EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: Southwestern Corn & Potato Soup

This week we tried a new soup recipe from my beloved uber-healthy vegetarian cookbook. Because when it gets cloudy and windy like it has the last several days, I start craving soup. I was intrigued by this recipe for a Southwestern corn soup that incorporated sweet potato, so I thought we'd give it a whirl.

I've put up a picture but...it's chunky yellow soup. There's no way my meager photography skills could make it look like anything but the subject of my four-year old's potty humor. You'll have to trust me when I say it tasted far better than it looks in the photo.

The results: We liked it! It had enough flavor to be interesting for the adults but not so much that it was overwhelming for the kids. In the recipe's final step, you purée half of the soup, which gave it a nice creamy texture without using any dairy. The lime and cilantro were nice accent flavors. (Hmm, those green garnishes would have made the picture look a bit more appetizing. Why didn't I think of that?) We served it with a tossed salad and chips and salsa, because I take advantage of every opportunity to enjoy chips and salsa. It took about 40 minutes from chopping through cooking, but only about 15 minutes of that was actual work. The rest was just simmering time on the stove.

The verdict: We'll definitely make this one again. I might stir in some black beans along with the corn next time, to add a little extra protein.

This marks the last week of the Meatless Supper Club posts. I've had a great time participating and if you've tried--or improved on--any of the recipes, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks to EnviroMom for organizing this and letting me play along!

EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: Udon Noodles with Bok Choy

This is Heather's husband, Todd.   She is feeling very ill right now, but not because of these noodles. She woke up last night---well, you don't need any details.   She has commissioned me to post this photo and recipe on her blog. I thought they tasted great. I had three servings and Firefly ate them like crazy. She eats most things well. Puppy was a bit hesitant, but finished his plate. When Heather called them peanut butter noodles he seemed to be more open. As we can not use cheese due to Firefly's milk sensitivity, peanut butter has become a go-to protein source.  

So Heather has been cooking more vegetarian meals for us for dinner. They have all been good and tasty, but I have found myself hankering for a snack around 9:30 p.m. I also have found that I eat a lot for dinner. I wonder if I'm just trying to make up for the lack of meat by eating large portions.

EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: Spicy Black Beans & Rice

This has been one of Those Weeks. The kind in which just making it to the dinner table at the end of the day feels like an accomplishment. So any meals hav to be (1) fast and (2) made of ingredients already in our pantry or freezer.

Our trusty black beans and rice recipe fit the bill on both counts. You'd probably never serve it guests--it's too ugly for that. But it's warm, comforting, filling and beyond easy to make. The most complicated step is chopping up an onion.

It's really not that spicy, despite its name. I use a minimum of cayenne pepper to keep it kid-friendly. Upping the rice-to-bean mixture ratio also helps if children complain about it being too spicy. But everyone ate it and was happy this time around. It pairs well with a green salad or even just a bowl of baby carrots. We also sometimes substitute cornbread for the rice, just for a change.

But not this week. I am way too tired to make cornbread right now.

Recipe below, plus more meatless meals at EnviroMom...

EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: Autumn in a Squash Bowl

I feel like a big cheater this week. First I took a perfectly good recipe that called for tofu and made it with chicken instead. And now I'm giving you a favorite recipe for stuffed acorn squash that's only meatless because I swapped in a fake meat substitute (in this case, faux sausage).

I'm not sure how I feel about things masquerading as meats. We eat them semi-regularly: Morningstar "chicken" nuggets, Boca burgers and such. They're almost always lower in fat and calories than the real thing. And the enviromental impact of growing items like soybeans and mushrooms  is smaller than growing a cow or pig. But then you factor in all the processing and added ingredients...and they always come in so much packaging...like I said, I'm torn.

(While we're on the subject of cheating, I do have a quick tip for faking spaghetti with meat sauce. You can swap out the ground beef for bulgur--1 cup dry bulgur for every 1 pound of meat. Add 1 cup boiling water--or beef stock for more flavor--to 1 cup bulgur, cover and let sit for several minutes. Very similar texture but more fiber, less fat, less money. It works in soups, too.)

Enough guilt. Back to the stuffed squash. I love this meal. The combination of the squash, sausage, cranberries, apples and pecans just captures autumn perfectly. It's pretty enough to serve to guests (it looks more impressive in real life than in my picture) and not very hard to make. And it's a dinner recipe made with maple syrup. How can it go wrong?

The results: Everyone ate it! Whoo! I fully expected the four-year old to turn up his nose, but he was chowing down. Maybe it was the novelty of the little squash bowl? I wasn't about to question it. Four year olds--who can understand them?

The verdict: The change to the faux sausage in this recipe is one we'll keep. It's healthier without the pork and it didn't change the favor or texture of the dish at all.

Recipe below the jump, plus more meatless meals at EnviroMom...

Enviromom Meatless Supper Club: Pad Thai

I had a hard time deciding what to post this week, because we actually lucked out with a string of tasty vegetarian dinners. (I think my family got a little tired of me taking pictures of our food.) So I'm going with the one that was a surprise to us and saving my all-time favorite autumn meal for next time.

