My favorite part of going vegetarian is the intentionality it brings. This was actually why I wanted to go vegetarian so it’s nice to see that intention come to fruition. I said fruition in a blog about vegetarianism. Oh, I love a cheap thrill.
We’ve had lots of hits so far in our vegetarian dining. Among them:
1. Adapted from a Moosewood Recipe: Zucchini Boats. I sliced two zucchinis in half, scooped out the zucchini pulp and put it in a bowl, added 6-9ozs of steamed spinach, diced arthichoke hearts (# is up to you; I did about 10 oz), and 4 oz of 1/3 less fat cream cheese and mixed it all together (the hot spinach melted the cream cheese) and then added salt and pepper to taste. Next, I put the filling inside each zucchini boat (heaping zucchini boats) and baked the boats at 350 for about 25 minutes. Delicious!
2. Yummy breads. Happy LOVES bread. He’d like to only eat bread if he sees that first. One of my big personal goals is to have Happy grow up to be a great eater (not sure how much of that I control but I am going to try as hard as I can to make it happen) so one thing I’ve done is started cooking a fruit or veggie loaded bread each week for one of Happy’s daily snacks. Last week’s bread was Blueberry Banana Bread with Lemon Zest. If you already make banana bread, just throw in a cup of blueberries and some lemon juice and lemon zest. If you want my recipe, let me know; I am happy to share. This week’s bread I made as muffins: zucchini, orange, raisin, and spice whole wheat muffins from Top 100 Finger Foods by Annabel Karmel. These were a hit and little kid gobbled down 1.5 muffins for his morning snack right after I baked them. Next week, I am going to try her carrot and cheese muffin.
3. An easy lunch. Also from Top 100 Finger Foods, I discovered an easy lunch for Happy and me (and BF). A little pizza made up of a whole wheat tortilla, smeared with tomato sauce (feel free to jazz up your tomato sauce– I added Italian seasonings and minced garlic), sprinkled mozzarella and then 2 toppings to suit each person. Happy had turkey pepperoni and mushrooms and I had mushrooms and peppers. They baked for 9-10 minutes at 400 degrees.
4. Risotto. I love risotto, and I finally gathered the motivation to make it myself. This Spring Risotto with Peas and Zucchini was a hit all around the table the other night.
you had till I read peas…sigh….