Olive This Lunch

Here’s what Vegetarian recipe Nazis who put nutrition above taste will never tell you: You don’t have to eat brussel sprouts, carrots, tomatoes only.  There are yummy vegetables.  I give you:  Mushrooms and olives. Yes, these are vegetables.  If you goal is to power pack vitamins, then go for the broccoli, Lima beans and cauliflower.

If you goal is to eliminate or reduce meat, but still want a satisfying lunch, you’ll love this lunch too.

Olives and mushrooms offer mild anti-inflammatory qualities. (Important to we who have Lupus)

Olives have low cholesterol, provide vitamin E,  but they are a bit high in sodium.

Mushrooms have low sodium, offer many benefits including, fiber, Protein, vitamin C, Zinc and other minerals.

Now that we’ve rationalized consuming tasty veggies Here’s a great lunch.

Basically it’s a quesadilla. Quesadillas are  quick, tasty ways to have a non-meat lunch.  You can have them for supper too,  Offer a few variations and each family member can get what they want. Other suggestions include onions, summer squash, tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, lettuce, spinach, salsa and even meat.

Here’s the quesadilla I love:

For one serving

1 flour tortilla (Read the labels. Some brands have only 100 calories per tortilla)

½ cup olives (green or black)

¾ sliced fresh mushrooms (white button or baby bellas)

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Seasoning (I use Emeril’s essence)

Cheese (I use two slices of vegetarian non-dairy cheese, found in a produce section, You can use as much of what cheese you like)

1 Tablespoon sour cream

1 teaspoon hot sauce

In a hot saute pan, pour one turn of olive oil. Drop sliced mushrooms into pan.  Leave them undisturbed a couple minutes, they’ll get brown and yummy,  Sprinkle with Seasoning and turn.  Add sliced olives to pan. Continue to saute 2 more minutes.

Remove from pan

Place tortilla in hot pan,  Place cheese on one half of tortilla.  Leave in pan until cheese is soft and tortilla is slightly brown on bottom.

Slide tortilla to plate.Place olives and mushrooms on cheese, fold and cut into half.

Mix the sour cream and hot sauce on plate, and use a a dip for the quesadilla.

Busted!

Getting your family to go along with meat-less entrees can be a challenge.  I started when my kids were young, but I got busted.

Everyone I know loves lasagna .  While my kids were still young and innocent I made meat-less lasagna so that I could eat it with them. It was tasty enough I got no complaints. . .  Until the day daughter Casie stayed for dinner at her friend’s house.  When she came home her eyes had that “what do you mean there’s no Santa Claus?:” look.

“Mom,” She exclaimed. “her mom put MEAT in her lasagna!”  Busted! Of course Italian sausage ramps up lasagna from an 8 to a 10.  Here I had forced her to suffer through meat-less lasagna her entire short life. So from that day on whenever I make lasagna I have to make two pans one with meat and one for me. Here are my two recipes. I think the meat-less one is fine, I hope you will too.

If you have a favorite lasagna recipe you can follow that and just leave out the meat. My version gets high praise from guests and my husband even eats the meat-less dish and likes it.

You’ll include the standard five steps

Noodles
Cheese mixture

Mean and/or spices

Marinara

Mozzarella cheese

Noodles Use a full box of dry  lasagna noodles

I have yet to find no-cook noodles that actually perform well, plus they break when layering in the dish.

Cook per label instructions just short a couple minutes so they are pliable but not soft. I add salt and olive oil in the boiling water. This helps flavor the noodles and seems to discourage them from sticking to each other as they dry.

Cook the Noodles well ahead of time so they can cool off and you won’t burn your fingers.

Cheese mixture

In a large bowl combine
1 ½ cup of ricotta cheese

One pound package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and wrung dry

Two eggs, slightly beaten

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

Minced garlic

A handful of dried parsley

1 teaspoon of dried basil or oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Stir well, This mixture should be on the dry side.

 

Meat

Brown a pound of Italian Sausage, sweet, mild or hot, whatever you prefer. Break up the links as they brown.

Spices

To the meat-less version I also add two spices that remind me of Italian sausage:  a pinch of dry red-pepper flakes and about a tablespoon of caraway seeds.

Marinara

You can make it from scratch, but I think lasagna takes long enough and uses enough pans and dishes without adding this step.  I use a good store-bought sauce. At least two jars.

