Garlic Roasted Chickpeas with Lemon, Mint, and Feta

You know you have cooked something amazing when you literally think about eating it all day when you are at work, and you can't wait to go home not to see your boyfriend, or watch TV, but to eat that dish. However, I don't feel fully validated until other people try the dish and love it too.  That is exactly what happened when I cooked this recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen.  I really love cooking (and eating) foods with Greek flavors, and these Garlic Roasted Chickpeas were incredible!



What you need:



2 Cans of chickpeas
3/4 oz container of fresh mint
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Cloves of garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
1 Cup crumbled feta cheese
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

What to do:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Drain all the liquid from the chickpeas.
Combine olive oil, garlic, red peppers, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.
Put chickpeas into baking dish, and stir in oil mixture.
Roast for 15-18 minutes.
While chickpeas are roasting, wash and chop the mint leaves.



Once chickpeas are hot and just starting to crisp, take them out of the oven.
Stir in the mint, feta, and lemon and serve hot.











There was nothing bad about this dish. The first thing I noticed was the nice bit of heat from the red pepper flakes. The mint was so refreshing and the lemon added the perfect amount of tang.  I loved all the Greek flavors, and Ben even said it tasted like it could be right out of a Greek restaurant! Because there weren't many ingredients, each one stood out, I tasted all the individual flavors, but they all went well together too.  The chickpeas had a nice, meaty, flavor, which were really hearty and filling.  Oh wait, there was one bad thing, I didn't have enough!!

Are you going to try out this chickpea dish?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

My First Time...With Kale

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE! Today is my 24th birthday...and I am at work right now.  Buts that's OK because I had an awesome Halloween, and I have plenty more awesomeness ahead of me today!

Today I am going to share with you a story about my first time dealing with something that I thought was pretty scary...kale. Oh kale. You are all over the Pinterest universe. Everyone says you are so amazing and can be used in all kinds of dishes, but I was always skeptical. See, the very first encounter I ever had with the green, leafy, veggie, was in the Bronx Zoo. When I used to work in the zoo, kale was on the diet of lots of animals, and to me kale was an "animal food." Monkeys eat monkey chow, lions eat raw meat, and giraffes eat kale.



Recently, a friend from work told me that she was experimenting with kale, and it was pretty good. I told her my fears of eating kale. She replied by surprising me of a baggie of my own kale. It was time to face my fears, and see what all the hype was.



The first thing I realized was...I had NO idea what to do with it! After scouring the internet, lots of people recommended sauteing it with some oil and garlic, like you would saute spinach. I decided to give it a go.



It was pretty simple to cook up. I just threw in the kale, some olive oil, a few gloves of garlic, salt and pepper. I sauteed it until the kale wilted.





Now that I had all this beautifully cooked kale, what do I eat with it??  I cooked up some pearled couscous and mixed it all together.







The kale was a little bitter and kind of chewy. It actually reminded me a bit of broccoli rabe. I would describe it as healthy tasting. I was really glad I decided to saute it, it make the kale really nice and garlic-y.

On the other hand, the pearled couscous, which I also have never tried before, was so good! The only way I can describe it is that it tasted like bubbles in my mouth. It was moist, and a bit creamy. The spices were really flavor, it had the perfect amount of garlic.

In the end I don't know if I would get kale again. It was OK, but didn't knock my socks off. At least my meal was vegan, which makes it a winner in my book!

Have you ever had kale? What is your favorite way to eat it?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Cheese and Tomato Pie

Hello everyone! Today I have a recipe to share with you that I found on Pinterest. I love searching through Pinterest and finding easy, vegetarian meals. Of course, I also need to find meals that are budget-friendly. Now that I have moved away from home, and buy my own food, I have become price conscious. Most of the meals that I make have a limited number of ingredients, and are made with food that was on sale at the supermarket that week. I had saved this recipe from Design Corral, and cheese and tomatoes were on sale during the week.  My decision was made!



What you need:



1 Deep dish pie crust
4 Medium tomatoes
1 Cup Mayonnaise
1 Cup Cheddar Cheese
1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
Basil
Salt & Pepper

What to do:
Preheat the oven at 350 degrees.
Cut the tomatoes into slices, and arrange them flat on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt. Leave them for 20-30 minutes to drain.
Prebake the pie crust for 10 minutes.
In a bowl, mix the mayo, mozzarella, and cheddar cheeses.



