EasyVeg

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m no stranger to frozen or ready-made meals. As a matter of fact, I love them. I often (OK, always) have quite the stockpile of them on hand, just in case things get hectic, or I get tired and lazy. With products like Amy’s Organic, I never have to worry about my family not receiving a decent, vegetarian meal.

I don’t even really know where to begin in talking about all of Amy’s products. Their selection is tremendous! They’ve got pizzas and more “traditional” frozen entrées as well as soups, and they offer a wide variety in types of cuisines - from Greek to Mexican! Everything I’ve eaten from Amy’s (and it’s been a lot!) has been perfectly delicious. The best thing about Amy’s, in my opinion, though, is its accessibility. I haven’t found a grocery store yet that hasn’t offered even a few of Amy’s products.

Start stocking your freezer and cabinets now. You won’t regret it.

Another pair of simple veggie-q recipes to add to your collection for summer grilling. (Courtesy of the Food Network)

Vegetable Kabobs
Ingredients
2 medium red or white potatoes
1 cup firm or extra-firm tofu chunks
1 cup red, yellow or green bell pepper chunks
1 cup pineapple chunks
1 cup red onion chunks
1 cup white button mushrooms
1 cup zucchini or yellow squash chunks
1 cup cherry tomatoes
Marinade, recipe follows
Wooden skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes

Directions
Cook potatoes in salted water until fork tender; let cool and cut into 1-inch chunks. Place potatoes and the vegetables in a shallow dish or container. Pour marinade over vegetables. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat an outdoor grill to medium heat.

Remove vegetables from the marinade, reserving marinade. Thread vegetables onto skewers, alternating colors. Cook skewers on grill until vegetables are lightly charred all over, about 10 minutes, basting with reserved marinade and turning occasionally.

Marinade Ingredients
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. The marinade can be prepared in advance and held covered in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

Grilled Eggplant

Ingredients
2 pounds firm Japanese eggplant
Oil for grilling
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Rinse and dry the eggplants. Trim off end pieces. Slice them, lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick slices. Brush each slice with oil and salt; grill until both sides are colored and tender. Remove and season with salt and pepper.

When we grilled out, we used these recipes only as inspiration. We didn’t use potatoes or tofu on the skewers, and in addition to grilling eggplant, we sliced up some extra zucchini and yellow squash and grilled those in the same way. It was delicious!

Just because you’ve removed meat from your diet doesn’t mean that you have to retire your grill. There are TONS of veggies and fruits that taste terrific off the grill. Here are a couple of quick and tasty recipes from Giada De Laurentiis and Rachael Ray, respectively, that you can try the next time you fire up your grill.

Ingredients
3 red bell peppers, seeded and halved
3 yellow squash (about 1 pound total), sliced lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick rectangles
3 zucchini (about 12 ounces total), sliced lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick rectangles
3 Japanese eggplant (12 ounces total), sliced lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick rectangles
12 cremini mushrooms
1 bunch (1-pound) asparagus, trimmed
12 green onions, roots cut off
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

Directions
Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or prepare the barbecue (medium-high heat). Brush the vegetables with 1/4 cup of the oil to coat lightly. Sprinkle the vegetables with salt and pepper. Working in batches, grill the vegetables until tender and lightly charred all over, about 8 to 10 minutes for the bell peppers; 7 minutes for the yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, and mushrooms; 4 minutes for the asparagus and green onions. Arrange the vegetables on a platter. The key to getting those great grill marks is to not shift the vegetables too frequently once they’ve been placed on the hot grill.

Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, parsley, basil, and rosemary in a small bowl to blend. Add salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle the herb mixture over the vegetables. Serve the vegetables, warm or at room temperature.

Ingredients
1 large ripe pineapple
1 lime
Vegetable oil or cooking spray, to coat grill
Honey, for drizzling

Directions
Preheat grill or grill pan.

Cut ends off the pineapple. Stand it upright and cut off the skin in strips. Quarter the pineapple lengthwise and cut out the core. Cut each quarter into 3 spears. Zest the lime and reserve. Cut the zested lime in half and squeeze the juice over the spears. Brush the grill pan or outdoor grill with vegetable oil or spray lightly with cooking spray. Grill pineapple until evenly marked all over, 5 minutes. Garnish spears with lime zest and drizzled honey.

I can’t help it. Sometimes I miss things like buffalo wings. This is where soy meat analogs come into play. Most of the time I don’t recommend eating these types of foods as a substitute for the real deal. They’re just not the same. That’s something you need to know and accept about soy-based meat replacements.

