Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Broccoli Potato Soup and Portobello Mushroom Sandwiches

2013_02_25bThis is our first dinner for vegan week. We don’t plan on turning vegan, we just wanted to try some new recipes. So why go vegan though? Well, one reason is we decided we wanted to reduce the amount of meat and dairy we consume. We’ve heard a lot about the benefits of a wholefoods plant based diet and wanted to see how we could incorporate more of that into our current eating habits.

Also, when I think about vegan food, I think about tempeh burgers, bean burgers, mushroom burgers, and soy hot dogs. I like vegetarian meals, but going vegan seems so much more restricting. I know my perception of a vegan diet is a little flawed. There is so much more to this cooking I don’t know about and I really wanted to explore and educate myself.

I have also been bored, unmotivated and uninspired in the kitchen lately. I wanted to try something new to reignite my efforts in the kitchen.

I know eating vegan doesn’t necessarily mean healthy. I could eat french fries all day and be vegan, but that wouldn’t be very healthy. So I wanted to avoid the soy cheeses, soy hot dogs and a lot of those types of processed imitation products. I wanted to focus on fresh natural ingredients as much as possible. I tried to select a diverse menu from simple typical dishes, to some of the more complicated unique (in my eyes) recipes. I also didn’t want to break the bank either. I had in my head that eating vegan would be expensive. But I came in under budget for this week’s grocery shopping even after I had to by some specialty products I don’t have in stock.

So hopefully after a week we’ll get a good idea of what we like, don’t like, and what we think is practical for us to incorporate into our regular habits. And hopefully learn a thing or two in the process.

First up for dinner was potato broccoli soup, portobello mushroom paninis and a salad. Day one went really well! Everything had a ton of flavor and was very filling. The soup was great, but definitely better as a side. I couldn’t eat the soup and a main dish just because it had such a strong flavor. I know Ellie loves mushrooms so I thought starting with the mushroom sandwiches was the way to go. She ate her whole mushroom and most of the bread. She said she liked the soup but only ate a few bites. The artichoke tapenade for the sandwich was great. Extremely flavorful. Prepping and preparing these meals were very simple and not super time consuming either. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

RECIPES:

2013_02_25dPortobello Panini with Artichoke Tapenade

2013_02_25cBroccoli and Potato Soup

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Beet & Carrot Soup w/ Turkey Meatball Reuben Subs

2013_01_10aI know the picture of the meatball sub doesn’t look very appetizing, but they were really good. I would make less, but bigger, meatballs next time. The soup was very beety. I liked it, but I know some people have an aversion to beets. If you don’t like beets, you won’t like this. Ellie loved it though and had three bowls! I have to say it was a little stranger eating something that looked like a raspberry, but tasting warm beets instead. 2013_01_10b

RECIPES:

Beet and Carrot Soup

Turkey Meatball Reuben

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Grown-Up Grilled Cheese and Tomapple Soup

Tomatoes + apples + soup = tomapple soup. It’s fall and that means all is food is so much better with apple or pumpkins added. It doesn’t matter what it is. I even put pumpkins in meatloaf. Anyway, the soup is easy, and really good. I’m not a huge fan of tomato soup, but I really liked this one! Pair it with a nice grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and grilled onions and it’s a winner of a meal.

I made a few changes to the sandwich recipe though. Instead of sharp cheddar I used shredded mozzarella. And instead of red onion, I used regular white onions. We always use turkey bacon instead of regular bacon too. Nothing against bacon bacon, we just don’t buy it often. And for the bread, I used fresh Japanese bakery bread which we love. But I’ve used regular wheat before. But I think the lighter, fluffier, and thicker the bread, the better the sandwich will be.

RECIPES:

Tomato Apple Soup

Grown-Up Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Stuffed Pepper Soup and Turkey, Apple, and Swiss Melt

So many garden green peppers to use up! Easy recipe and great on a fall day. The turkey sandwich was a nice balance. We loved this meal!

RECIPES:

Turkey Apple and Swiss Melt

Stuffed Pepper Soup

1 c chopped onion
1/4 c celery
1 clove garlic, minced
2 c green pepper, chopped
1/2 lb  lean ground beef,
1 – 16oz can crushed tomatoes
1/2 c tomato juice (I use 4 oz tomato sauce)
1/4 c uncooked white rice
3 c water
1T chopped fresh parsley
2 t sugar (takes the tomato bitterness away)
1 t salt ( to taste )
1 t black pepper

Saute onion, celery, garlic and green pepper til tender but not brown. Stir beef into vegs, cook til beef is brown. Stir in rice.  Add tomatoes, juice, water, parsley, sugar salt and pepper. Cover and simmer 45 min or til rice is cooked. Adjust liquid as necessary.

I doubled the recipe and added more salt.  I also let it simmer for about 1 hr and 15 minutes.

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Slow-Roasted Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Slow roasted pulled pork sandwiches, sweet potato wedges, and steamed broccoli. Dang, this was really good! Super super tender. I did this in the slow cooker with a 3lb pork shoulder roast. When I went to shred the meat, it just fell apart it was so tender. I haven’t done anything like this before and was surprised at how easy it was. I liked all the flavors used in cooking the meat, however, I do admit the sauce they have you make wasn’t my favorite BBQ sauce. If you have your own recipe or a favorite BBQ sauce, I would suggest to put that on top instead.

RECIPES:

Slow-Roasted Pulled Pork Sandwiches