Long Weekend Stock-up

For some reason I didn't realize until about noon today that this upcoming Monday is a holiday in the US, which means most businesses, including my job, are closed... YES!  Free day off!  I decided quickly that I'm going to take the extra time on this three day weekend and do a little cooking and baking stock-up and try out some recipes I've had on my radar for a while.

My lovely great-aunt gifted me a copy of the The Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health: More Than 200 New Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes for Delicious and Nutrient-Rich Dishes a while back.  I've found that it contains a couple pretty good sounding recipes for homemade veggie burgers that are freezable.  We've been sort of hooked on MorningStar Farms and I'm hoping to find a homemade alternative. Going to start with Spinach-Tofu burgers and see how it goes.

I also am going to try another one of Camilla's awesome snack bar recipes.  The Clif bars worked out so well that I can't wait to try black bean power bars too.

We've been on a big Greek-kick lately (when I say we, I mainly mean me; I cook it and Dan eats it).  Earlier this week I tried some new Greek Style Veggie burgers using couscous and made my own tzatziki sauce (with a bit of inspiration from Stephanie) (more on both of these later, I hope, when I make them again), so building from that theme, I'm also going to try to tackle pita bread (Cooking Light recipe) and hummus (recipe from a friend).


Lastly, I made some bean and bell pepper fajitas last week.. those have been requested to make and encore appearance on our menu this weekend.  Hope to have a full post on this awesome, quick, easy and so tasty recipe for you as well. 


I'm thinking I want to make some kind of vegan baked-good... like a cupcake.. anyone have a good recipe for a simple vegan cupcake with frosting?  We'll see if I get that far.

Resources from the Humane Society

The internet is filled what all the information one could ever need.  Obviously, I've used it at great lengths to review information and data regarding pescetarian, vegetarian, vegan and other 'flexitarian' foods, facts and information.  I was pretty surprised, although I'm not sure why I was surprised, at the full suite of information available at The Humane Society's website regarding living meat free.

Interestingly enough, the information from Humane Society also touches on a lot of the myths that we reviewed previously.  Topics such as variety (spice up your meat-free life), flexible options (you can be a flexitarian), health (protein, calcium, and vitamins.. oh my!), desserts (Crispy Peanut Butter Treats by Alicia Silverstone!) and more are covered.  Here's a great quote from one of the articles:

"[It] doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Whether your primary incentive is helping the environment, improving animal welfare, or addressing health concerns, you can take a significant first step by becoming a flexitarian. The term blends “flexible” and “vegetarian” to describe those who take a part-time approach to avoiding meat."

 
Also, and this is my favorite part, they offer a weekly email that will deliver to you every Friday which provides a meat-free recipe that you can prepare for Meatless Monday!  All the information that is provided on the Humane Society's website is also available in a convenient downloaded PDF information packet or the provide an option to request it via mail as well.

Shrimp Stir-Fry

I don't recall how we got on the topic late Friday night, but we decided on some stir-fry for the weekend.  Then the idea of shrimp entered the ring and it was on!  The best part about living in the 'Low Country' is that we have a pretty short distance to travel to get fresh seafood.  Our little area is home to the Bluffton Oyster Company who offers a selection of all sorts of seafood and is our favorite place to get shrimp.  I stopped by Saturday afternoon after some other errands and picked up just under a pound (0.80 lb to be exact) of peel-on, fresh jumbo shrimp.

Earlier in the day, while shopping for the weekly basics, I had picked up some sugar-snap peas and some sliced button mushrooms as well to go in the big stir-fry plan.  That was as far as I had got in the plan.  I knew I had rice at home and soy sauce and was just going to fry up the veggies and shrimp and mix it all up.  But something better happened....

When we got married, one of the gifts I, ok, we, received was the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, Bridal Edition and I have to honestly say that if I could only have one cookbook in my house, it would be this one.  It has recipes for all the basics as well as some interesting alternatives.  The thing I love about this cookbook is that it includes lots of tips recipes for random things like rice (yes, plain rice!), deviled eggs, and other simple classics - things that you might not really need a recipe for, but are glad you have something to reference in case you aren't sure (this can't be just me, right?).  Since I didn't have a recipe for the stir-fry, I turned right to my trusty BHG Cook Book and found one... for Shrimp Stir-fry too!  The recipe I based our meal on was for shrimp and broccoli stir-fry, but I switched it up with the sugar-snap peas.  Once I found this recipe I was SO happy that I had picked up the mushrooms.  I was at the store wandering around trying to figure out what else to put into a stir-fry (this is why I can't go grocery shopping unprepared).

We served the shrimp stir-fry over plain white, long grain rice and it was delicious.  We've already planned to use this same basic recipe to make a pepper stir-fry later this week (Bell peppers were on sale this week at the store, so I bought several).  Also, because I have limited grasp of how much cooked rice is yielded from two cups of uncooked, I'll be using the extra rice to make a fried rice dish too.  All-in-all, this worked out great.  Additionally, we've learned, well, further learned, that we don't need to have any special, fancy vegetarian, pescetarian or vegan cookbooks to eat a pescetarian diet.

New Cookbook!

Today was left-overs day at our house.  Neither myself or my husband were really feeling up to cooking and we still had some left overs in the house that we decided to eat up.  So instead of a meal, I'll give you a little info about the new cookbook I picked-up over the weekend and the week ahead.


On a quick trip for essentials at a major retailer, I came across Kim Barnouin's Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook.  I had previously heard of the Skinny Bitch line of books, but  I never looked into them or really have had any idea what they were about or, well, I had no clue, just knew it was something to do with diet.  When I picked up the cookbook and thumbed through it, I noticed right away that there seemed to me a very limited number of dishes with meat. Upon further discovery, I couldn't find any dishes with meat and then noticed that there were several recipes that included meat alternative items such as tofu and tempeh.  So I decided to roll with it and pick it up.

While standing in line at the checkout counter, I began scanning the back of the dustcover and reading through the praises of the cookbook; it wasn't until then that the actual word vegan popped up and then I was really excited about it.  While my husband and I have decided to adopt a vegetarian/pescetarian diet (I'm not sure if I'm ready to go with lifestyle), I didn't think that I would be so quickly interested in further diet restrictions such as full vegetarianism or even a vegan lifestyle.  I don't know if we will move forward (we're only on week 2), but the fact that the thought even crossed my mind is interesting, and surprising, to even me.  So yes, this is a fully vegan cookbook.

The following day, Sunday, yesterday, I sat down with the cookbook and skimmed through the recipes looking for some options during my weekly meal planning task.  I was a bit disappointed that nothing jumped out at me right away as something that sounded amazing or something easy enough to whip up quick.  But then I decided to read the introduction where Barnouin explains a bit about why she adopted a vegetarian and then vegan diet as well as clean eating as a whole.  It was then that I felt a connection.  It seemed to me that Barnouin was just a regular gal, like me, that was looking for a better way of life and eating.  She was looking to stop polluting her body with chemicals and other unnatural items and again, excited!

I've chose only one recipe from Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook for this week's menu but its one that includes tempeh, which is an ingredient that I have never used before - and didn't even know about until last week - so I'm looking forward to the challenge and seeing how this goes.  Also for this week, I've got some soy based "sausage" to include in a frittata recipe - another first for us.  It ought to be an interesting, and maybe challenging, week.