With Morningstar Farms Buffalo Chik’n Wings, that isn’t necessarily the case, in my not-so-humble opinion. These are delicious! And, strangely, they not only taste just like chicken, but their texture is so similar to (what I remember of) chicken, that I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a person who could tell their texture from that of a McDonald’s chicken nugget.

I know that McDonald’s chicken nuggets aren’t the pillar of fine dining, by any stretch of the imagination, but they still taste OK. And these Morningstar Farms nuggets are much better. They make a quick easy lunch for kids, or a decent snack for friends.

Get out there and give them a try.

What you can expect to find here at EasyVeg:
Recipes to quick, easy, and delicious vegetarian food
Cookbook reviews
Heads-up on great food products
Helpful websites
Other vegetarian food related stuff

What you can expect NOT to see at EasyVeg:
Photos and/or videos of mistreated farm animals
Photos and/or videos of slaughterhouse practices
Long, rambling blog posts about why I decided to go vegetarian and why you should too.
Meat-eater or non-vegan bashing

My intention with EasyVeg is to help those, who like me, had no idea what they were doing when they first took the plunge into vegetarianism. I wanted to to make a friendly, non-intimidating place for new vegetarians or those just thinking about it to come test the waters, and see that healthful vegetarianism isn’t so tough. And that it’s not all tofu and bean sprouts!

With that said, you can rest assured that when you visit EasyVeg, you won’t leave feeling guilty or picked on because you had a turkey sandwich.

When I first decided to change my diet to vegetarianism I went on a cookbook shopping spree. If it had “vegetarian” or “vegan” in the title, I had to have it. Unfortunately, many of those cookbooks went largely unused. I found quite a few of them to be just a little too much for a veggie newbie, like myself. If I didn’t know what half the ingredients in a particular recipe were, how the hell was I going to make it?! Another issue I ran into because of my ignorance regarding the ingredients was none of the recipes sounded very good. They may have been wonderful, but not knowing what went into the dishes left me cold and indifferent about trying them.

To avoid this unpleasant situation, I recommend browsing a few vegetarian recipe websites, which will allow you to pick and choose the recipes that sound best to you, using new ingredients that you actually want to try. You can start assembling a (FREE!) “cookbook” of your own online. Vegetarian Lunchbox is a great place to start. They’ve got it all, from soups and salads, to great kids’ meals, to smoothies! There’s a wealth of information available, and it’s a great place to get your feet wet without having to purchase a cookbook you may end up not liking much.

I adore Rachael Ray. I’m fairly certain that I’d still be eating mac ‘n cheese and canned soups everyday of my life if it weren’t for her. Her recipes are always easy and fast, and they never have totally bizarre ingredients. You can usually find them at your local supermarket.

This Rachael Ray recipe was shamelessly stolen from the Food Network website. It’s ridiculously good. I did, however have some issues slicing open and seeding the charred poblanos. To make it easier on myself, I’d just split the poblanos in half, seed them, and fill them without charring them. Also, you’d obviously want to use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock to make sure it was vegetarian, and eliminate the cheese to go vegan.

TIP!
I had lots of left over filling after I made these. I saved it in the fridge, and put it on top of baby spinach for a salad the next day. It was awesome.

Ingredients
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock, divided
1 bay leaf
2 cups white rice
4 large poblano peppers
6 ears corn on the cob or 3 cups frozen corn kernels
3 tablespoons corn, peanut or vegetable oil, divided
1 red onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (15-ounce) can fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained well
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin, 1/2 palm full
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, eyeball it in your palm
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 pound spinach leaves, deveined and coarsely chopped
4 scallions, coarsely chopped
2 limes, zested, juiced
1 cup shredded Chihuahua cheese, Asadero or Monterey Jack

Directions
Preheat broiler or grill pan to high.

Heat about 3 1/2 cups stock in a sauce pot with a bay leaf to boiling. Add rice, cover pot reduce heat to low and simmer 18 minutes until tender.

Place poblanos under broiler or on hot grill and char evenly all over, 15 minutes.

While peppers and rice are working, scrape the corn off the cobs or defrost frozen corn and dry by spreading out on clean kitchen towel. Heat 2 tablespoons light oil in a skillet over high heat. When the oil smokes or ripples add corn, onion, jalapenos and toss until the vegetables char at edges and onions are tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-high and add in garlic, fire roasted tomatoes and season with cumin, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook another minute or 2 then turn pan off.

