Quick! Make it in 30 Min or Less!

Because time is of the essence!

I don't have any new recipes this week.  I cooked on Tuesday, but it didn't turn out at all how I had hoped.  In fact, it was pretty bland and boring.  How disappointing!  And since it seems like I just posted a screw-up recipe, I decided to hide my shame and instead, post a collection of recipes that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less.  Because it's my blog and I can do what I want.

Doesn't it seem like we're always in a hurry?  In my life, my schedule revolves around going to school, going to work, doing homework, eating (sometimes), sleeping (very little), spending time with The Man, and then somehow, inexplicably, losing several hours a day playing around on the Internet.  [I can't even imagine how this whole "life" thing works for those of you with children!  So many more responsibilities!!!]  Then you have to factor in things like grocery shopping and cooking, and it's amazing we can ever get it all accomplished!

I am very guilty of turning to cans of soup or frozen dinners when I'm out of time (and food) to cook.  But that's not my favorite thing to do.  I have plenty of recipes in my repertoire that take 30 minutes or less to prepare, make more food than the one serving I would get out of a prepared meal, and are healthier and tastier than what I would buy otherwise!  Taste of Home  is hosting a contest for recipes that take 10, 20, or 30 minutes to prepare, so that got me thinking: As I go through the recipes on this blog that I will submit to the contest, why not put together a handy little list as a reference for you fine folks?  I'm just so thoughtful like that.


[As a side note, the majority of my recipes are 30 min or less; however, the contest rules limit the ingredient list to 12 items or less.  So I'm posting those recipes that follow those guidelines.]

Gluten-free Popeye Pasta





Italian Arborio Rice and White Bean Soup

Vegan Goulash

Cheddar-Jalapeno Black Bean Burgers


Vegan Sloppy Joes

Fajita-style Veggies

Balsamic-soaked Apples with Arugula

Pumpkin and Cauliflower Curry

So anyhow, this is a good start.  30 minutes is all it takes, folks.  Use the time wisely.

Maple and Sesame Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Tofu

Because I need to start eating healthier!

The first of the year brings so many changes.  Back to school with a new schedule, juggling homework and work-work, those bothersome resolutions lingering in the back of my mind.  Now, to be honest, I didn't officially make any New Year's resolutions, but a new year encourages a new start.  For me, that's to get back into a regular exercise routine, and to eat more greens!!!

You would think that, as a vegetarian, I eat plenty of veggies.  And I do.  But sometimes it's in the form of a can of soup or a frozen dinner, because I've been too busy to prepare real food.  But I can do better than that!  And I'm getting a little fluffy around the middle, so the time has come to make a conscious effort to make food that heals, not just comforts (sorry, hot tempeh sandwiches, your time is over).

This week's edition of "Way Healthier Food" features Brussels sprouts.  I realize that not everyone loves B-sprouts, but they're just so good for you!  Cruciferous veggies have anti-cancer properties, among all the other amazing nutritional content.  And when you roast them, they sweeten a little, getting rid of that pesky bitter flavor they may have otherwise.  I used maple syrup in the sauce to add to the sweetness, sesame seed oil to enhance the umami flavor, and red pepper flakes for some pizazz.  And it was pretty fantastic.  Even the (supposed)  B-sprout hating roomie and the first-time B-sprout eating boyfriend were in love.  This is a keeper.

Ingredients:
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 cup sliced carrots
6 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
1 lb Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and cut in half
 Salt and pepper
14 oz firm tofu, water pressed out, and cut into cubes
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 Tbsp sesame seed oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp molasses
1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (less, if you don't want as much of a kick)


Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 375.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish or casserole dish with cooking spray.  Toss in all of the chopped veggies.  Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.  Throw in the tofu.  In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the syrup, sesame oil, vinegar, molasses, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes until well combined.  Pour the sauce over the veggies and stir until all veggies and tofu are covered.  Bake for 35 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes or so.  It's done when the B-sprouts and carrots are soft, but not mushy.

 We need more light in this apartment, you think?

Peanut Butter Cup Pancakes?

