong, and you'll do better next time.
Trust me though...it's worth the effort!
Anywho, after Friday night's somewhat disappointing veggie burger debacle, Saturday demanded a pick-me-up in the form of an old favorite: pizza. Grilled eggplant tossed with BBQ sauce, roasted mushrooms, and green onions. A perfect end to the week!
Perfect end to the second week I should say. Thus far I must say that while there are certain things I miss (a perfect, juicy, burger for instance) that going meat free has actually been quite delicious. Where will next week take me? You'll have to come back and find out.....
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| Delish. |
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