This is how it is

I went to Arizona to see family. I ate roast and hamburgers. I came back and ate beef stew for Zoe's birthday, because that is what she wanted. So we've decide we are mostly vegetarian. I am not ready to be vegan. That is too much right now. I think I could do all vegetarian but I'm not going to do that yet either. This is what we've agreed upon: We eat vegetarian and vegan at home. When we are with family for dinner we are going to eat what is offered. I still want turkey for Thanksgiving, I still want my chicken salad sandwiches for Christmas. Maybe I will have the pork enchilada at Cost Vida once in a while. We eat a little cheese, eggs and milk. Not as much as before though. Having meat once in a while is certainly better than every day. Call me weak and mean to animals and all that, I don't care. I still enjoy cooking vegetarian and vegan. But I'm not ready for 100%.

"Meat"

A while back I ran into this pin on pinterest for black bean burgers. Here is the recipe:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup quick oats
1 egg
2 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix it all up in a food processor. Make into burgers and fry or grill (I use an indoor grill) or however you want to cook a burger.

So I made the burgers and they were good! I think I took a picture but I can't find it. But I was thinking, what else can I do with this recipe?  So I decided to make spaghetti and "meatballs". To do that I followed the recipe and threw in a little onion and Italian seasoning. Instead of "balls" I made bite size pieces and baked them @ 350 for ten minutes, turning them over after 5 minutes. Tasty!

Then I decided to make tacos with them. The same baking process and base recipe except I left out the garlic cloves and pepper, threw in a little minced onion, a dash of garlic powder and some taco seasoning. Also good! I love tacos so this was a pleasant surprise. I used to make chicken tacos a lot. I didn't mind ground beef that much but I never liked to eat it because e coli, of course and it's kind of full of saturated fat. So it was nice to have a taco with something actually, sort of meaty instead of just throwing beans in and calling it good. And all of these recipes are pretty healthy if you don't count the little bit of cholesterol from the one egg. Oh, and spray the pan before you bake them too.

Taco "meat". It looks kind of like no bake cookies, haha.

Potatoes and Eggs

What we have here is a simple meal. I mixed regular potatoes with sweet potatoes (5:1 ratio, about) to make mashed potatoes. I mixed in some garlic powder, milk, spread, and salt. The rest is black beans, spinach and watermelon. Healthy!

I used to make eggs with stuff mixed in for an easy dinner. I'd use about ten eggs and add ham, cheddar and some veggies. This is the healthier version I've come up with: I only used 4 eggs and about five potatoes, half a sweet potato, peppers, olives and mushrooms. To make the potatoes I cut them and boiled them for about 15 minutes. Let them cool and cut into bite size pieces. Mix with a little oil, salt pepper and basil. Bake @ 350 for 30-40 minutes. Flip them halfway through. Much easier than trying to fry in a pan. Scramble the eggs and saute all the veggies and mix it all together.

Creamy Vegetable Chowder

I love making soup! I don't know why. There was a time a few years ago when I had never made homemade soup. I remember being on the committee for Super Saturday, this craft-a-palooza thing for the women at church. I wasn't really even supposed to be there because I was the compassionate service person but somehow that was sort of part of the enrichment committee so the relief society counselor asked me to come, saying I could just help out a little, I didn't really need to do much. Okay, so I came. The woman in charge was young and super high strung. They discussed everyone's responsibilities and then got to the plans for the lunch that would be served. She looked at me and said, Do you want to be in charge of the lunch? It's a really big job! Nothing was more convincing to me, a person who did not relish being in charge of anything for a large group of people, than being asked by this perpetually manic woman if I wanted the job, immediately being followed by it's a big job. There's also this thing at church where every woman is sort of expected to know how to be an event planner. As I wasn't raised in the church I never quite caught on to this concept. Another woman saw the look of terror in my eyes and took mercy on me by volunteering to do the job. I was going to be her helper. I would have had the good sense to be humiliated by the whole situation but as I was just so relieved, it didn't occur to me. I don't know where this is going exactly but the lunch was all about soup. I helped out with any responsibilities the woman in charge would pass my way but I didn't bring a crock pot full of soup because, a) I don't have a crock pot and b) I didn't make homemade soup. But now I do! I love making homemade soup now, especially on a cold autumn day like today.
I'm in the middle of making this and I'm not sure it's going to turn out good or not. I've made this recipe before, actually I did a cooking class with my daughter and her friends a few years back and we made this soup. It was really good but I want to make it healthier so I replaced the chicken broth with veggie broth (I don't know if that is really healthier but it keeps it vegetarian). Then I added white beans for protein and a sweet potato for more nutrition. Okay, I just sampled it. It's pretty good.

Creamy Vegetable Soup
1 1/2 cups dry white beans, sorted, rinsed, cooked
1 small clove garlic, chopped (or use garlic powder of a commensurate amount)
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups chopped carrots
2 tbs smart balance spread ( or oil of your choice, or leave it all out if you want)
5 small- medium potatoes, cut into small pieces
1 small sweet potato, shredded (I used the kind that looks more white not orange, the orange kind may be a yam, I'll never get that straight)
1 cup frozen corn
3 cups skim milk
4 cups vegetable broth (again, I used the Rapunzel granules, 1 heaping tbs mixed with 4 cups water)
2 tbs cornstarch, mixed in part of the cold milk
3 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Saute the garlic, onion, carrots and celery in Smart Balance spread. Add everything else, bring to a boil and turn down to simmer for about 1 hour or until you think it's done.