Vegetarian White Bean and Kale Soup

Winter has finally made its return to Colorado.  It snowed all day yesterday.  And to think I ran in shorts and a tank on Saturday?!?

The cold weather inspired last night's dinner.  I was craving soup all day as I watched the snow come down.  I had plans to make a kale and tomato pasta so switched gears and made a soup with similar ingredients.  This soup hit the spot!  Warm, comforting and very satisfying with a big, crusty whole grain roll.  I know most of the country is experiencing the same bitter cold so do yourself a favor and make this soup.

12 miles on Saturday... 55 and sunny, shorts and a tank.

4 miles on Monday... slow, snowy and got to test out the new Yaktrax.

...warming up with a hot bowl of soup.

Thai Tacos with Brown Rice and Peanut Sauce

Did I mention we love Mexican?  Oh yes -- last post.  So it will come as no surprise that when I asked Christian what he wanted for dinner one night last week, he requested tacos.  Our dinner the night before was the Tamale Pie so I wasn't really up for Mexican flavors again.  I don't think he was anticipating Thai tacos but we both LOVED these.   

I pinned a recipe a while back for  shrimp Thai tacos but had yet to make them because our meatless month hasn't included fish.  Christian's request for tacos was the perfect opportunity to try them out.  I eliminated the shrimp and swapped it for a base of brown rice and sauteed peppers.  The slaw gets great flavor from soy sauce, honey and ginger and the peanut sauce is just plain awesome.  I'm even incorporating the leftover sauce into one of our dinners this week.  Christian actually said the peanut sauce was "spot on".  This is coming from a guy who doesn't love peanut butter and has always made claims that he doesn't like Thai food.

Vegetable Tamale Pie

As I've mentioned before, we love Mexican flavors so they regularly make an appearance in our house.  While I do love tacos and Christian could probably eat them every single night, I try to mix things up.  This tamale pie was delicious and a nice change of pace.  We served it with small salads and it was the perfect, satisfying meal.  We both ate leftovers today for lunch and loved 'em -- and we typically loathe leftovers...

To make this "pie", you start with a base layer of homemade polenta... top it with a perfectly seasoned pinto bean, corn and tomato mixture and top that with a final layer of cheese, of course.  It looks and sounds like a casserole but I hate to call it that.  I've never been a fan of "casserole's" BUT one-dish, make-ahead, oven-baked meals like this are slowly becoming my best friend.  Bottom line -- meals like this make my life easier and keep us happy with a tasty dinner on the table every night.  If you have any awesome, make ahead {meatless} meals, please send them my way!

Eggplant Parmesan Burgers

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From Day 1 of meatless month, I have been itching to make numerous recipes that call for eggplant.  Christian kept telling me he did NOT like eggplant.  I'm pretty sure he had never tried eggplant.  Finally, I found a way to mask it in the form of a burger.  I thought this was the best method since he loves burgers and this would avoid any texture issues (he's a big texture guy).  He declared this burger as "AWESOME" after dinner.  SUCCESS!  

I can guarantee even the meat-lovers in your life will love this recipe.  We ended up eating our burgers on a bed of mixed greens but I also ate one for lunch as an open-faced sandwich.  Anything works!  

Indian Infused Enchiladas

Happy Friday!  This whole meatless month challenge has really pushed me to expand my horizons.  You know, get uncomfortable in the kitchen.  Cooking with Indian spices is extremely outside of my comfort zone.

Eating Indian flavors is also extremely outside of Christian's comfort zone.  That is exactly why I bookmarked this recipe as soon as I saw it.  We love Mexican, so why not infuse a Mexican dish with Indian flavors?  The end result -- awesome.  Christian is definitely not a fan of curry and he loved it.  WIN! 

These are a great start if you want to start spicing things up in the kitchen because the curry is very mild.  The filling is so easy to throw together and calls for a few simple ingredients -- potato, onion, corn, tons of spinach and cheese.  No need to worry about a laundry list of ingredients for the enchilada sauce because this sauce only uses two ingredients!   

