Meat-free Lent, 2 and a half weeks Down

We're almost 3 full weeks into our meat-free Lent. At this point, it is becoming much more challenging. I still have 1 more week of meals planned before we have to start repeating meals and potentially get very sick of eating the same things each week. We discovered this week that eating on the road can be difficult when you can't eat meat. We took a mini road trip this weekend to visit some friends in Carthage, Missouri for their annual St. Patrick's Day party. In an effort to grab some dinner on the road, we found ourselves scanning our brains for fast food options that would have a meat-free menu choice. We ended up at Sonic for grilled cheese sandwiches from the kid's menu. Yuck! This was quite possibly one of the worst grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever had. First of all, it's on that uber thick texas toast. Big white texas toast does not appeal to me unless it has been made into garlic toast. Then the sandwich was more "steamed" than "grilled" given that it was all soggy looking. Do kids actually like these things?

I'm also noticing that I rarely feel truly full and satisfied after a meal. I just always have a little bit of a void feeling in my stomach these days, no matter what I eat. It's becoming difficult not to eat all the time! We have found a few meals that are pretty satisfying overall, so I guess we'll have to incorporate those into our meal plan more often.

Here's what we've been eating this week!


Lentil Tacos! (These were absolutely delicious. We will definitely be making these again!)



Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Caramelized Onions and Sauteed Mushrooms and Black Bean Soup



Lentil Sloppy Joes with Brussels Sprouts



Southwest Salad with Salsa Ranch dressing


Whole Wheat Pasta with Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella, and Olives (carbo-loading for a Saturday Run!)


Veggie and Lentil Quesadillas

Couscous with Chickpeas, Fennel, and Citrus

I dream of Sunday afternoons spent in the kitchen baking. I envision myself pulling fresh cinnamon rolls from the oven and completing the icing on the perfect, moist yet fluffy cake. Then the weekend rolls around, reality sets in, and errands and chores become more important than baking a cake. The dream of filling my kitchen with fresh breads and cakes seems much better than the reality of the dishes and mess and cleaning that come along with baking these things from scratch.

Between Pinterest and TheKitchn, I’m gathering quite a collection of recipes I want to try. Since I already know I have a folder full of untried recipes at home, I am becoming seriously selective about recipes I print or repin on pinterest. I think most people should be more selective about the things they are pinning, but that’s a whole different topic for another day.

I found this recipe on TheKitchn a few weeks ago. I knew it would be great for our meat-free Lent. I loved that it seemed fast and easy. C loved that it had kalamata olives in it. In fact, he kind of made me add extra olives because 10 just did not seem to be enough.

While the color of the dish reminded me of Johnson County beige (an analogy only people from KC might understand), I felt like the citrus was really evident and added a lot of flavor to a dish that could have been otherwise quite bland.

This was also the first time I’ve cooked with fennel and I must say…WOW! Raw fennel smells a little like black licorice (which I hate) and tastes a little like an onion. Weird, I know. But cooked, it gets just a little bit sweet, retains its crunch well, and makes me long for the next time I get to cook with fennel.

Couscous with Chickpeas, Fennel, and Citrus
Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
1 large fennel bulb with fronds
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 1/2 cups (or 1 15-ounce can) cooked and drained chickpeas
10 Kalamata olives, halved and pitted
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup instant couscous

Directions:
Trim fennel and cut into 1/4-inch thick wedges. Reserve fronds for garnish (we chose not to garnish ours and just threw the fronds away).

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add fennel and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and caramelized, about 10-15 minutes. Add coriander, chickpeas, olives, and lemon juice to pan and stir to combine. Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally.



Meanwhile, juice the orange into a liquid measuring cup and top off with water to make 1 1/2 cups of liquid. Add liquid to a small saucepan along with 1 tablespoon olive oil, orange zest, lemon zest, and salt. Bring to a boil and stir in couscous. Cover, remove from heat, and let stand for at least 5 minutes.

To serve, fluff couscous grains with a fork and spread on a dish. Spoon chickpeas and fennel over couscous and garnish with fennel fronds.

Restaurant Review: Hot Basil

In an effort to break away from the quinoa and bean based meals we’ve been cooking at home, C and I checked out a “new to us” Thai restaurant this weekend, Hot Basil. We first heard about Hot Basil on a local PBS show called Check Please. If you live in the KC area and love food, I highly recommend watching Check Please. It’s a restaurant review program where people just like me and you get to recommend and try new restaurants and then discuss their experiences. C and I frequently discuss being on this show, we have even pulled up the application, but we can’t think of a restaurant to recommend that we haven’t already seen on the show. Bummer.

