Day 67 - Mushroom, Leek, & Cauliflower Pot Pie

I may have mentioned that I checked Veganomicon out from the library. This is definitely a book that I want to own, however, so it is now on my wishlist. I've cooked (my version of) two recipes from it, and I love it. Great inspiration! I am sure the recipes are fine just as they are--I just can't seem to cook that way. It is very unusual for me to follow a recipe precisely (except when baking--that is imperative, although there are places there as well for creativity).

Anyway, this is my version of Isa's Cauliflower and Mushroom Pot Pie with Black Olive (Biscuit) Crust.

Mushroom, Leek, & Cauliflower Pot Pie

     Roux

• 3 tbsp butter or margarine (depends on what you like and if you are vegan)
• 4 tbsp flour
• 2 cups milk (dairy, unsweetened almond, soy)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt butter in small pot over medium heat. Add flour and whisk around until it is completely coated. It will be thick. Slowly add the milk, whisking the mixture as you add. Season with salt and pepper. Keep cooking over medium heat until the sauce is thick (and coats the back of a spoon). Remove from heat.

     The Rest

• 1 small head cauliflower, stem removed, cut into small florets
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 leeks, sliced and washed really well (leeks tend to hold on to sand!)
• 12 baby carrots, diced
• 1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced
• pie crust (see note below)

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and carrots and saute until crisp-tender. Add the mushrooms and cauliflower, and cook until mushrooms release their liquid and it mostly evaporates. Remove from heat and pour in sauce, stirring to coat vegetables well.
2. Prepare pie crust. Place one pie crust in bottom of a deep dish pie plate. Add vegetables and sauce. Top with remaining pie crust. Crimp edges.
3. Bake in a 350° oven for 35-45 minutes (until top is golden brown). Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes (this will help keep the pot pie together when you cut it).

*Note: Pillsbury pie crusts, and most likely your store brand purchased pie crusts are made with lard. Unfortunately that means that the easiest way--purchasing a prepared pie crust--is not vegetarian. You may be able to find veg pie crust someplace like Whole Foods or Trader Joes. Or you can just make your own--they are really pretty easy.

 

Yup..it's kinda messy, but,ooooohhhhhhh soooooo goooooood!

Day 60 - Asparagus Pepper Pasta Revisited

Sunday was another one of those days. We were all lazing around the house, and we discovered kinda late that the Awards Ceremony we were attending was refreshments only, not dinner like I thought. I was being lazy and I didn't want to go to the store, which leads me to that platitude "necessity is the mother of invention". The Asparagus Pepper Pasta was a hit earlier in the week and I still had asparagus and peppers left, so I revisited the recipe (with a few changes--again, that seems to be how I cook).

Asparagus Pepper Pasta Revisited

• 1 lb asparagues spears
• 1 orange bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 3 large mushrooms, chopped
• 1 largish medium zucchini, cut in quarters
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lb penne pasta

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions. Cut asparagus into 1-inch pieces.
2. Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until transparent. Add asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini, and bell pepper and saute until asparagus is crisp-tender and mushrooms have released their juices. Add salt and pepper.
3. Serve over penne pasta. 

Sorry! No pics--I had to get ready for the awards ceremony and time was tight around dinner time. 

Day 33 - Italian Chickpea Pasta

I have so much food from last week because all the recipes I made were huge (I am so used to doubling recipes!). I didn't really make a plan for this week's dinners--I've just been using what's in the fridge. Today Steven requested pasta. Well, actually spaghetti, but I'm out of spaghetti noodles. I've always made my own pasta sauce, but in the past it has had ground meat in it. This time I threw a bunch of whatever was in the fridge and came out with this--which was really tasty.


Italian Chickpea Pasta

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 small shallots, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 lb sliced or chopped assorted mushrooms
• 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 (15 oz) cans Italian diced tomatoes
• 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1 cup garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
• most of a 10 oz bag of spinach
• 1 (16 oz) pkg penne pasta

1. Cook pasta according to directions on package.
2. Heat olive oil in medium pot over medium-high heat. Add shallots and garlic; cook until translucent. 
3. Add mushrooms and cook until they release their juices.
4. Add all tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and chickpeas. Cook until heated through. Add spinach; cook until wilted. Serve over penne pasta.

Yum!

Day 26 - Awesome Mushroom Pasta

Have I mentioned yet how much I love mushrooms? I could eat them every day. I love them as much as I love steak, which is good since I've given up eating meat. Ü


This week I'm cooking my way through a bunch of Rachael Ray recipes. A lot of them are easy to adapt to vegetarian cooking, and this recipe is no exception. This is based on Rachael's Creamed Mushroom Sauté with Artichoke Hearts, Spinach, and Penne from 365: No Repeats.

Of course, I put my own spin on things, but the basic recipe is so easy and soooooo good!


Whitney's Pesto Mushroom, Artichoke Heart, Spinach Pasta

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, pressed
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 lbs assorted mushrooms, thinly sliced (we used white button mushrooms and cremini mushrooms)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (soy would probably be fine, too)
• 1 (15 oz) can artichoke hearts, well-drained
  
• 1 (10 oz) box frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 tbsp prepared pesto
  

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add garlic and shallots and cook for about 1 minute. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until browned and yummy.
3. Sprinkle flour, salt, and pepper over mushrooms and stir. Stir in vegetable broth and cook for a minute or two (until thickened). Stir in almond milk and simmer for five minutes.
4. Stir in artichoke hearts, spinach, and pesto. Heat through (1-3 minutes). Mix into well drained penne pasta.

The finished pasta is soooooooo good!