I loved 'em plain, with a sprinkling of cilantro.  Christian topped his with salsa.  Whatever suits you!

Easy to throw together, short {and cheap!} ingredient list, meatless, delicious -- I will make this again and again!  So although we've had some not so great meals this month, all of the new, great recipes we've discovered have been well worth the challenge!

Raw Brussels Sprout and Roasted Sweet Potato Salad

Raw brussels sprouts?  I thought the same thing.  For someone who is obsessed with roasted brussels sprouts, its weird that I haven't tried them raw until this week!  If you're hesitant about raw brussels sprouts, go ahead and make this salad.  It is pretty much my ideal lunch.  All of my favorite ingredients in one bowl -- brussels sprouts, pecans for crunch, cranberries for sweetness and the smoked gouda...  oh so good!

Since school has started back up, I'm back to packing lunches every day.  Its always nice to have a new option to add to the mix and this will be sticking in my rotation.  If you're worried about dressing the salad when you make it, don't be.  The brussels sprouts don't wilt the way lettuce does.  This is great on day 1 and even better on day 2... the brussels sprouts get a little softer from being dressed, know what I mean?

This would also make a great entree salad by adding quinoa to the mix or topping with broiled salmon or grilled chicken!  Enjoy :)

Simple Tomato Spinach Pasta

The #1 thing that I have learned from tightening up our grocery budget and making sure we have edible meatless meals on the table every night -- PLANNING IS KEY!  I could easily spend hours looking at recipes every day debating what to make each night but who has time for that?!?  Sitting down to write down our dinners for the week and create a grocery list has, seriously, made my life so much easier.  It also eliminates impulse purchases at the grocery store -- win.  I do my planning on notepads like the ones below :)  Oh and in case you're wondering, I do still spend far too much time browsing blogs, magazines and cookbooks for recipes... you can never have enough!

My friend, Lauren, also wrote a great post on Meal Planning.  She has some great Pinterest boards which can help you get started!

Planning also eliminates excess ingredients which also saves us big bucks.  I can't handle wasting ingredients.  Nothing gets thrown away in our house... ever.  If vegetables have reached their peak, I chop them up and freeze them.  If we have leftovers, those serve as lunches for the week.  I actually found myself eating cold leftover pizza at work recently.  I haven't done that since college.  These days I try to keep our leftovers a little classier than that.  Two people who used to loathe leftovers, have quickly learned to appreciate them :)

Anyways, back to saving ingredients.  Tomato paste.  I appreciate that is it sold in a smaller can, but most recipes still only call for a tablespoon or two.  If you don't make recipes with tomato paste all week, you end up throwing the whole can away.  Well, Iowa Girl Eats introduced me to this genius way to freeze leftover tomato paste.

Now back to planning.  For those nights we don't have a plan, its great to have a few standby simple, tasty meals that we can throw together on the fly.  This creamy tomato pasta fits in this category.  It is so easy and I bet you already have the ingredients in your kitchen.  If not, go get 'em for those hectic nights.  It would be great with grilled chicken or shrimp.  Feel free to play around with adding different veggies too.  We loved it with the spinach and tomatoes -- sometimes the simplest ingredients work best!

Breakfast + Cranberry Pear Fruit Compote + Updates

Breakfast is most definitely my favorite meal of the day but I tend to keep things pretty consistent.  It was after Thanksgiving when I had leftover cranberry pear compote that I started using it as a topping on my standard plain Greek Yogurt and oatmeal.  Since then, there is always a batch in the fridge.  I've decreased the sugar so I have shared the new recipe below.  So here you have it -- MY perfect breakfast bowl -- plain Greek yogurt, a sliced banana, cranberry pear compote and homemade honey vanilla almond granola.  I also finally convinced Christian to try it and he's a fan.  I plan to try other fruits in the near future!

So how are things going 12 days into meatless month?  I worked Friday and Saturday and was supposed to work today but woke up in the middle of the night sick as a dog.  So I'm spending my Sunday on the couch, bored out of my mind.  I haven't been sick in like 5 years -- welcome to health care?!?  I was also supposed to knock out my long run but that ain't happening.  A great Sunday dinner won't be happening either...