Place the cilantro, spinach, scallions, lime zest, half a cup of stock and a tablespoon of oil in food processor and process into coarse green paste. Stir into your rice pot in the last 3 to 4 minutes of its cooking time.

Sprinkle the lime juice over the corn mixture.

Split the charred peppers open but not in half with small sharp knife then scoop out the seeds with a small spoon. Place peppers in a shallow baking dish and stuff each split pepper with lots of the corn mix, top each pepper with 1/4 cup cheese and place back under broiler to melt and char the cheese.

Serve peppers on beds of green rice. Yum-o!

This quick and delicious recipe was inspired from a similar one found in New Vegetarian Cuisine. I like to change recipes around to fit my taste. I add or remove ingredients, and I add more of what I like and less of what I don’t. It makes recipes perfect for me and my family. I encourage you to do the same with any recipes you come across that you might like, including this one.

Pair this one with Spanish rice, and you’ve got a stellar vegetarian meal with a Mexican flair!

Ingredients
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onions
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups shredded carrots
1 (16oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 large tomato, chopped
1 (6-8oz)can tomato sauce
1 small can chopped green chili peppers (This makes the dish very spicy. Use less if you prefer less heat in your dish.)
1/2 tsp chili powder
3 large whole wheat tortillas
1 cup shredded low-fat colby-jack cheese
2-3 Tbsp minced scallions

Directions
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Coat baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
Warm oil over medium-high heat, add onions and garlic, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Cook until onions are tender. Add carrots, cook for 2-3 more minutes.
Stir in beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, peppers, and chili powder, bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes, or until slightly thick.
Place 1 tortilla in bottom of prepared dish. Top with a little less than half of bean mixture and 1/3 cup of shredded cheese. Add another tortilla. Top with all but about 1/4 cup of bean mixture. Add 1/3 cup shredded cheese. Add final tortilla. Top with remaining bean mixture, scallions, and final 1/3 cup of cheese.
Bake 20 minutes, or until heated through. Let cool 5 minutes, then cut into wedges.
Eat!

Have you been worried that going vegetarian was going to bring an abrupt halt to your convenient, frozen food dependency? Well, stop! There’s no need. Vegetarianism has come a long way in recent years, and with it has come the availability of delicious, convenient vegetarian food. Tandoor Chef is just one of the myriad companies that makes this possible.

Look, I know making your own food from fresh ingredients is best. However, vegetarians are people, too, and people get busy. Or lazy. Or are just plain bad at cooking. And that’s OK. You have options.

Tandoor Chef specializes in (you guessed it) Indian food. They have a variety of vegetarian entrées, as well as a few vegan choices. We usually have a few packages in the freezer at all times - just in case we get busy, or lazy, or dinner gets burned to a crisp. (Oops.) My personal favorite is the Kofta Curry (one of their vegan entrées), but all of the other varieties I’ve tried have been perfectly delicious as well.

Additionally, I didn’t have to go anywhere special to find these products. I found them in my local supermarket in the vegetarian/organic section.

As I mentioned before, it probably wouldn’t be ideal to eat frozen entrées day and night, but in a pinch, the entrées from Tandoor Chef are fantastic. And it beats the heck out of a Hungry Man Dinner.

New Vegetarian Cuisine by Linda Rosensweig and the food editors of Prevention magazine is a fantastic first cookbook for a new vegetarian. It offers simple, delicious recipes with common ingredients that don’t rely too heavily on meat analogs, fatty cheeses, or eggs.

The beginning of the book gives a quick introduction to what vegetarianism is, briefly discusses the health benefits of a properly balanced vegetarian diet, and debunks a few myths about the subject.

The recipes are then divided into nine sections that pretty much cover it all: Pasta Galore, The Wide World of Grains, Luscious Legumes, Hearty Soups, Substantial Salads, Basic Breakfasts, The Weekday Cook, Entertaining in Style, and Cooking for Two (or Just You). New Vegetarian Cuisine also includes a section which plans out a month’s worth of vegetarian meals, consisting of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack.

This is truly a great book to help any new vegetarian begin his or her diet simply, healthfully, and without being overbearing or intimidating. A note of caution, however: While this book doesn’t rely heavily of dairy and eggs, many of the recipes do include small amounts of low-fat dairy products. If you are vegan, you may need to substitute or omit a few ingredients. Also, a few recipes call for Worcestershire sauce, which is made with anchovies. Strict vegetarians and vegans will want to omit or substitute this as well.