YOUR PHOTO

28, and on a mission to be a better vegetarian in all ways possible.

  1. notes
    269

    1 month ago

    runningwithguts:

    RAD: 008.

    Roasted Garlic Hummus Burger with Parsley & Dill Feta Spread.

    Oh. My. FUCK.

    I have never made a more delicious anything in my life. This is not an exaggeration. If you never make anything else that I post, please: make this. I beg of you.

    —————

    Ingredients, burgers:

    • 2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
    • 4 heads garlic, roasted
    • 1/3 cup bread crumbs
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1/4 tsp white pepper
    • juice of 2 lemons
    • 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
    • ~1/4 cup olive oil

    Method, burgers:

    1. In a small bowl, heat the lemon juice. Add ground flax, stir, and then let sit while you work. This is going to be our “egg,” which will act to bind the burgers.
    2. In a large bowl, mash chickpeas with a fork. You want them in varying states of wholeness - some should be totally mashed, some should be totally whole, but most should be in between. Texture, people.
    3. Mash the garlic into your mashed chickpeas. Very technical.
    4. Toss in salt, white pepper, and bread crumbs. Give it a quick stir,
    5. Heat the oil in a skillet. We’re frying these babies, because that’s the only way to get the olive oil flavor. I’m pretty sure, anyway. If you add the oil directly to the burger, it’ll turn into a goopy mess. Plus, we have to heat them SOMEHOW.
    6. While the oil heats, add the flax mixture to the large bowl and mix it all together with your hands.
    7. Divide into four even portions and shape into patties.
    8. Cook them while you prepare your spread! A couple of minutes on each side, or until they’re browned to your liking.

    Ingredients, spread:

    • 2 oz feta, crumbled
    • 1 head garlic, roasted
    • 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
    • 1 tsp dried dill
    • small handful Italian parsley, chopped

    Method, spread:

    1. In a small bowl, mash your garlic, parsley, and feta with a fork.
    2. Stir in your yogurt.
    3. Sprinkle in your dill, and then stir again.

    Spread the spread onto your burger (genius!) and top with sliced red onion, tomato, English cucumber, and spinach.

    Serves 4.

    —————

    I was planning on eating this with pita, but then I remembered those mini French boules that were sitting in my freezer from RAD: 001 and I decided to eat my burger like a burger.

    BEST IDEA EVER, because seriously. I would eat this every. Damn. Day.

    Tomorrow I’m putting a burger on top of a spinach salad for lunch, and I’m already unreasonably excited to eat it.

    PS - The burger is vegan, if that matters to you. Just switch out the feta spread for something less delicious but more vegan.

    Reblogging so I remember to make these…I have never been steered wrong with any recipe Brenna has created (or shared, in the case of my favorite lentil soup).

    recipe

  2. notes
    11

    1 month ago

    Weekend eats.

    I did some good cooking this weekend.

    Friday night I had a hankering for some pre-10k pasta, so I grabbed some whole wheat spaghetti and an avocado to try this creamy avocado pasta recipe. I was skeptical, but wow. I added some tofurky italian sausage, and it was insanely good. I made about half a recipe but used 2/3 of the avocado.

    This morning after yoga I took my time crafting breakfast.

    A week or two ago after trying-and-failing to create a hash brown nest on my own, I googled recipes and came up with Pioneer Woman’s baked egg nests. (The other day when I said I made poached eggs in sweet potato cups, I was attempting her nests…I just baked my sweet potatoes too long so they were more mashed than shredded.)

    I followed her concept for the potato part (except I microwaved mine because I’m impatient) then tossed some steamed chopped broccoli and some chopped tofurky sausage in there. I beat a couple eggs and poured them over the top (these were more potato-broccoli-y than eggy.) Then I used a hand blender to whip the other 1/3 of my avocado into a mousse to put on top.

    I don’t normally take 2 hours to make breakfast, but I got to clean the kitchen while they were in various stages of cooking and they were worth the wait. Side view:

    A hearty, balanced breakfast with lots of protein, healthy fat and veggies!

    food pics

    recipe

    avocado

  3. notes
    7

    1 month ago

    Mac & Cheese spaghetti squash

    The other day Mara and I were looking for a Passover-friendly dish that we could make for dinner before a concert. As always, complicated by the fact that we wanted something delicious but healthy, and I wanted it to have protein but no meat.

    Mara ended up finding mac & cheese spaghetti squash on pinterest, and it was perfect! Except that we doubled the cheese, so we both went to the concert with tummyaches. Also we left out the green peppers and added spinach instead.