Layer in the tomatoes until you fill up the pie crust.
Top the tomatoes with basil and pepper.



Spread the cheese/mayo mixture evenly over the tomatoes.



Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes.






My pie got a little ugly once I cut it, oh well!

What do you get when you cross pizza with comfort food?  Until  tried this cheesy tomato pie, that question would have stumped me too.  This was the prefect combination. The pie crust was light and flaky, which takes this meal away from pizza, and towards the comfort food side of the spectrum. The tomatoes were so juicy and fresh, and the basil gave it that Italian flavor. The top was so cheesy, and the mayo turned it into almost a cream sauce. All the flavors came together brilliantly, I nearly licked the plate clean!

What is your favorite comfort food collaboration? Are you going to try this cheese and tomato pie?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Pasta with an Avocado "Cream" Sauce

Oh avocados. Such precious little gems.  They are truly a super food, filled with all kinds of good-for-you things. But sadly, they are quite expensive. Once in a while they will go on sale and I always stock up! Since avocados are a rare and special treat, when I get them I usually like to eat them on their own, and really enjoy them for what they are. However, once in a while I like to go a little crazy, and actually turn my avocados into something, and its usually pretty good.

A friend of my friend, Sara, commented that I should try spaghetti squash with this avocado cream sauce recipe. Well, I'm kind of over the spaghetti squash thing, but that doesn't mean I wasn't going to try the recipe out anyway!



What you need:



1 box of pasta
3 ripe avocados
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1.5 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon basil
6 tablespoons olive oil
Black pepper

What do to:
Start by cooking the pasta according to the instructions.
While the pasta is cooking, scoop out the meat of the avocados into a medium bowl.
Add in the garlic, olive oil, lemon, basil, and salt, and mix it all up.



Once the pasta is done, drain it and add in the avocado sauce. Top with black pepper and serve hot.











I just want to start off by telling you that I was thiiiiiis close to ditching the pasta, and eating the sauce right out of the bowl with some tortilla chips, it was SO GOOD! The avocado was so buttery and fresh, with a nice mild taste. Since the lemon and garlic are pretty strong flavors compared to the avocado, the avocado acted more like a cream sauce, without adding any cream. Actually, this sauce is completely vegan! The original recipe calls for a food processor, but I really liked the chunkiness of just mashing it up with a fork. It was nice getting a bite with a big piece of avocado in it! The garlic added a bit of a spicy note when biting into it, and the lemon gave it a nice tang. Overall, this was some incredibly amazing pasta!

What are your favorite ways to eat avocados? Will you be trying this avocado "cream" sauce?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Meatless Messy Joes

Oh technology. You either love it...or it ruins your life. Not too long ago I have a minor computer hiccup, and the resulted in me losing a few recipes I had saved. It really saddened me for three reasons. First of all, I am sad that I can't recreate to perfection the amazingness that I cooked. Second, I wont be able to give proper credit to the person that initially invented the recipe. And finally, I can't share the recipe with all of you lovely followers.  I will do my best to share with you the parts of the recipe that I remember, and if I find the original copy, I will post it right away so I can give credit where credit is due!



Today's lost recipe is for vegetarian sloppy joes. I felt weird calling them sloppy joes, when they were 100% meat free. I decided that I will dub them Meatless Messy Joes!

What You Need:



1 Package Smart Ground soy crumbles
3/4 tsp Mustard
1/2 cup Ketchup
2 1/2 tsp Brown suagr
3 cloves Garlic
Onion powder
Salt & Pepper to taste

What To Do:

Like I said, I lost the recipe, so I don't remember exactly what I did. But I'm pretty sure I just cooked the soy crumbles according to  the instructions, then mixed in all the rest of the ingredients.
Plop it all on some bread, and you got yourself a Meatless Messy Joe!









I could not get over how good this was! It instantly took me back to eating sloppy (turkey) joes as a kid. The sauce was the perfect mix of tomatoey from the ketchup, and a hint of sweetness and spice from the brown sugar and mustard. I even had Ben try it and he said it tasted almost exactly like a real sloppy joe! As a vegetarian cook, that is one of the best compliments I can get!

Do you like making Meatless Messy Joes too? What is your favorite recipe?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Chik'n N Waffles

As I have mentioned many times on my blog, my favorite thing to do as a vegetarian is to re-create popular meaty foods but make them 100% vegetarian. When someone says to me "Oh I wish you could try this, its so good" is like a challenge to me.  I hate when people generalize vegetarianism as just salads and tofu. My goal is to show people that vegetarians can eat pretty similarly to meat eaters.

