Makeover Monday I

For a little preview, here's the recipe I am going to renovate: 

http://damndelicious.net/2015/03/30/one-pot-shrimp-parmesan-pasta/

One Year

It's so hard to believe how time flies. My involvement with this blog has officially earned an anniversary: one year ago tonight, Liesl and I photographed a tasty vegan lasagna rolls recipe. 

Rice Cookery

If all goes according to plan, next week will be the first post in my Makeover Monday series! However, until then, I wanted to share a tip with you. You can cook most grains in your rice cooker, including barley, quinoa, and orzo, and obviously rice. There are other things you can cook in there, too, those are just what I've had experience with. Happy rice cookery! If you try new things in your rice cooker, leave a comment below so we can all benefit from your experience. 😊

Makeover Monday: New Feature Coming Soon!!

I am so excited to announce that I will be starting to share some recipes (again) soon!

I'm going to take recipes that have meat or meat-containing ingredients and making them over into vegetarian and vegan versions.

It's going to be called Makeover Monday.

Look for it soon!

-B

Becca' s Buddha Bowls

I saw a pin the other day and was instantly and infinitely inspired by it.

One of the great things is: the pin is pretty open-ended, and I love those kind of recipes: the kind that say "these are the kinds of ingredients you need and this is how you assemble it....now go forth and create great food based on what you like to eat!" I LOVE that!

So based on that pin (which is easy to remember: half grains, half beans on the bottom, a rainbow of veggies, then seeds and/or nuts, and dressing of choice) I created these awesome Buddha-esque bowls. (These photographs were taken with my phone, and I don't have a photo for each step, but I got so excited about the deliciousness of the results that I couldn't not share them.)

I'll get into an actual recipe later, with amounts and processes, but these are the ingredients I used:

• asparagus 
• Brussels sprouts
• shredded beets
• frozen corn
• black beans
• orzo
• sunflower seeds
• Balsmic vinaigrette salad dressing
• Italian salad dressing

It ended up producing two generously-portioned bowls for lunches. (Well, one lunch and one dinner.) And it was chock-full of veggies and goodness and yummyness. 

To save time, I cooked the Brussels sprouts and the asparagus in the same pot of water. They have similar flavors and they're both green, so why not.

Can we just have a moment of appreciation for the beauty of asparagus? It's one of my favorite veggies, and it's definitely one of the most photogenic. (Maybe that's just me?)

The results, before the addition of the sunflower seed kernels:

After the kernels and before the devouring:

I wish I would have been able to steam the veggies, but I didn't, so I improvised. :)

One of my favorite things about this: it doesn't take long to make. The most labor-intensive parts can be combined, for the most part. I also found myself using the same two pans for most of the recipe -- and I used the same colander. (The first part was due to me not wanting to dirty things up, and the second part was due to everything being thrown together anyway.)

Now for the recipe:
(Click here for a print-friendly version.)

Becca's Buddha Bowls 

The ingredient amounts listed were used to make 2 generous lunches. It should take about 30 minutes from start to finish for this awesome lunch or quick dinner.  You'll need: 3/4 cup orzo 1 lb asparagus 1 lb Brussels sprouts 2 cups raw shredded beets 1 -15 oz can of black beans 1 cup corn 1/4 cup sunflower seed kernels 1/4 cup dressing of choice (Recommendations in the recipe) In a small saucepan, start 2 cups of water boiling for the orzo. Fill a large saucepan halfway with water; set to boil for the Brussels sprouts and asparagus. In the meantime, wash the Brussels. Set aside. Chop the asparagus into thirds, discarding the woody ends. Rinse. Set aside until the water is at a rolling boil. Once the water is at a rolling boil in both pans, add the respective ingredients. Return the small saucepan to a boil, but turn the large saucepan down to medium or medium-high, depending on what the settings were when the water was brought to a boil. Boil the orzo for 10 minutes, or until it's done. Then drain. Stir the veggies frequently in the water. Remove the asparagus after about 6 minutes; remove the Brussels when the orzo is done. Dump the water. Return the large saucepan to medium heat; add the beets. Cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted, 6-8 minutes. While the beets are cooking, drain the beans in a colander and rinse. (Even if you use low-sodium beans.) Add half the beans to each of the eating vessels; add the orzo as well. Top with the Brussels and asparagus. Once the beets are done, add half to each container as well.  If using frozen corn, give it a bit of a warm up with 1/4 cup of water in one of the saucepans. (About 4 minutes.) Then add to the rest of the veggies. If using canned corn, be sure to rinse it before adding it to the veggies -- the microwaving (or ambient heat) will heat the canned corn enough.  If not eating right away and reheating is necessary (as was my case), just pop it in the microwave for 2 1/2 minutes. Just before serving, top each meal with 2 Tbsp of the kernels and 2 Tbsp of the dressing. (I used 2 Tbsp of Balsamic for one lunch and 2 Tbsp Italian dressing for the other. Both were delicious!) Enjoy!