Hot Basil is in Overland Park at 119th and Metcalf. It’s a little hard to spot since it’s in a strip mall and blocked from the street by another building, but it’s worth finding. The atmosphere was great. It’s a small restaurant but not over crowded with tables. I think this helped keep the noise level down, even when the place was pretty full. I recommend making a reservation if you want to go on a weekend especially. We went Saturday night and had a reservation for 7:30. It seemed relatively empty when we showed up, but the place was full by the time we left. We were very impressed with the service, as our table was already set, with menus, when we arrived.

We went a little overboard with our menu selections. It’s all in the name of research. Trust me.

Appetizer: We ordered the Trio. It was part of the chef’s special and came with 2 vegetarian spring rolls, 2 vegetarian egg rolls, and 4 cream-cheese Rangoon. It was all delicious, but the vegetarian spring rolls did leave a little to be desired as they were mostly lettuce and bean sprouts filling. The appetizer was $10, but definitely had enough food for at least 4 people (or 2 hungry researchers) so we felt like it was a good deal.



Main course: I ordered the Phad Thai with tofu. C ordered the Spicy Peanut with shrimp (remember we allowed ourselves fish/seafood for Lent). We both ordered medium spice, which was just perfect for us. If you like spicy food but still like to enjoy what you’re eating, you should be good with medium. The prices for each main course were around $11-$12 and the portions were generous. I even took some of mine home, which made for a delicious Sunday lunch.






Dessert: We don’t always order dessert when we go out, but since we were at a Thai restaurant, we wanted to try something that would be a little different. We opted for the Fried Banana. This came with 4 halves of banana, each wrapped and fried in a wonton wrapper and a HUGE heap of vanilla ice cream drizzled with honey. Again, this could have EASILY served 4 people, but we were more than happy to finish it off between the 2 of us.



Overall our experience was really great. The service was fast and attentive. Our server was very nice about accommodating our no-meat options and answering our questions. I was even impressed that they thought to ask if I wanted egg in my Phad Thai since I had ordered Tofu and other vegetarian options already. The prices seemed very fair, especially given the quantity of food you get. Overall our bill before tip came out to right at $50. We felt this was pretty good for a large appetizer, two entrees, a large dessert, and 2 import beers (Chang from Thailand for C, and Sapporo from Japan for me).

So if you’re looking for a good Thai place in the metro area, you should check out Hot Basil!

Meat-free lent, week 1

We have successfully completed almost 2 weeks of our "no-meat" Lenten season. So far it has gone really well. We have found that some dishes are more filling than others; waking up hungry at 3 a.m. was a good reminder of that for me last week. Note to self: 1 1/2 eggs just doesn't add enough protein to a salad to keep me full all night.

The weather was really nice today, despite some pretty strong winds. As C and I went for an afternoon run we caught a few whiffs of grilling season starting up. Something tells me these people weren't grilling tofu and vegetables. I guess we'll keep our grill wrapped up for winter until after Lent is over.

Here's what we ate this past week!

Sunday: Baked Sweet Potato with leftover Vegan chili on top

Monday: Stir-Fry veggies with tofu and brown rice


Tuesday: Grilled avocado, provolone and pesto with tomato soup


Wednesday: Salad with hard-boiled egg


Thursday: Couscous with chickpeas, fennel, and citrus (recipe to come!)


Friday: Sauteed onions, peppers, fennel, and black beans over quinoa

Spinach Pesto Meatball Soup

I feel comfortable stating that this has been the best winter ever. For a girl that doesn’t like the cold and snow (but mostly the snow), the super warm and dry winter we’ve had has been heavenly for me. I don’t care if it snows a little in March (which it will), or even in April (which it could), because the snow won’t stick around long. Chances are high the temperatures will raise by the next day and the snow will be gone. The beauty of spring.

During a brief cold spell a few weeks ago, we made Spinach-Pesto Meatball Soup. We got this recipe from C’s mom. I don’t know where she found it, but it’s a family favorite. It’s very easy and extremely hearty. We usually make this a few times throughout winter. I’d probably make it at least once more this season if it weren’t for our meat-free Lent.

Spinach-Pesto Meatball Soup

Ingredients:
1 16 oz pkg frozen Italian meatballs
2 14-1/2 oz cans diced tomatoes with Italian herbs
1 15 oz can cannellini beans
½ cup water
¼ cup reduced fat basil pesto
1 small can of tomato sauce
2 cups baby spinach (we have used frozen chopped spinach a few times which is good too. Just add it from the beginning so it thaws and heats through)
¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese plus a little extra to sprinkle on top

Directions:
Combine meatballs, diced tomatoes, cannellini beans, water, pesto and tomato sauce. (also go ahead and add the spinach if using frozen) Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. If you’re in a hurry, you can let this simmer for less time, just make sure the meatballs are thawed and heated through. Stir in baby spinach (if using fresh) and the shredded Parmesan cheese. Let heat for another minute or two to let the cheese melt and the spinach wilt a little. Ladle into bowls and enjoy.