When I came across this pad thai recipe awhile back, I was reluctant to try it. Pad thai conjures up memories of fun late night food runs with roommates and relaxed meals out with my husband during the childless days of our marriage. I didn't want to ruin those associations with some bad homemade attempt. But the point of this EnviroMom project for me was to try new vegetarian recipes, so we plunged ahead.

The results: My husband and I were both pleasantly surprised by how good it was. The sauce was flavorful without being too powerful, with just the right tang from the lemon lime juice. The eggs and peanuts made it a filling meal. It probably took about 30-40 minutes to prepare, from start to finish.

The four-year old flat out refused to eat it. We tried calling it Peanut Noodles, but no dice. He's just determined not to like anything new right now. The one-year old, on the other hand, liked it so much it was almost disturbing. She kept stuffing noodles into her mouth and frantically signing, "More, more, more, please, please, more!"

The verdict: Definite keeper. I'm already craving it again.

Recipe below the jump, plus more meatless meal ideas at EnviroMom...

EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: Ridiculously Healthy Crockpot Burritos

The weather turned deliciously cool this week  I'm wearing my fleece, watching the leaves change color and breaking out the crockpot again. Love it.

This week we pulled out an old favorite, a black bean/barley/corn/tomato burrito mix made in the slow cooker. Low-fat, full of protein and fiber, and nicely flavorful. It makes a ton of food, so you can serve a crowd on the cheap or put half in the freezer for another week.And it only takes about ten minutes to put it all in the crockpot. (It cooks for around four hours.) Totally my kind of meal.

The results: My husband, daughter and I all gobbled it up. It has a wee hint of spice, so I wondered if the toddler would like it, but it didn't phase her at all. (She ate her burrito deconstructed, with the tortilla on the side.) My son decided the burrito mix was too jumbled up for his tastes this time (sigh) and filled his tortilla with cheese and sour cream. Frankly, at this point I 'm considering that a success with him. His tastes are terribly fickle lately, but as long as he's polite about it, I'm letting it go. Serenity now, etc.

The verdict: Total winner.

Recipe after the jump, plus check out more meatless dinner ideas over at EnviroMom...

EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: A Vegan Risotto

I love risotto. Creamy, cheesy rice--what's not to like? Unless you have a dairy allergic kid, in which case it's off the menu. So I was intrigued by this meatless, dairy-free risotto recipe that promised all the creaminess without the cheese. It was from a Moosewood Collective cookbook that has rarely steered me wrong. (If I ever make a life list, eating at the Moosewood Restaurant will be on it.)

The results: It took about 30 minutes to make, from start to finish. We ate this meal twice, once fresh and once as leftovers, with a garden salad. Both times my husband and I agreed that we liked the dish--both flavor and texture--but it wasn't super filling. Our toddler thought it was great. Our preschooler took one bite and decided he didn't like it. The taste was pretty mild, so I don't think there would be anything I could change in the recipe to make it more palatable. He's just in a phase where he doesn't like his foods all jumbled up together.

The verdict: I'll keep this one in mind for when I need something fairly quick and easy, but it probably won't go into regular rotation. At least not as a main dish.  Tasty, but not satisfying enough to be the star of the meal.

Recipe below the jump, plus check out the other Supper Club participants' recipes over at EnviroMom...

EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: Northwest Vegetarian Chili

One of my favorite online reads is EnviroMom, a blog by two Pacific Northwest women about the little and big steps they're taking to green their daily lives. On more than one occasion they've gotten me re-thinking my usual approach to something (like birthday parties).

Now EnviroMom has gathered a group of bloggers (including me!) who will post once a week for eight weeks about a meatless dinner our families ate--or, rather, whether they ate it. Todd and I have tried to do vegetarian dinners several nights a week for years now, a decision tied up in a lot of intersecting values, including living simply (sometimes out of necessity and other times out of choice) and concerns about the environmental and social impact of our diets. We've never made the jump to a full vegan or even vegetarian diet. (For mostly selfish reasons--we really, really like meat. And cheese. And eggs. And ice cream.)  But it's one small way we try to live out our beliefs.

We had a solid set of vegetarian recipes that we used. Then we realized that our daughter is allergic to cow's milk protein. And suddenly any cheesy, creamy vegetarian dish wasn't going to work for our household anymore. So now we're on a quest for kid-friendly, dairy-free, meat-free meals that also make the adults in the household happy.

This weekend we made a vegetarian chili, one we've dubbed Northwest Chili because it includes an item held in great esteem by many in these parts: beer. Also because all the veggies in it are grown around here (and are in season right now). But mostly the beer.

The results: Two big thumbs up from the adults. The beans made it very filling. It was a success with the kids, too. Our preschooler actually complimented it, unasked. We strained away the broth for the toddler; she ate everything except for the beans. (She refuses to eat most all beans, so that wasn't surprising.) Our sides were corn bread and a tossed green salad (gotta use up those CSA produce box greens!) The corn bread was probably the highlight of the meal for the kids.

The verdict: A definite keeper. Filling, fairly quick to prepare and, except for the zucchini, it uses ingredients we usually have on hand year-round. It made enough for two meals for us.

Recipe below the jump!