Mozzarella
You can use fresh, packaged, slices or grated. They all taste wonderful

Assemble in two separate casserole dishes in layers

½  of the Noodles

Dot with  ½ of the cheese mixture

Cover with ½ of the meat or spices

Pour 1 jar of marinara sauce evenly over the top

Sprinkle ½ of the grated mozzarella cheese

Repeat.

Note: for the top layer if you sprinkle the mozzarella before pouring the marinara, you'll avoid getting a burned cheese top.

Bake both in the same oven 350 degrees 30 -40 minutes. 

Allow to cool before serving.

Two pans can serve 12 people, but my family seldom stops at one serving.

Noodles, cheese mix and meat

Noodles, cheese mix and spices

First layer: meat

First Layer, no meat

Yummy lasagna

Meatless lasagna

.

Eat Your Spinach

Ask anyone who’s ever watched Popeye cartoons, spinach will make you strong. Alas,as  with many cartoon created conceptions, spinach will not give you big sailor muscles.  Nor can you  get flattened by a truck, get back up, shake yourself out and keep on running.

But, spinach is good for you. One cup has only 7 calories and little more than 1 carb. It delivers 11 vitamins and is especially high in A and K. .  You’ll also get 9 minerals from each cup of spinach.

Growing up at my house, it was served boiled and the best we could do was cover with salt or vinegar, ick. According to my parents, and probably yours, starving children in China would love my un-eaten spinach. And probably like you, I offered to send it to them.

Times have changed,  First those Chinese kids eat pretty well these days. We have found spinach is great in calzones, artichoke dip, Hidden Valley dip and creamed . It’s a good thing there are only 7 calories in a cup of spinach because all those dishes add lots of calories and fat. Here’s a way to get your family pumped up on vitamins and minerals without all the calories and fat.

Spinach Pesto

You might be familiar with basil pesto. Replace with spinach to make it more cheaply, more healthful and spinach is available all year long.

You’ll need a food processor for this.  I was able to make it in my Bullet/mini food processor. This will yield about a cup of pesto..  It’s like magic. You’ll put in more than 2 cups of ingredients and end up with a smaller volume.

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh baby spinach.
Juice of ½ lemon

1 clove garlic, chopped

2T chopped nuts (walnuts or pine nuts)

Olive oil

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (use freshly grated hard cheese. Soft cheese will gum up the blades)

Salt

Pepper

1/8 t ground nutmeg

Grind up the spinach with the lemon juice. Add garlic and nuts. Process until fine. Slowly add in olive oil, you may use up to ¼ cup.  You want to add the olive oil slowly until the pesto is a smooth consistency, or as you like it.

Add the Parmesan  cheese slowly, again watch for desired texture.

Mix in nutmeg

Add salt and pepper to taste

Of course your family won’t want to eat this with a spoon like oatmeal, You’ll need to serve it over some thing.  I used a package of fresh tortellini (sold on dairy aisles)

Cook per package directions. During the last few minutes, I dropped in a handful of broccoli florets. When pasta is done and broccoli is slightly cooked, drain. Put back into dry, hot pan. Stir in a few slices of roasted red peppers. (You can roast your own, or buy a jar already roasted) .  Turn the heat on low. Add the pesto, stir til warm.

When ready to serve, grate a little more Parmesan over the top.

Edit for "How to cook Vegetables"

When I wrote this I meant  from least favorite to Most favorite.

Really--Boiling has to be the worst thing to do to vegetables.

In order of my preference the cooking choices are:

Boil

Microwave

Steam

Blanch

Saute

Roast

Grill.

How to cook Vegetables.

You might think this is a useless topic. Oh I disagree. As someone who can’t eat meat, let me assure you, people do not know how to cook vegetables. Or, they only know one or two tasteless ways. Not eating meat has many plights.

First, no one invites you for dinner., Here’s what happens: We’re visiting with friends when the husband says, “We’ll have to have you  over for dinner, soon.” 

Wife smiles but kicks her husband under the table. She grits her teeth, “Yes, we’ll check our calendar” and her eyes say “What in the world would I feed this woman?”

And if they do invite us, I get a plate of soggy veggies that look and taste like they went through the dishwasher; while everyone else has a sumptuous dinner.”  Then rather than be rude I slide the mushy peas and carrots down my throat.