Because sometimes you have to post recipes that didn't quite go as planned...

Mmmm, peanut butter.  It makes everything better, don't you think?  Well, maybe you don't think so, but there is a certain someone in my life who absolutely adores the stuff.  And since I fully subscribe to the notion that "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach," I've made it my mission to supply my man of interest with all the PB recipes his heart (or stomach) desires.  So, for New Year's day, I planned a slam-bang brunch for us, including what would have been some delectable peanut butter cup pancakes!  Except, that's not exactly how it happened...

In my world, pancakes fall under the category of baking.  Not because they're baked in an oven, but because they involve the same ingredients as baked goods, and you can't just make that sh*t up!  So I attempted to modify a pancake recipe I pulled from the internet.  My plan was to add in chocolate chips and swirl in peanut butter while the batter was in the pan.  And it worked!  Um, kind of...

OK, so here's what happened.  First, I had the burner up too high, so the chocolate in the first 'cake burned.  Bummer, dude.  Also, the pan I was using wasn't nonstick, so the pancake wasn't happy about leaving in one piece.  Switch pans, reduce heat.  Next try!

OK, this time, the peanut butter stuck to the pan, resulting in a fall-aparty pancake.  Dang it.

Solution!  After swirling PB in the batter, PUT MORE BATTER OVER IT.

It's a little embarrassing that it took me several failed pancakes to reach this conclusion.  BUT! at least we each got to enjoy one pancake a piece mostly how I had envisioned them to be.  I may try this again some other time.  However, if you are feeling up to the challenge, and are way better at pancake-making than I am, I'll post the recipe below.  [Adapted from this recipe.]

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/3 cups non-dairy milk
1 Tbsp ground flax seed whisked with 3 Tbsp water
1 cup vegan chocolate chips
Peanut butter (I have no idea how much I used, maybe 1/4 cup???)
Peanut butter cups for garnish, optional

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, stirring to mix well.  Add in milk and flax/water mix and stir until well combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.
Heat a non-stick skillet pan on medium heat.  Scoop about 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan.  Using a small spoon or knife, swirl approx 1 Tbsp peanut butter into the batter.  Top with additional batter (I would guess about 2-3 Tbsp, or until the PB is mostly covered).  Flip pancake when the top is bubbly and edges are starting to look dry (I didn't time this, maybe 4 minutes?).  When the second side is cooked, remove from pan.  Repeat with remaining batter and PB.  I think we got about 6 pancakes out of this.
Top with a peanut butter cup, to make it look cute.  Serve as is, unless you feel like you need the sugar shock of adding maple syrup.  Look, I'm not here to tell you what to do.  They're your pancakes.  Enjoy them how you please.  I won't judge.

Lentil and Wild Rice Stuffed Portobellos

Because I'm on vacation!

Yeah yeah yeah, so it's been a couple of weeks since my last post.  There's just been so much going on!  I sadly said good-bye to the bread store job *sniff* while simultaneously welcoming [albeit begrudgingly] my new job.  The two positions overlapped for the week before Christmas, resulting in a 50+ hour work week for me.  But, now I'm back to a somewhat normal schedule, Christmas is over, and I'm getting pretty excited to ring in the new year tomorrow!

So I have some catching up to do.  This post is about what I served for Christmas dinner for my sister and myself.  I will also write a follow-up post soon-ish with the spread I made for my now-former bread store co-workers at our belated Christmas party this past Saturday.  On top of that, I'm planning to serve a pretty slam-bang New Year's Day brunch for two, and I want to blog about that as well!  Hey- I have the next two days off!  It could happen.

I wanted to keep my Christmas dinner entree simple.  I had to work late on Christmas Eve, then drove straight from there an hour and a half  to stay with my sister.  When I had asked her earlier in the week what she wanted for our holiday dinner, her response was- and I quote- "I have no clue.  I would like gravy though."  So that got me thinking, what kind of an entree could I come up with to smother with gravy?  Portobellos seemed like the obvious choice.  They have such a "meaty" texture and so much room for filling with delicious stuffing!  This recipe was a little time consuming, but that's sort of to be expected with holiday dishes.  We served this with potatoes (also smothered in gravy), peas, rolls from the bread store, and a kale dish my sister made.  All in all, this was a fantastic holiday meal, shared with my favorite people: My beautiful family.   :)

                                       Merry Christmas from the McDonald Clan!!!