Day 11 - Green and White Pasta

Yummmm...

It's kind of feeling like spring here. Sorry, rest of the country - I know you are dealing with major below normal temperatures, but, hey...I live in the desert, so it's only fair that my temps (which are always way off from the rest of the country) are spring like. Upper 60's springlike. Very nice.

Which means that I want peas. The penultimate of spring veggies. Of course, peas aren't available yet. Except in the freezer section. Which is where I bought mine.

But anyway...

I adapted this recipe from somewhere...Sadly, this is how many of my recipes come about. I have a recipe, generally handwritten, and then I change it. I can't just make a recipe as written. Except if I'm baking, and even that's debatable.

So, this is my version of a Green and White Pasta recipe I got somewhere...

• 1 (12 oz) pkg of angel hair pasta (preferable multi-grain, if you can find it)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 12-ish oz of mushrooms, sliced
• 4 oz prepared pesto (or you can make your own)
• 1 (16 oz) package frozen baby peas 
• 1 (10 oz) pkg of baby spinach

1. Prepare angel hair pasta according to package directions. Drain. Stir pesto into pasta.
2. In a large saucepan, saute onions in olive oil over medium heat until soft. Add sliced mushrooms and cook until juices are released and mushrooms are softened.
3. Add  baby peas and cook until heated through. Add spinach and cover pan. Cook until spinach is wilted, 3-5 minutes.
4. Spoon over pasta and serve.

Easy, easy, easy! And tasty, too. Feel free to add salt and pepper to taste. You can also grate parmesan cheese over the top if you feel the need, but it really isn't necessary...

This makes a lot. Like 8+ servings. But it is totally worth it...

Day 10 - Veggie Burgers Stroganoff

Let me preface this by saying that out of the two MorningStar products I've tried, I've been less than impressed. I've actually had Garden Burgers, and they aren't too bad, but my local grocery doesn't sell them. I had to punt with MorningStar. I bought the prime grillers which were ok, if you weren't expecting any meaty taste at all.

Unfortunately, I was.

That said, this wasn't bad. I would prefer a mushroom stroganoff, and I am betting that sometime during the year I will create something to that effect. In the meantime, here is the recipe I adapted:

Veggie Burgers Stroganoff

• 1 (10 oz or so) package of egg noodles
• 1 (9-12 oz) package of vegetable burger patties
• 1 tbsp butter
• 3 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp dill
• 1/2 cup sour cream

1. Cook egg noodles as directed on package. Drain.
2. In a large skillet, cook burgers as directed on package. Remove from skillet. Cut in half, then cut into strips.
3. In same skillet, melt butter. Add mushrooms, onions, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat until mushrooms and onions are crisp-tender. Remove from heat.Stir in burger pieces.
   
4. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup of the milk, flour, lemon juice, ketchup, salt, and dill. Stir in remaining milk. Stir this into the mushroom mixture in skillet. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. 
5. Reduce heat to low. Stir in sour cream and cook until heated through. Be careful not to boil.
6. Serve over hot cooked noodles.
   

Day 5 - Pizza!

I keep forgetting to take my vitamins. Which is stupid, because I have no energy when I don't take them (my body tends to be extremely anemic--resulting in occasional blood transfusions, which really sucks). So, in the afternoon I have almost no energy, which makes it really hard to cook dinner.

And that means I have to punt. Which is what I did last night. We went to the store and picked up a large cheese pizza. Which my son can eat at any given time. Our deli is kinda sparse on the cheese, which on the one hand annoys me, since I pay the same price for a cheese pizza as I would for a supreme with the works--$12.49, but on the other hand is kind of ok since I don't really love cheese.

Steven wanted just cheese, so half of the pizza I left plain. The other half, though, I dressed up with olives, fresh mushrooms (did I tell you how cheap mushrooms were? $2.59/lb plus they were HUGE), and sun-dried tomatoes (oh, my favorite). I stuck it in the oven (425°) for 15 minutes, and voila...perfect pizza.

Yes, that is a pumpkin pie in the corner. It is Steven's
favorite and about the only sugary dessert I will let
him have now that he has braces on.

Day 4 - Stuffed Mushrooms

On Sunday we went shopping and came home with some great stuff--fresh blueberries (which have been awesome in my cereal with almond milk) and grapes.

And I still have mushrooms in the fridge because I haven't gotten to them. I sauteed my spinach in hopes that it would end up in my (non-existent) pierogies, but it just got put in the fridge when I gave up on them.

So, I had some beautiful large mushroom caps and sauteed spinach. And a hankering for something meaty...

Stuffed Mushroom Caps with Sauteed Spinach

• 15 large mushroom caps
• 1 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 bag of baby spinach (mine came from the farm, so I am guess that it was 12-14 oz), sauteed
  
• 2 small onions (shallot size), chopped
  
• 5 cloves of garlic, pressed
• salt and pepper to taste
• a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese (optional)
• 1/8 cup bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 425°. Remove stems from mushroom caps. Place caps gill side down on foil line baking sheet. Roast in oven until juices start to release from mushroom caps, about 20 minutes.
2. While mushrooms are roasting, chop mushroom stems and cook over medium heat in olive oil til juices release. Add chopped onions and garlic. When onions are translucent, add sauteed spinach and heat. Remove from heat and add bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese (if using).
3. Remove mushroom caps from oven and turn over. If you have an excess of moisture from mushrooms, you can add it to your stuffing mixture. Using a tablespoon, distribute stuffing mixture evenly between mushroom caps.
4. Bake in oven an additional 10 minutes. Yum!