Day 18

January first was the day of my total transition, even though I have meat in my freezer still.
I knew if I kept putting that deadline on it, it would never happen. I'd keep choosing to eat healthy vegetarian meals and indulge every now and then in non-vegetarian meals, since that's what I had been doing for a few months. (And most of the time, my "indulgences" were bad choices from fast-food restaurants.)
I need to take the remaining meat and give it to a friend who mentioned she'd be willing to take it. While I don't support the treatment of animals in commercial farms -- and chances are the meat in my freezer came from commercial farms -- I also don't support waste. The animals lived, and died, and I don't want their sad lives to be wasted.

My decision has been met with interesting and differing reactions.
My partner, whom I mentioned a few posts ago, has waned and waxed. It seems he's only supportive of my vegetarianism when it doesn't impact him. We'll go out to eat somewhere and he'll ask, "Are you meat or no-meat tonight?" And when he comes to visit, cooking meals at home is interesting. Last night, we had Monte Cristo sandwiches -- he had traditional lunchmeat, I had Lightlife Smart Deli turkey-style meatless lunchmeat.
My mom seems to forget. When I was home for a visit the first weekend of the year, my dad was asking her, on speakerphone, what she wanted for dinner, she said, "Mac & cheese with hamburger." (And I know that her hamburger purchases are not consciously-sourced.) When I first told her about my decision, she was supportive, but like I said, it appears she has forgotten, or is treating it like it's a joke or part-time.  We ended up having pizza that night: Jake & I splitting a cheese pie and my parents splitting a pepperoni one.
My supervisor is super-supportive. "I think it's so great, what you're doing, Becca," she'll say, nearly daily. One of the other ladies I work with said, "Oh, I was a vegetarian before. I stopped because of bacon." (As if that's the path I'm going to go down, too.) There were two coworkers of mine who were vegetarian, but since one of them decided to not come back from maternity leave, there's now only one other vegetarian besides me. There are also two self-identified pescetarians.

I must confess: most of what I've been eating these past two and a half weeks have included meat substitutions, like SmartGround from LightLife, which is amazing.
Some vegetarians don't support this, but I'm not sure why. It's textured vegetable protein (TVP), not ground meat from a short-lived animal who had limited-at-best outdoor exposure.
One of my favorite recipes that hasn't included just substituting meat-likes has been a breakfast beet scramble. (The pink hands are worth it!) I'm sure as I get farther into my new journey, I'll discover more dishes that are free of meat substitutions. (Couldn't one argue, though, that putting lentils, tofu, tempeh, seitan, or beans in a taco is a meat substitution when the eater had previously been eating tacos with meat in them?)

Making a life-change as huge as what one eats will force a comfort-zone boundary check.
I probably would have only considered dining at a meatless restaurant before, or only going with certain friends, but now I've fallen in love with them and want to go to more. (Tasty Harmony is the local restaurant I've been swooning over, and I've been advised to try Native Foods Cafe and Watercourse.)
Becoming a vegetarian has definitely forced me to be in the kitchen more, and I'm not complaining. I've needed this kick in the pants for a long time. (The last time I spent this much time in the kitchen was when Jake and I house-sat for my uncle, going on four years ago next month.) When (and if) I make the transition to veganism, I'll be spending MORE time in the kitchen. (I assume it's cheaper to make cashew and other nut-based cheese than to buy it?)
I love the fact that I can handle raw tofu with my hands and not have to rush to a sink to get rid of contaminants. Wonderful. (Same with the TVP. Love.)
I've fallen in love with jackfruit. (Thanks to Tasty Harmony's Nachos de Ynez.) I now have to scour Asian shops in this town until I find it.
I have a board on Pinterest about recipes I plan to renovate. They are recipes that include meat in them, and I'm going to remake them without meat. I'm going to stockpile the changes, and I may share some before Liesl makes her return. (We'll see!)

Thanks for keeping up with this. :)
I'll post more updates as they happen.