Now, on to the food!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup wild rice
2 cups water
3/4 cup lentils
2 cups vegetable broth
Small onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup celery, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp oregano
6 large portobello mushroom caps, cleaned, stems and inner gills removed
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a couple of baking dishes with cooking spray.  (Size of dish required will vary according to the size of your 'shrooms.)
In a medium sized sauce pan, bring wild rice and water to a boil.  Turn heat down to a simmer, and cook, covered, for 20 minutes.  When the 20 min are up, add the lentils and veg broth.  Increase heat to bring to a boil again, then decrease heat once again, cover, and simmer for another 20 min.
Meanwhile, in a large saute pan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic, and cook for 2 min.  Add carrots and celery and cook for another   10 minutes, or until veggies are soft.  Stir in poultry seasoning, thyme, sage, and oregano.  Remove from heat and add to the pan with the rice and lentils.  Stir to combine well, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
Arrange mushrooms in baking dishes and divide filling among them.  (I had stuffing left over, but my sis and I enjoyed snacking on it while waiting for all of the food to cook!)  Bake for 20 min, or until mushrooms and filling are heated through.
Serve hot- with gravy*.  Lots and lots of gravy.

*I used the gravy from this tasty little number.  And it was just fabulous.

Italian Arborio Rice and White Bean Soup

Because it's cold.  And I'm broke.  And I love soup.

I'm at that point again that I'm trying to scrape by on the food I have in the house and not buy groceries until absolutely, positively necessary.  Actually, this is one of the best ways to get creative with cooking!

I knew it was time for soup again.  Let's face it, it's always time for soup.  I wanted something creamy, but didn't want to have to buy any additional ingredients.  That's where the arborio rice comes in.  Luckily, I had some left over from the risotto that I made for Thanksgiving.  The rice cooks down into a dreamy, creamy consistency that is just lovely.  The veggies, beans, and spices were things I had on-hand already.  Feel free to change up the veggies as you wish.

This soup is a simple, delicious, one-pot meal that comes together in less than 30 minutes.  Aw, yeah.  That's what I'm talkin' about!

Ingredients:
1   Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup arborio rice
6 cups vegetable broth (To reduce sodium, you can replace 2 cups of broth with 2 cups of water)
3/4 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
15 oz can white beans, drained and rinsed
10 oz bag frozen veggies (I used broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots)
2 cups packed baby spinach

Directions:
 In a large soup pot, heat olive oil on medium heat.  Add garlic and saute for about a minute.  Add the rice and cook about 2 minutes, stirring to cover the rice with the oil.  Add in the vegetable broth and the basil, thyme, and oregano, and stir to combine.  Increase the heat to bring to a boil.  Decrease heat to medium and cover and cook for 12-15 minutes, until rice is soft.
When rice is cooked through, add the beans and veggies, and cook for 7-10 minutes or until heated through.  Stir in spinach and cook until wilted.  Serve hot.

Diner-Style Hot Tempeh Sandwiches

Because it's a great challenge to veganize the seemingly un-veganizable!!

I've had this idea for a while now.  The inspiration comes from an entree I used to love when I worked at a family restaurant in my early 20's.  I'm sure other restaurants have similar menu items, but there was just something about the combination of shredded turkey in gravy, on bread, with a scoop of mashed potatoes, and then everything smothered with more gravy.  Now that's epic diner food right there.

Well clearly I had to do away with the turkey, because no.  But tempeh made an excellent substitute.  (I've written about tempeh before here.)  I could have marinated the tempeh longer, but I was in a hurry.  If you are one of those people who has the ability to plan ahead, you could soak it for about an hour.  I don't, so twenty minutes was good enough for me.  I'm not going to post a recipe for the mashed potatoes, bucause I'm going to go ahead and assume that y'all can figure that out on your own.  And a quick note about the gravy: I vividly remember the gravy on the hot turkey sandwiches way back when being this crazy shade of electric yellow, so I added a few dashes of turmeric for my own amusement.  This is totally optional, though.