I have found before attending social or business dinners, it’s just easier if I eat before going to dinner. Whether I pre-order a vegetarian meal or try my luck with whatever’s for dinner, no one at the table is able to ignore someone who doesn’t dig into the meat.

Man A says scornfully, “Don’t you eat meat?”  meaning what kinda nut job are you?

Man B says hopefully. “Aren’t you going to eat that?”  Meaning I hope she gives it to me.

Turns out men are perfectly willing to eat off a stranger’s plate if the meat looks tasty enough.

Woman A says, feeling guiltily “I should eat less meat”, counting  the calories of her filet in her head.
Woman B  starts a discussion of why don’t I eat meat. Stopping otherwise interesting table talk into guilt, or cruelty to animals or “What do you eat?” and other tension creating subjects.

So, whether you  want to eat more vegetables or want to  know what to cook when one of those odd-ball vegetarians darkens your  dinner table, here’s a resource of how to cook vegetables

Think TENT

Taste –

 They are veggies but it helps if they have a good taste

Ease – Chopping and peeling  raw, fresh vegetables can be time consuming. Frozen veggies are a good choice, but please, not those canned things.

Nutrition

 - After all, isn’t this why we eat those green and orange things?

Time

 – In general, cooking time is less than for meat but prep time can take a while.

Notice there is no C –Calories.  Yes, veggies have calories but they offer redeeming value of fiber and health benefits.  Unless you’re on a really strict diet (perish the word). I don’t count these calories. You can if you want.  And some cooking techniques will add calories. (Which is why I am not including fried methods)

In order of my preference the cooking choices are:

Boil

Microwave

Steam

Blanch

Saute

Roast

Grill.

Boil.

Put the Corn, Carrots, broccoli, beans, peas, whatever into boiling water. This will cook them, and if you cook them very long they’ll get soggy.  Usually the only seasoning is salt. Plus   most of the nutrition will leach out into the water which gets poured down the drain. Yuck.

Microwave and Steaming give similar results.

To microwave, put veggies into a microwave safe bowl with  just a bit of water. Add Salt, butter, whatever you like and cover.
To Steam you need a steamer which sits inside the pot, just over the water, And cover with lid. Season as desired.

Or they have those fancy “steamed vegetables in a bag” in the frozen food department. But for a fraction of the cost you can get the same results with your own fresh or frozen vegetables.

              Whether steaming or microwaving, you control the time to avoid soggy veggies, unless you like soggy veggies, although I can’t imagine why you would.  This is easy and you keep the nutrition intact

Blanch.  This is just a fancy way to say boil for a quick minute or two. Generally you’ll use this if you want to soften the vegetable a bit before adding to a salad, pasta, or roasting.  And if you want to peel a tomato, blanch it first and the skin peels right off.  This doesn’t really cook the vegetable.

Saute. Heat a wide pan, add olive oil, butter, canola oil, whatever you like. Sounds like they’ll taste better already, don’t they? You can cook one type of vegetable this way. Like summer squash cut into coins, sliced carrots, garlic, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, peppers,  broccoli, spinach, etc..  You control how well you want the food cooked.   I like to combine several vegetables when I sauté. For example, garlic, onions, zucchini, peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes. Put  the ones that take the longest to cook in first, then add the others as you go along. Season with salt, pepper and other spices like thyme, basil, oregano, tarragon, dill.  At this point you can sprinkle with cheese, or grate some parmesan over the dish. Add some cooked pasta or rice, stir around and you have a wonderful side dish.

Roast. Usually you will roast hard vegetables like winter squash, sweet potatoes, white potatoes , pumpkin,, carrots, turnips, These are often called root vegetables, even though all vegetables had roots at one time. You can also roast broccoli, onion, kale, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, asparagus. These come out crisp and carmelized.. Some people say this brings out the sweetness, but don’t get you hopes up. They’ll taste good but won’t taste like a chocolate chip cookie.

               To Roast, slice in uniform sizes, place into casserole dish. Pour olive oil, add salt, pepper, maybe some garlic or other spices if you like. Stir all around and put into an oven. Heat can run from 350 – 425.  The hotter the oven, the quicker they’ll cook and the quicker they’ll burn too. I can’t tell you how long they’ll take, depends on the oven and the veggies and your preference. Can take from 10 minutes to 40 minutes. Sorry, One of these days I’ll come up with specific recipes for specific vegetables.