As for last night, I was pretty beat after work so dinner was thrown together -- a big 'ole salad for me with roasted sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts with dried cranberries and roasted pistachios (best salad combo ever) and dinner for him was a homemade margherita pizza with homemade wheat dough that I pulled from the freezer.  

We also have a confession... on Day 10, I told you that things were going great!  Well, not long after I posted that, Christian came home from work with a confession... "So I accidentally ate a ham sandwich today... I ate my lunch, that leftover shepherd's pie, but then around 2 they put sandwiches out and I wasn't thinking..." ;)  So there was one little slip-up but we're going to stick with the plan and continue to January 31st.  Until then, Christian will still be fantasizing about his first meaty meal.

Chipotle Sweet Potato Black Bean Tacos + Cilantro-Lime Slaw

We have tacos at least once a week.  We always seem to have the key ingredients in our fridge -- corn tortillas, lettuce, tomato, avocado, cheese and salsa.  We'd rotate between chicken, pork, fish or black bean and corn depending what I could scrounge up.  This is our first taco night since starting our meatless month but I can assure you it won't be the last.       

I've shared a similar recipe before using tostadas but I jazzed things up a little this time around.  The cilantro-lime slaw tastes so fresh and is the perfect pair for the chipotle spiced oven-roasted sweet potatoes.  So don't skip the slaw... oh and a generous helping of avocado is key for all tacos in our house... 

In case you're wondering how things are going for us on day 10, I'll give you a little update.  I'm doing great.  The more veggies I eat, the more veggies I crave.  When I was walking through the meat department yesterday, I actually felt zero desire to cook with it again.  Poor Christian.  He, on the other hand, is missing meat.  Last night, he was actually debating out loud what his first meal will be on February 1st.  I have given him the OK to drop out at anytime but I think he'll stick with me... for now.

And for now, I will continue to share our journey with you.  My spring semester classes begin on Monday and today was the first of a 10 day stretch of work and school.  However, I am loving blogging again and sharing my favorite recipes with you so thank you for reading!

P.S. I created a "Mexican" label for my good friend, Liz -- should make recipes easy to find!  I plan to share many more recipes inspired by the South of the Border because if we were both forced to eat one cuisine for the rest of our lives, it would most definitely be Mexican.

Lentil Shepherd's Pie

Christian and I set out on this journey together.  However, I wouldn't say he shares the same excitement as I do.  He's definitely beyond supportive and willing to try anything but he's already said that he'll be going back to meat post January :)  

I, on the other hand, love the flavorful, veggie-packed dinners that we've been eating every night.  I love the way I feel and I love the challenge of making satisfying dinners for my meat-loving guy.  In fact, I even have a detailed spreadsheet with a list of dinner ideas and can't wait to make a new dinner every night.  

In the past week, I have found that the key to cooking satisfying vegetarian meals is the spices.  They can truly transform the flavor of vegetables.  Although we'll be experimenting with lots of new flavors and spices, I am trying to keep familiar meals in the dinner rotation.  

We love Shepherd's Pie and I don't make it often because it is a little time consuming.  When I do make it, our favorite version is a healthier take on the classic dish using a combination of recipes from Iowa Girl Eats and the Food Network.  Both recipes use a "potato-cauliflower mash".  If you are eating meat, I highly recommend both recipes.  This month, I substituted lentils for the meat.  I also added more veggies.  You can really throw in whatever seasonal vegetables you're craving.  I'm not going to make claims that this tastes exactly like your classic Shepherd's Pie, BUT it is an awesome flavorful, meatless meal!  It got the Christian approval :)

Lentils are a nutritional powerhouse.  Their high levels of soluble fiber help lower cholesterol, they slow down digestion and stabilize blood sugar levels, they are great sources of magnesium and folate which aid in heart health, they are a great source of protein AND they aid in digestive health -- you can read more here on Mind, Body, Green.  This is a great source for all things health-related!