WTF is in this bag?!

By Monica on September 21st, 2007

Last week Ray found my vegetable stock bag in the freezer. It’s always fun trying to explain why you are hording tomato tops, celery stumps, and wilted carrots in the freezer whilst trying not to look like a crazy pack rat. But that’s exactly what I’m doing, pack-ratting old veggies, in a gallon sized freezer bag, because I am sick of paying $1.99/qt for vegetable stock. (It should maybe be noted that I tease my brother mercilessly for hording bits of steel and wood for fabricating things, but hording half rotted vegetable bits is perfectly acceptable.)

It’s really not that fascinating, but the veggies looked so gorgeous in the pot that I figured I’d snap a shot.

To a large freezer bag, I add pepper tops, celery stumps, tomato guts, squash ‘leavings, and any other left over vegetable parts. (Except veggies from the cabbage family; compost those!) When the bag is full, I throw them in a big pot, cover with water, add a handful of peppercorns, a little salt, and a few bay leaves. Simmer for a few hours, strain, and enjoy your free vegetable stock which kicks the pants out of store bought.

Tip: clean and resuse the aseptic cartons from stock or non-dairy milk for your stock.

Spaghetti Squash Extravaganza!

By Monica on September 19th, 2007

Continuing with the squash theme, spaghetti squash is a staple in my house in autumn. Spaghetti squash is a snap to make, it’s cheap, delicious, and has only 31 calories per 1 cup serving, as compared to 200 calories in 1 cup of pasta.

The cooking instructions are really tough for this, so make sure you’re paying attention: Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. (If you’re me, run those seeds out to the chickens.) Nuke the squash, face down, in the microwave until it’s tender (about 20 minutes in mine.) Using a big fork to make pasta-like strands, scrape out the squash flesh into a large bowl.

Now here comes the hard part:
To the squash, mix in your favorite spaghetti sauce, as much or as little as you like. Now mix in your favorite faux meatballs, as many as you like. (I like Trader Joe’s meatless meatballs.) Scoop the squash / sauce / meatball mixture back into the empty squash shells.
Top with faux Parmesan and bake at 350° for about 20 minutes until browned.

Presto! Quick, easy, delicious. Plus, as long as you don’t go crazy with the sauce and meatballs, you can gorge yourself on this pretty guilt-free. Low in calories, high in folic acid, and fiber - the spaghetti squash is your friend!

Curse you, broken taco shells!

By Monica on September 15th, 2007

This started off as a taco dinner. I opened the box of shells at the last minute to start stuffing them, only to discover that they were all broken. Lesson learned: do not buy Aldi taco shells.

I make all my taco dishes using Textured Vegetable Protein.
To make the equivalent of 1 pound of ground beef, I use:
1 1/2c TVP
1 1/4c water
1 package of taco seasoning
and simmer them together under medium heat until the water is absorbed.

So with tacos clearly out of the question, I spread refried beans into the bottom of a bowl, added the faux taco meat on top, then some chopped lettuce, onions, tomatoes, black olives, fresh jalepenos, and a dollop of homemade salsa. The only thing missing is guacamole. The broken taco shells became chips around the bowl’s rim, and it almost looks like I created this on purpose.

Frenchie Onion Soup

By Monica on September 13th, 2007

Ray is sicky-poo this week and it’s been cooler outside, so I figured some soup was in order. I have 35 pounds of squash I could use to make soup, but instead I made Frenchie Onion Soup from La Dolce Vegan, again. I make this over and over again and have yet to get sick of it. I’ve made it 3 days in a row before. I think I may be addicted!

This time I made it with red onions because that’s what I had on hand, and topped it with Vegan Gourmet’s mozzarella. Start to finish on this is under 20 minutes, can’t beat that with a stick!