Also, this is a seriously carb-heavy dish.  I would recommend adding some veggies to serve along with this.  And perhaps running a marathon the next day to work off those carbs.  Or, you know, you could skip the top piece of bread and serve these sammies open-faced.  Your choice.

Ingredients:
For the tempeh:
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
Pepper, to taste
2 8 oz packages tempeh, chopped

1/2 red onion, diced
2 tsp (4 cloves) chopped garlic
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3 Tbsp non-dairy milk
1 tsp oregano

For the gravy:
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
Pepper, to taste
1/4 cup all purpose flour
Turmeric (optional)

You're also gonna want: good quality white bread (or bread of choice) and some mashed potatoes.

Directions:
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, stir together veg broth, garlic powder, liquid smoke, poultry seasoning, and pepper.  Add the chopped tempeh to the bowl and stir to make sure all the pieces are covered with broth.  Let sit for 20 minutes to an hour.
In a large saute pan, heat onion and garlic on medium high until soft, about 5 min.  Using a slotted spoon, remove tempeh from broth (but don't dump the broth!) and add to the pan.  Cook for about 10 min, stirring frequently.  If tempeh starts to stick, add broth 1 Tbsp at a time.  Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and milk.  After the 10 min is up, add the broth mixture to the pan, and stir in the cornstarch mixture and oregano.  Turn heat up to high until gravy starts to bubble.  Decrease heat to medium low and simmer while you make the other gravy.  Don't forget to stir it once in a while.
In a small saucepan, heat the 1 1/2 cups of the broth, poultry seasoning, and pepper on medium heat.  In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup broth and flour.  Slowly stir this mixture into the saucepan. Add a few dashes of turmeric, if desired. Stir frequently while gravy thickens.  It should be done in 5-8 minutes.
To assemble: Place one slice of bread on a plate.  Top with a heaping scoop of tempeh mixture.  Top that with another slice of bread (optional).  Throw a scoop of potatoes on the plate, and top everything with the gravy from the saucepan.  Devour and enjoy!

Balsamic-Soaked Apples with Arugula and Macadamia Nuts

Because appetizers are fun and fancy!

It's that time again: Time to start throwing TONS of recipes into contests.  So, the good news is, I have lots of good ideas for new recipes.  The bad news is, I'm losing my job.  Again.  So I'm hoping one (or more!) of these recipes hits it big again soon!  There's a hefty contest going on at Better Recipes and this month's theme is appetizers.  So let's start there, shall we?  [You can vote for this recipe here.]

I actually came up with this recipe idea while driving home from visiting family last weekend.  The funny thing is, I don't even like arugula.  But it's a buzz word, a trendy ingredient.  So I used it anyway.  As it turns out, when you put the hot apples over the arugula, the leaves begin to wilt and soften, and are laced with the balsamic vinegar, and turn from bitter and weird into totally flippin' awesome.  True story.

This would make a lovely appetizer for Thanksgiving.  Not that any of you reading this are still trying to come up with what to serve for the big meal in less than 24 hours.  Even I finished all of my grocery shopping yesterday!  Success!

I won't be making this tomorrow, but I will be whipping up spaghetti squash with balsamic veggies as well as this risotto and some kind of potato/corn/ranch dressing hodgepodge.  It's going to be epic.

Ingredients:
 1 Tbsp vegan butter
1 large apple, cored and sliced 1/4"
1 large shallot, diced
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup fresh baby arugula

Directions:
 In a large saute pan, melt butter and add apples and shallots.  Simmer on medium heat for 5 minutes.  Add balsamic vinegar and stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves.  Continue to simmer over medium heat until vinegar has reduced and slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
Divide the arugula among four small plates, top with apple mixture and sprinkle with macadamia nuts.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4