Grilling.  Here you can join the world of normal people in the summer time.  Approach as you would roasting . Slather with olive oil and seasonings and put on the grill.  I use a metal grill basket. This prevents the vegetables from touching the grates where the meat was cooked, and keeps the vegetables from falling into the coals too.  You can eat the veggies simply grilled, or cool and add to salad, or toss h into freshly cooked pasta with olive oil and then grate parmesan cheese over.

Now, That is what I’d like to eat if you invite me over for dinner. I’m free next Tuesday.

Broccoli, it’s not just for breakfast

Here’s a recipe that includes a lot of vegetables, is adaptable and healthful.  Even my cooked vegetable-hating daughter Casie, will eat it, that is, if I don’t include broccoli. She is probably emotionally scarred. I really did make her eat broccoli for breakfast.  It was a power struggle at dinner. If she didn’t eat her vegetables that night, she had to eat them for breakfast, Which she did.  I’m not sure what I would have done the next morning if she still refused.  And yet it could have been worse. My stepdaughter Melissa recently told us when she was a kid, her mother ate the tasty floret tops of broccoli and Melissa had to eat the stems.

Turns out, Casie got her cooked broccoli revenge by stopping by the neighbor’s  garden on her way to school, and picked and ate the raw greenbeans and peas. She told me this recently. If only I’d known she would eat the vegetables raw, I’d have served them that way. And yet stolen veggies do taste sweeter.

So, broccoli or not, you are sure to enjoy stir fried rice.

#1 Rice,

2 cups of Cold rice.  Prepare it a few hours before you’re ready to make dinner. I don’t care what kind of rice, brown, white, aborrio, jasmine.  Just not  quick cook rice.  You’ll want it just a little undercooked and quick rice gets mushy.

#2 Wok your veggies

.  Really, if you have a wok, you won’t need me to teach you this recipe.  I find a large fry pan works just fine.

Put pan over heat, when hot, pour in  2-3 tablespoons of oil.Olive, sesame, canola, What kind of oil doesn’t really matter. (If you show this to a serious cook or chef they will certainly argue this point)

Saute vegetables Your choice:

Broccoli coins (broccoli stems, Cut off the bottom tough 3-4 inches. Then cut the stalk up to the floret part that Melissa never got to eat. Slice cross wise into coins, about ¼ inch thick.)
sliced Onion

Carrot sticks

Peppers, cut into slices

Minced garlic

Broccoli tops/florets, cut into similar sizes so they cook evenly.

Celery slices

Yellow summer squash and/ or zucchini, cut into sticks or coins.

Cabbage or bok choy sliced thin

Sliced mushrooms

Sliced water chestnuts

Scallions cut ½ on an angle

Use the vegetables you like.  Saute them in order, from the ones who take the longest to cook to the shortest.  I have listed them in that order. Don’t cook the veggies until they get soft, you want them a bit crisp.

#3 Season  

Most common is to use soy sauce. You can also use fish sauce tamari   or any of the dozens you’ll find in the Oriental aisle in the supermarket.  Read those lables.  Most start with sugar and water followed by a bunch of dehydrated things that you can add on your own. Do you really want sugar in your stir fry?. I read the label on my soy sauce bottle. #1 is soy,  a bit of sugar and water.  And the warning “Caution, contains soy”  PS your peanut butter contains peanuts too.

If you want, add other seasonings,  whatever herbs you like, Chinese 5 spice, salt, pepper,  You don’t have to go out and buy fancy stuff. Taste as you add to decide how much seasoning you need.

#4  Scrambled egg.

 Some recipes have you cook the egg before the vegetables. You can if you want, but I like to scramble 1-2 eggs and pour on top the hot  vegetables. Cook the eggs until firm, and chop and  disperse in the pan.

#5 Rice time! 

Dump the cooled rice on top, stir everything together until the rice is warm, and you’re done!

Carnivore Tip:  Cook your meat of choice as the vegetables sauté.  Fry in a different pan or bake in oven.  When done, slice and stir into the vegetables and rice.   To keep my serving meat-free, I take out as much as I want before I stir in the meat..  Yes, we serve dinner out of the pan sometimes.  If you want to wash extra dishes or your in-laws are coming for dinner., use a bowl.