Ramen with Tofu

Sometimes I just crave my old college standby. The  still hungry after no good veggie dining hall options dinner that is….Ramen…

I know that it’s pretty nutritionally void but sometimes nothing beats a good bowl of Oriental flavor Top Ramen. That is until I devised this recipe to add a lot of protein, some actual vegetables, and some spice.  I usually end up eating the whole thing, so this recipe is good for 1 hungry person or 2 sort of hungry people.

1 Package of Oriental flavored Top Ramen. I know that this one is totally vegetarian, I can’t vouch for other brands or flavors.

1/2 package of tofu

3/4 cup frozen peas

2 cups water

asian chili sauce (check that yours is vegetarian)

salt, pepper, paprika

 

1. Microwave the tofu for 30 seconds before slicing it. This helps drain out some of the water.

2. Grill the tofu in a pan coated with cooking spray. Use the ramen flavor packet, salt, pepper, and paprika to coat each side of the tofu. Cook until it is browned on each side.

3. Add the water, peas, and chili sauce and bring to a boil.

4. Add the noodles and simmer for about 3 minutes or until the peas and noodles are cooked.

 

 

Vegetarian Chicken Pot Pie

We’ve continued to get great beets and carrots from our CSA so here’s another recipe that uses both of those ingredients.  Yesterday we got amazing garlic so that’s in here too.

 

This serves 4:

2 frozen pie crusts

2-3 servings unbreaded vegetarian chicken, cut into bite sized pieces

2 medium carrots, roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, unpeeled

1/2 onion, slices

1 lb beets

1 tbs butter

1 tbs flour

1/2 cup milk

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

 

1. Pre heat the oven to 350

2. Put the carrots, beets, onions, and garlic on a baking sheet, spray with cooking spray or drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 15 -20 minutes.

3. When the vegetables are out of the oven start to defrost the pie crusts, peel garlic and beets, and chop the beets.

4. Heat the “chicken” in a large pan coated with cooking spray, add the vegetables and balsamic vinegar.

5. Push the veggies and chicken to one side of the pan and melt the butter in the empty side. Add the flour and combine with a fork. Add the milk and stir everything together.

6. Allow the sauce to thicken and pour the mixture into one pie crust. Cover with the other pie crust leaving a few holes.

7. Bake in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes. The crust should brown and you should be able to see the filling bubbling.

 

Roasted Beet and Carrot Risotto

Serves 4:

2 cups arborio rice

32 oz vegetable broth

3 medium beets

1 carrot

1/2 onion

1 tbs butter

1/4 cup red wine

olive oil, salt, pepper

1/4 cup parmesan

goat cheese for garnish

1. Pre heat oven to 350

2. Cut carrots into bite sized pieces and cut beets in half

3. Place carrots and beets on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, and roast for about 20 minutes

Once the veggies are roasted

4. Bring the broth to a boil in a small pot and keep on medium heat

5. Peel the beets and puree half of them in a food processor with the wine, chop the rest into bite sized pieces

6. Melt the butter and saute the onion in your risotto pot then add the beet/wine puree

7. Add the rice and let it cook for a little while in the butter, beet, onion, etc..  make sure it is completely coated

8. Add the broth one ladelful at a time, stirring and waiting until it is all disolved before adding more broth.

9. Continue step 8 until it is the desired texture. Add the rest of the beets and carrots along with some grated parmesan cheese and cook for an additional couple of minutes

10. Garnish with crumbled goat cheese.

Asian Influenced Buckwheat Noodle Soup

This made enough soup to easily serve 4 as a meal

1 32 oz. container mushroom stock, or other vegetable stock

8 baby bella mushrooms

1 head bok choy

1/4 large head of cabbage

1/2 onion, chopped

1 large garlic clove, chopped

1 tsp asian chili sauce

3 servings buckwheat noodles

1 package of tofu, cubed

4 hardboiled eggs

1. Saute the onion in the bottom of your soup pot, add the garlic after a couple of minutes and cook for another couple of minutes.

2. Add the mushrooms and let brown.

3. Add the cabbage and bok choy, salt and pepper, a splash of soy sauce, and the chili sauce. Allow the greens to cook down over medium heat, about 8 minutes.

4. Add the stock and tofu and bring to a boil.

5. Add the noodles and cook another 5 minutes until the noodles are done.

6. Garnish with sliced hard boiled eggs.

Cool Beans

My original plan was to steam these beans and serve them in the pasta dish I just posted. I thought it would taste good and that the purple outside would look great with the red onion in the sauce. Well, to my surprise when I took the lid off to take them out of the steamer, they were completely green.  I ended up adding them to a salad instead. I had to share this picture though because they were so colorful.

Pasta With Creamy Fresh Corn

3 small cobs of fresh corn, (I think it was around 3/4 cup of kernels

1/2 red onion, diced

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

3/4 cup milk

1 tbs flour

1/2 tsp nutmeg

splash of red wine

salt and pepper

olive oil

2 servings of pasta

1. Saute the onion in olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic when the onion is translucent.

2. Remove the kernels from the cob and add to the pan with the onions and garlic.

3. Add the flour and about half of the milk and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

4. Bring to a simmer and add the wine and remaining milk to achieve your desired thickness.

5. Add the cooked pasta to the pan with the sauce and coat evenly.

6. Serve with cubed fresh mozzarella on top.

Delicious Wrap

I just threw together a quick wrap for dinner. It was a great combination of ingredients so I thought I would shar, although I have no picture:(

5 vegetarian “turkey” slices

1 oz brie

dijon mustard

mayo

1/2 apple, sliced

whole wheat tortilla

1. Line the tortilla with the “turkey” and space out think slices of brie.

2. Microwave for about 20 second to melt the cheese.

3. Add apple slices, a lot of mustard, and a little mayo.

4. Roll it up and eat it with the other 1/2 of the apple on the side.

Pasta with Mushroom Meat Sauce

Serves 2

1 Vegetarian Italian sausage, cut into bite sized pieces

6 Vegetarian meatballs

1 jar tomato sauce

6 baby bella mushrooms, diced

2 servings whole wheat pasta

ricotta cheese

1. Cook frozen vegetarian meatballs in the tomato sauce while it heats with the lid on and bring a large pot of water to a boil.

2. While the water for the pasta is boiling and the tomato sauce is heating, brown the mushrooms and sausage in a small amount of olive oil or cooking spray.

3.  When the water is boiling add the pasta and at the same time add 3/4 of the sausage/mushroom mixture to the tomato sauce.

4. The timing on this always works out for me, if I start heating the sauce and the water at the same time, the meatballs are cooked by the time the pasta is done.

5. Top the pasta with sauce and the remaining sausage and mushrooms. Serve with a scoop of ricotta cheese and sprinkle with black pepper.

Low Fat Vegetarian Chicken Salad

These were the ingredients I used for 2 servings. You just mix everything together.

2 vegetarian chicken patties, cooked and diced

1/4 red onion, diced

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1 1/2 Tbs chopped green onion

1/2 cup plain non-fat yogurt

pepper and dill to taste

Yummy.

Squash and Tofu with Cous Cous

This one is pretty self explanatory.  In addition to those amazing yellow tomatoes, we’ve been getting A LOT of summer squash and zucchini. For this delicious dinner, I cut tofu into cutlets, seasoned them with salt and pepper and pan fried them in a 50/50 mix of olive oil and butter. Then I drained the tofu on some paper towels and used the remaining oil/butter to cook cubed squash and zucchini. I added in some shredded napa cabbage towards the end, and then some capers and parm, and voila! Veggies + tofu on top of whole wheat cous cous = delicious and filling!