Sacrificing for Lent

Fat Tuesday is almost over and Ash Wednesday is tomorrow, kicking off the season of Lent. This is a time of sacrifice. A time to fast. I can't imagine doing an actual fast given my unending love for food, but ever since I was a child, I was encouraged to pick one item to "fast" from during Lent. As a kid, I almost always gave up soda or sweets. And I always failed. The first year I can remember successfully completing the whole Lenten season without cheating on my fast was my senior year of high school. I gave up soda that year. It sounds crazy now because I drink less than one soda a month on average, but back then, I was working at a law firm where a major part of my job was restocking the soda in the fridge. This was a trying time.

C can't really remember whether or not his church encouraged its congregation to give up something for Lent, but he and his family never really participated if they did. I believe he thought I was crazy the first year we were dating and I chose to give up chocolate for Lent. He wanted nothing to do with it, which was fine since we didn't live together. However, being the supportive husband he is, he chose to (or maybe I told him he was going to) participate in Lent last year. Together, we gave up chocolate and coffee. To put this into perspective, we eat at least a little piece of chocolate almost every day and I drink approximately 3 cups of coffee each morning on average. Lent was long last year. C doesn't really drink coffee, but he does enjoy the vending machine cappuccinos as well as coffee flavored things, like ice cream. For the purposes of Lent, we did not allow ourselves anything coffee flavored or made with espresso, so this made it a little difficult for C as well.

A few weeks ago, C and I were watching television and he turned to me and told me he had been thinking about Lent. This was shocking. This is the guy who thought I was crazy just 3 years ago for giving up something. What is even more shocking, is that C had decided that we should give up meat for Lent. Seriously? Who is this guy? Not only had he just thrown out an idea for Lent that wasn't a joke (last year he wanted to give up working out I believe) but he had suggested something that would truly be a sacrifice.

We have spent the last few weeks thinking and talking about this option, and have decided to give it a shot. I want to be clear. We are not trying to become vegetarians, vegans, or implement any other major lifestyle change. We are doing this solely for the purposes of Lent in the spirit of sacrifice. We have decided that we are still allowed to eat fish and seafood, but since I don't really care for fish or seafood much, these aren't things I cook. Basically this would only apply when we go out to eat, which is usually about once per week. Since we are not going vegan, we obviously are still eating eggs, cheese, milk, etc.

I'm excited for this challenge. I think it will be somewhat difficult to come up with dinner ideas other than pasta (we obviously don't want to gain weight due to this decision). We will definitely have to make sacrifices as we spend time with family and friends in the coming weeks, but I think we can be successful.

Quinoa Wraps

The days are too short. Work takes up too much of my day. But I have to work, so I guess there isn't much I can do about that. This is where easy, weeknight dinners become essential. Dinners that leave us with minimal dishes to do once it's all over are even better. For that reason, we make black bean burritos frequently in this house. They are made in one pan and take about 10 minutes.

Quinoa wraps are a similar concept. They take a little more effort than the burritos, but can easily be adapted for an easier weeknight meal by doing things like using canned corn. Plus they have quinoa in them. Quinoa makes me feel super healthy. It'll make you feel healthy too.


Quinoa Wraps
Source: unknown (I tried really hard to find this online again, but failed. It was not my intention to take credit for someone else's recipe, I promise.)

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa, rinsed well
2-2 ½ cup veggie broth
Pinch of salt
1 can black beans, warmed or cold
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 avocado, sliced
2 ears of corn, shucked (we used 1 small can of corn instead)
2 bell peppers, grilled and sliced into strips
2 whole wheat tortillas
Hot sauce, garnish

Directions:
Heat broth and quinoa in a small saucepan until just boiling. Turn to low-medium and simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until tender and broth is absorbed.

Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat, add the onion. Cook until browned and caramelized, about 10 minutes. We also cooked the corn with the onions since we used canned corn. Set aside.

If using ears of corn, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place shucked corn on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Bake until just browning, about 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To assemble:
Slather chipotle sauce or salsa over the middle of tortilla. Scoop a heaping spoonful of black beans, quinoa, caramelized onions and corn. Place bell pepper strips over the top and finish with avocado slices. Roll, serve with hot sauce and enjoy!