Portabella Cap Burgers

3 years ago, I went Vegetarian for 2 weeks, because my Aunt IL had inspired me to. Obviously, it didn't last long that time around, and the worst part about it all was that I made that change while we were visiting family in San Diego, CA, a vacation hot spot with endless dining options. My coping mechanism was that I stayed out of meat-eries... I even denied myself In N Out! So when David and I went out to dinner with David's Mom at the Karl Strauss Brewery in Carlsbad, I had no idea what I was going to order. Luckily for me, they had a Portabella Burger on the menu and it was love at first bite.

Oddly enough, that was the first and last time I had eaten a mushroom cap burger... until Lauren came out. She had mentioned that she liked them, so when I saw them at Target, I added them to our meal plan and they have since become a family favorite. This recipe is super quick and easy!

Portabella Cap Burgers

Ingredients You'll Need:

Mushroom Caps (I use Monterey Mushroom Portabella Caps (sold at our Super Target). They contain 100% of your daily value of Vitamin D!
Balsamic Vinaigrette, for marinade (make your own or use salad dressing)
Buns
Avocado
Purple Onions (caramelized or raw)
Lettuce
Tomato

Directions:

Place mushroom caps in a shallow bowl with 1-2 cups of marinade, depending on the number of caps & your taste preference. 
Allow to marinate for 15-20 minutes. I'm sure these would be great on the grill, but I used the stove top method. If you're doing the same, heat a large skillet on medium high heat and add some of the marinade. Add the mushrooms and cook for 4-5 minutes, then flip and allow to cook until tender. Texture preference is unique to each individual, so cook for as long or as little as you'd like; there's no risk of under-cooking a mushroom! :)

Serve with your choice of toppings and french fries. Enjoy!

Late Summer Vegetable Tian

A tian is traditionally served as a side dish for grilled meats, but it also shines like a star in its role as main course. Served alongside a hearty whole grain, this makes a light but satisfying dinner, the kind that are best served on warm Summer evenings. Enjoy with a chilled white wine for a refreshing experience. :)

Late Summer Vegetable Tian

recipe adapted from Vegetarian Suppers by Deborah Madison (I highly recommend this cookbook!)

Ingredients You'll Need:

1/4 cup olive oil
3 bell peppers, preferably red, orange and yellow, sliced in strips
1 large onion, sliced
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1/2 cup sherry or dry white wine
6 plum tomatoes
1 medium sized eggplant, skin removed and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 green zucchinis, sliced
1 yellow squash, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 sprigs of thyme
1/4 lemon, seeds removed, sliced
sea salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Oil a shallow gratin dish. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a wide skillet. Add the peppers, onion and 2 thyme sprigs. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and a little pepper and cook over medium high heat until the vegetables begin to caramelize, about 15 minutes. Work in the tomato paste, then add the wine, mix well (Be careful with the wine vapors over the high heat- they can be incapacitating!) and allow to simmer until a syrupy sauce forms. Meanwhile, fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. You will also need to fill a small bowl with cold water, then set it next to the boiling pot. Spread the vegetable mixture into the oiled dish. 
2. Drop the tomatoes two at a time into the pot of boiling water for 15-30 seconds or so, then drop them into the bowl of cold water. After 10 seconds or so, pick one up, slip off the skin (you may need to start the peeling process with the edge of a sharp knife) and continue until all the tomatoes have been peeled. Then, slice them and set aside.
3. Arrange the sliced tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini and squash over the pepper mixture, overlapping them either carefully or haphazardly, whichever is your style, making a fairly uniform layer in either case. Tuck the remaining thyme sprigs, lemon slices and minced garlic among the vegetables, season with salt and pepper, then drizzle with remaining olive oil. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Remove foil and cook for another 10 minutes or until top is golden brown.

I served this with a mixture of brown rice and barley to round out all the veggies.

Hope you have fun using fresh summer veggies and enjoy this late summer dish!

Ethical Omnivore

Do you ever have so much on your mind that you have a hard time organizing your thoughts well enough to share them with others? Well, that's where I've been the last two weeks, since I last posted. It's actually a perpetual state of mind for me, but due to our recent diet changes it has become even more challenging to keep the overwhelming thoughts at bay.

Lauren came and thrived on our Vegan food. I think we all agreed that everything we ate was delicious, except for the Vegan restaurant we ate at in Dallas (review to come later).

Anyways, we had a wonderful time together. I didn't meal plan for the following week since I was moping around missing my friend, so we pretty much went to the store every few days for dinners that sounded good. Big mistake.

For some reason, I started feeling extremely rebellious towards our Vegan diet. I complained at our lack of options as Vegans (especially for fast food options) and was feeling sick of making every meal from scratch at home all the while going without meat, eggs and dairy.

I rationalized my desires by reminding my husband that if we could find "humane" cheese and even "humane meat" that I wanted to go back to an omnivore diet.

So Wednesday I bought some cheese. Blue cheese (imported from Holland), Mozzarella (made in Wisconsin- happy cows right?), American Cheese (Borden), White Cheddar (imported from Ireland) and Yellow Cheddar (Tillamook-vegetarian). We also bought Annie's Aged Cheddar Mac N Cheese, Bertolli's Creamy Vodka sauce and Classico's Basil Pesto sauce.

*hangs head in shame*

We had pizza the first night (less than a cup of Mozzarella, and a tablespoon of blue cheese). Felt okay.

We had pizza again on Thursday, for lunch. Still felt fine, tiny amount of cheese, enough for some flavor but tons of vegetables. And salad. Still felt fine.