    I realized that I like it because most “healthy” mac & cheese recipes involve replacing the cheese. Use low fat cheese, or less cheese, or vegan-ize it. This one leaves the real cheese (the best part, duh) and replaces the pasta. Is spaghetti squash macaroni? Of course not. But cover it in cheese, it’s still amazing.

    So good that I made a few tweaks and cooked up a huge batch last night for dinner that will double as lunches today and tomorrow (I’m eating it right now! I’d take a picture but it’s ugly.)

    Today’s tweaks include a package of Boca faux-beef crumbles, a package of frozen chopped spinach, and a mix of gouda and chipotle cheddar cheeses. I didn’t measure the cheese at all so I don’t know how closely I followed the recipe, but it made enough cheese sauce for a whole large spaghetti squash (I’m guessing at least 4-5 servings.)

    recipe

    cheese

  4. notes
    5

    1 month ago

    Peanut butter/egg/banana pancakes, using PB&Co’s Dark Chocolate Dreams PB

    DO IT.











    the end.

    recipe

    not really a recipe

    food

    yum

    chocolate

  5. notes
    7

    3 months ago

    Currently eating: sweet potato crust pizza. With chipotle diced tomatoes, red peppers, broccoli, Tofurky italian sausage and a mix of mozzarella and goats milk gouda cheese. Very, very good. I’m interested to try this with almond meal (I subbed in whole wheat flour because almond meal was like $1000 at my grocery store. Anyone know a cheap place to get it?) Blizzard feast. Also I bought a plastic wreath storage box at Kmart to function as a sled tomorrow because I don’t think they had any sleds left.

    Currently eating: sweet potato crust pizza. With chipotle diced tomatoes, red peppers, broccoli, Tofurky italian sausage and a mix of mozzarella and goats milk gouda cheese.

    Very, very good. I’m interested to try this with almond meal (I subbed in whole wheat flour because almond meal was like $1000 at my grocery store. Anyone know a cheap place to get it?)

    Blizzard feast. Also I bought a plastic wreath storage box at Kmart to function as a sled tomorrow because I don’t think they had any sleds left.

    recipe

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    pizza

  6. notes
    4

    6 months ago

    I’m just going to go ahead and eat chili every day all winter.

    If I don’t use fake meat in it (just beans) it’s less than $3/serving. WITH fake meat it’s about $4/serving.

    Because seriously.

    Do you realize HOW MUCH FOOD a quarter of a batch of chili is? It is SO MUCH. (obviously spices are not included in this “recipe” because they don’t have enough calories to matter, but there are some in there.)

    recipe

    chili

    pumpkin!

  7. notes
    8

    7 months ago

    Chubby Hubby cupcakes.

    This idea was inspired by Chubby Hubby ice cream, hostess cupcakes, and these cookies.

    My old roommate’s birthday party is this weekend, and since I’ll be out of town I decided to make her cupcakes in this hungry animal cupcake pan, and provide a pint of Chubby Hubby (her favorite as far as I know) to put in their mouths. Then it hit me: Chubby Hubby cupcakes!

    Chubby Hubby: Fudge Covered Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels in Vanilla Malt Ice Cream Rippled with Fudge & Peanut Butter

    For the cake, I went with Martha Stewart’s versatile vanilla cake, but I added 1/2 cup of PB2 and left out 1/2 cup of flour. I also used a combination of skim milk/greek yogurt instead of buttermilk, but that was more because I don’t have buttermilk than for any flavor/health reasons. The result was a seriously delicious peanut butter cake batter.

    Next up I mixed the fudge filling, from this recipe. I’d recommend only making a half batch, because I had a ton left over. Since it has egg in it you really can’t (or at least SHOULDN’T) just eat it by the spoonful, so I ended up throwing a lot away.

    I put a spoonful of batter in the bottom of each cup, then added a spoonful of fudge filling and some crumbled pretzels (“poop and sticks” is how one of my coworkers named this step.) I will warn you that the pretzels did get a little soggy with this method- maybe using chocolate covered pretzels might help, or using a thicker style?

    Top with more batter, and bake! (This pan requires liberal grease to make sure that the cupcakes actually come out and don’t just get stuck in there forever.)

    I chopped one open and split it with a friend this morning to see if they were any good. The cupcake was good, and the filling was good, but the pretzels got a little lost in the mix. Maybe putting some on top would’ve been a good addition?

    I love the concept, I just think it needs a few tweaks!

    recipe

    food pics

    baking

    cake

    chocolate

  8. notes
    14

    10 months ago

    I wanted to do something different for lunch this week, so I stole Stefanie’s idea and made stuffed peppers! Except afterwards I realized that it’s still just beanoa, in a pepper.