I have recreated various meaty dishes including buffalo chicken pizza, hamburger helper, sloppy joes, and even a hot sausage sandwich. But I wanted to go further. I wanted to recreate a dish that I had never seen turned vegetarian: Chicken and Waffles.

It might just be me, but I feel that recently chicken and waffles has been gaining popularity. People are always talking about the amazingness that is chicken and waffles and I knew that just being a vegetarian wasn't about to stop me from trying them. It was time to do this.



I started with my trusty Boca Chik'n patties. I just love these. They are probably the most realistic fake chicken I have ever had. The breading is crispy and the inside is meaty and peppery. I've used them in pasta, on sandwiches, and now its time to eat them on a waffle. For the waffle I just used a basic waffle mix.  Time to break out the waffle iron!



Yes that is a Bugs Bunny waffle iron, and it is 20 years old!  I remember my dad used to make me Bugs Bunny waffles all the time as a kid. I would sit and wait at the table while my dad made the waffle. Back then, the waffle always looked so massive, and I never finished it all. This baby has been away in a cabinet for so many years, and I decided to take it with me when I moved away from home. Who knew I would be breaking it out again for anther go!



The waffle came out just as perfectly as I remember as a kid.  Now its time to add the Chik'n, and the syrup!





I decided it needed some butter too, because if I am going to eat unhealthy food, I might as well go all out!





I have to say I wasn't totally blown away by my creation. I think the Chik'n was a bit too mild, and it got over powered by the syrup. Even though I couldn't taste the chicken too much I still enjoyed the mix of sweetness with a bit of salty and peppery. The waffle itself was perfect. It has a nice crunch and it took me right back to having waffles with my dad. This may not have been everything I dreamed of, but I was really happy I got to try something new and I can cross chicken and waffles off my meaty bucket list!

I had little visitor that wanted to try these too...



Muffin was very interested in my meal. I might have snuck her a little piece of waffle which she just LOVED!

Have you tried veggie chicken and waffles? What is your favorite meaty meal?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Veggie Burger Chronicles: Shenanigan's

Hey everyone! I hope you have all been enjoying October. I am definitely sad that its already half over!  While I usually am loving the fall weather at this point, it has been feeling quite summery around here. I mentioned before that I recently went to Ocean City, MD and enjoyed a nice beach day! Before Ben and I hit the beach, we decided to stop at a pub, called Shenanigan's, for lunch. Perfect opportunity to try another veggie burger!







As I have explained before, veggie burgers usually fall into one of two categories: "meaty" based, or veggie based. This patty was definitely on the veggie based end and pretty mild in flavor. I loved seeing all the different colors of vegetables in the burger. It was also full of grains which gave in a nice bite. The lettuce and tomatoes were super fresh, and the coolness paired well with the warm burger and toasty bun. The bun was whole grain and it was really nice and flavorful. Unfortunately with everything going on, it was hard to taste the cheese or the sauce.

Overall this burger was pretty good, but not one of my favorite VBs.

Have you tried the veggie burger from Shenanigan's in OC?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Zucchini Lasagna

It is no surprise that I am obsessed with zucchini. It is cheap, delicious, and you can use it in so many dishes. I love taking foods that are "blank canvasses" and seeing all the things I can do to them to change them completely, its almost magical! I found this recipe for Zucchini lasagna, and decided to roll with it.

What you need:

3 Medium Zucchinis
Ricotta Cheese
Tomato Pasta Sauce

What to do:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
While preheating, cut the zucchini width wise into slices under a half and inch thick.
Layer the zucchini, sauce, and cheese in a baking dish.

Bake uncovered for 50 minutes, then let sit for 10 minutes.





Sorry this ended up being not so pretty. Who knew that using zucchini instead of pasta would make it fall apart into a big mess?





This dish was so simple and easy to make; only three ingredients and not much effort.  The beauty of this meal is that you can add so many different things and end up with a different meal every night. Add onions, garlic, oregano, hot peppers - its endless! The mix of tomato sauce and ricotta gave it that authentic perfect Italian flavor. The zucchini was both soft and crunchy, giving this dish a nice mix of textures.  Substituting pasta for veggies increased the healthiness level, but didn't jeopardize the comforting factor. This was a great version of the classic comfort food.   

What is your favorite way to alter a blank canvass dish?

Bye from the Veggie Side!