Thursday night we had farfalle with vodka sauce and huge salad. Yummy, but starting to feel cheesed out. How did we ever survive eating like this in the past!?

Friday lunch was Mac n Cheese (made with cow's milk from Promised Land dairy) and that's when the sour stomach began. And stayed until 3AM. Dinner was basil pesto with angel hair and a huge-ginormous salad.

Over the last few days, I've also tasted both cheddar cheeses with crackers, and the flavors were knock-your-socks-off intense. After almost 3 months of no cheese, it's a rather alarming experience. The Kerry Gold white cheddar was my favorite, very smooth and creamy, with a mild flavor. And coming from artisan cheese makers in Ireland, where the farmers allow the cows to roam the hillsides almost 24/7, it's the best option for our standards as well. Tillamook yellow was my old lover. I used to go through a 2lb block in a week and a half. When I was pregnant, it was gone in a week. Now, I can hardly handle a tiny slice.

The issue that started this renegade was the fact that as a Christian, I believe that in the Garden of Eden, there was no death. No using the animals to meet human needs. God provided everything we needed through the fruit of the earth.
After man fell in sin though, the first recorded use of animals in the Bible was as clothing for man, and later as food. Seeing as after the Great Flood, there was no vegetation suitable to nourish man, eating animals would have been necessary for survival. But I believe that as we have evolved as humans and we are living in a world where the mass production and consumption of milk, honey, meat and other animal products is causing harm to not only our environment, but also to our selves, and to those that could be nourished with the grain we are using to feed the animals, that we should strive to be good stewards by moving away from an animal based diet and lifestyle.

David and I were struggling to find our niche'. Are we Omnivores? Pescetarians? Herbivores? Vegetarians? VEGANS!? It didn't help that the stereotypes in each group were fitting and frustrating. Why do all Vegans seem to be atheists and all Christians seem to care less about killing for a nice steak?

We DO believe that animals are given to us, even to use for milk, meat, clothing, etc. However, the extent to which most Americans on the SAD (Standard American Diet) have taken it is nothing short of cruel and gluttonous.

We have absolutely nothing against eating meat, eggs, cheese, fish or honey, so long as the source we are supporting is practicing good stewardship of the animals. Since having our own farm animals is out of the question (at this stage in life, at least, hopefully not forever!), and we cannot afford meat from places like Alder Spring Ranch, it will be a rare treat to eat meat (on special occasions and holidays- like Jesus did by example). Our cheese will come from family farms and will be severely limited due to the high fat content. Fish will be wild caught and also a rare treat.

This journey has been eye opening to me in many ways.

1) Being extreme is easier than being moderate. It's easy to cut out everything that poses a threat to induce over indulgence, but it's more character building to exert self control by remaining balanced in those circumstances.

2) Just because some people abuse a practice does not make the practice bad. Horse racing and sled dog racing are sports where there is mutual enjoyment to both man and animal. When someone abuses the sport, the right response would be to ban them from it, not ban the sport. I got carried away to extreme animal rights activism because of the abuse of the animals being used to satisfy gluttonous humans. That was a bad response. The proper response would be to become an educated consumer and to ensure that I am doing the most that I can to support ethical treatment of animals. Which brings me to my third point.

3) I'm not alone! I'm sure you don't enjoy the prospect of serving tortured cow to your family, and the idea of eating chicken that comes from a farm where the dying, sick, dead and living dwell in the same space should be enough to shock you into researching alternatives and demanding the perpetrators take responsibility for their behavior. There's a name for those of us who believe in a diet of whole natural foods (which include animal products) and it is: Ethical Omnivores.

This sums up how I feel as a consumer and is an interesting read:

Ethical Omnivores

Hope you enjoyed it and I gave you some food for thought! I would love the hear your point of view so leave a comment and tell me what you think~! Menu plan for the next week will be up soon!

Our 7 Day Meal Plan

This week is going to be exciting because my sister in love, Lauren, is coming to visit!! *happy dance*
So our menu for the week is going to be filled with familiar favorites.
Truth be told, I am in need of some yummy tried and true vegan recipes. I have just about exhausted our favorites and it's time for some new ones! The good news is that I just ordered these two vegan cookbooks on Amazon:Eat, Drink & Be Vegan and Vegan Comfort Food.

see last week's meal plan here:

July 9-15

Breakfast Options:
we always have some sort of coffee in the morning... either brewed Yukon blend or iced espresso with almond milk.

1. Bagel with peanut butter and fruit jelly
2. Blueberry Pecan Oatcakes
3. Oatmeal with fruit and nuts
4. French Toast
5. Very Berry Coffee Cake

Lunch Options:

1. Vegetable Sushi with Miso Soup
2. Wacky Pasta
3. Veggie Sandwiches with chips
4. Leftovers from Dinner

Snack Options:

1. Fruit smoothies
2. Crackers, Pretzels or Kashi Bars
3. Fresh Fruit: Watermelon, Oranges and Cantaloupe

Dinner Options:

1. Portobello Burgers and Fries
2. Veggie Fajitas and Spanish Rice with Beans
3. Spring Rolls with dipping sauce and brown Rice
4. Vegetable Tian with Quinoa
5. Penne and Salad
6. Angel Hair and Rosemary Bread
7. Asian Stir Fry and white rice

Dessert Options:

1. German Chocolate Cupcakes
2. Turtle Mountain Ice Cream

Beverage Options:

1. Water
2. 100% Ocean Spray Juice
3. Mango Juice
4. Lemonade
5. beer/wine

What are you eating this week? I'd love to know!