    Inside (divided by 4, since this made 4 peppers):

    • 1 cup quinoa
    • 1-1.5 cups TJ’s beefless ground beef
    • 3/4 cup black beans
    • random amount TJ’s frozen spinach
    • TJ’s taco seasoning
    • 1 or 2 oz reduced fat sharp cheddar
    • About 1/2 c egg whites

    (topped with another 2 oz cheese)

    Reheated it came out a little wet (probably mostly from the spinach, and maybe some moisture from the pepper) but otherwise tasty. Lunch for the next 3 days!

    food pics

    recipe

    not really a recipe

    lunch

  9. notes
    4

    11 months ago

    Pineapple Upside-Down Pancakes

    These were an idea I had a few weeks ago since I’ve been loving grilled pineapple lately, and finally last weekend I googled them to see if they existed already. It turned out there were a few recipes, and I made some last Saturday using this one. They were good (would’ve been better if I hadn’t burned most of them) but definitely not a healthy breakfast. This morning I set out to make a more nutritious version- it’s still a pretty indulgent breakfast (which admittedly I have not earned, but it’s been a looong week and I ate breakfast at 1pm, so I figured a few extra calories won’t throw a wrench in my calorie count for the day) but at least has some protein, and very few ingredients, to give it more bang for your buck!

    While I mixed up the batter, I threw 4 pineapple rings in a pan to warm, and set the syrup to simmer.

    Syrup ingredients
    1/2 cup pineapple juice
    1/2 tsp unsulfured molasses
    1/2 tsp butter
    A few shakes of cinnamon 

    I was worried the syrup wouldn’t cook down enough without the mass amounts of butter and brown sugar I put in it last weekend, but by the time the pancakes were ready it was nice and thick. I used molasses instead of brown sugar as the sweetener because I’ve read that it’s the healthiest form of sweetener since it has iron in it. (next time I might try no added sweetener and just a tad of butter and see if it still thickens up. Pineapple juice is plenty sweet on its own.) Just remember to stir it from time to time.

    Batter
    Pretty much exactly Monica’s pancake recipe from Run Eat Repeat, with a few tweaks.
    1/3 cup oat bran
    1/3 cup cottage cheese (this wasn’t a tweak as much as it was me mis-remembering the recipe, but it worked!)
    1/2 cup egg whites
    1/2 tsp brown sugar
    2 tsp pineapple juice
    Pinch of baking powder and baking soda
    Dash of cinnamon and vanilla 

    Mix in a food processor if you have one, otherwise a whisk will work (but you might have some cottage cheese chunks). Next time, I would let the batter sit for a few minutes to thicken up- my first pancake was a little runny.

    Pour the batter into your pan- make sure it’s sprayed or buttered, since the batter doesn’t have any oil and they tend to get stuck. Once it’s cooked for a minute, place a pineapple ring on top and flip. Repeat for the rest of your pancakes (I made 4.) Plate and top with your homemade syrup.

    Stats (with syrup): 470 calories, 6g fat, 33g protein, 46g sugar (admittedly, very sugary. Would still be sugary with no added sweetener because of the pineapple.)

    Stats (no syrup): 375 calories, 4g fat, 32g protein, 30g sugar

    So as I said- not the health-food-iest breakfast, but if what you want is a big, relaxing, I-am-treating-myself delicious pancake breakfast, this isn’t bad.  

    recipe

    food pics

    pancakes

    pineapple

  10. notes
    4

    1 year ago

    It feels so wrong posting a picture of this bacon cake on a blog that is pretty much dedicated to me being healthy and a vegetarian…but this is the cake that I made for my friend/coworker’s birthday yesterday.

    Martha Stewart versatile vanilla cake, a box of Trader Joe’s chocolate frosting, and $4.50 worth of bacon from the deli around the corner (I gave my intern money to get it for me because I have zero experience ordering meat…) I was trying to figure out how to customize my friend’s cake when I was reminded that she likes bacon, so I thought I’d put bacon IN the cake.

    A google search for “bacon layer cake” brought results that were mainly birthday cakes for dogs, so I improvised. Bottom cake layer, then spread chocolate frosting thinly on both layers. I crumbled bacon over half of it, put the top layer on, then frosted the top and jammed more bacon into the bacon half (half was left bacon-free because I am not the only vegetarian that I work with) and frosted the sides (done in a way so that there would be no accidental bacon transfer to the non-bacon half of the cake.)

    I can only speak to the baconless half of the cake, but it came out really well! The cake itself was really dense, which I liked, and not overly sweet, which was good in contrast to the super sweet, chocolatey frosting. The bacon-eating crowd seemed to enjoy their meaty cake as well. And I got to have a lot of strange conversations in the kitchen at work as I assembled it.

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