I'm a vegetarian and my husband eats meat. This can be a sticky situation for some- goodness knows we've run into a few disagreements over it- mostly concerning how we will raise/feed our daughter. It's not an easy situation to navigate because for many people, the reasons we eat what we eat are deeper than just taste. In any case, we've come to our own agreement- Beni will be offered meat, but will never be required to eat it. Also, her first meat is going to be one of my father's kills once we get back Stateside. I'm not going to lie, it's probably not going to be easy for me to do, but I'll do it. As for Joel and I, I am the cook in the house, so I make dinner every night. I am ok with this, because he washes the dishes every night! :) I refuse to make more than one dinner a night however.
So I am always looking for vegetarian recipes that are complete unto themselves, but that can easily be adapted for my husband by throwing some meat on the side. Here are a few of our favorite meals!
Tacos or Nachos
Super easy! As long as we can get our hands on taco shells or tortillas or chips, we're good to go (I realize I could probably make these myself, but I haven't tried it yet)! I cook up some meat (chicken or ground beef) for Joel, and black beans or homemade refried beans for myself. Then, on the side I have diced avocado, chopped olives, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, hopefully salsa, hopefully sour cream, and sometimes we have corn in there too. Yummy, quick and super easy! :) Beni's version is usually just black beans, cheese, olives and maybe a tortilla chip.
Sun-dried Tomato and Feta Pasta
This was a combination I came up with a little while ago. I'm sure I wasn't the first one ever to do it, but
I came up with it on my own. I just prepare whatever kind of pasta we have and when it's ready, I mix it with chopped up sun-dried tomatoes and crumbled feta. I also tend to use some of the oil from the tomatoes to give the pasta just a little bit of a saucy effect. When we eat this, I just cook up some chopped chicken breast for Joel. I usually season it with garlic salt because this is pretty much his favorite seasoning ever. Beni eats this as is! She really likes tangy salty flavors, so the feta and tomatoes are right up her alley!
Creamy Tomato Sauce
I just made this for the first time Sunday night. I had bought gnocchi and didn't know what to serve them with. I usually like to have them with pesto, but there hasn't been any pesto or fresh basil to make my own available in stores in forever. I'm not a huge fan of straight red tomato sauce (Oh, Aussies, I'm not talking about ketchup, I'm talking about pasta sauce!), so I was looking for something else. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com which I used as inspiration for what I made. First I sauteed one diced onion and three chopped cloves of garlic in a good glug of olive oil. Then I added two tins of diced tomatoes (one had Italian spices and one was plain- this is mostly because this is just what was in my cupboard!) and some herbs. I added an unmeasured amount of basil, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper. After this all simmered for a short while, I took it off the heat and blended it using my immersion blender to make a thicker, rather than chunky sauce. After that I added one container of cream (how much? I don't know! Maybe about a cup) and let it cook for a few minutes more. I served it over gnocchi with steamed broccoli and some garlic bread on the side. YUM! Oh, and I served this as is for Joel- to me the meal really seemed complete without meat, even for a meat eater. I haven't given this to Beni yet.
I loved this sauce. I had leftovers of that meal yesterday. And today for lunch I ate a half a head of steamed broccoli with the sauce over the top. YUM! I will definitely be keeping this sauce in my mind because I really, really love it and it was super easy to make!
Black beans, Quinoa and Corn
Another sort of Mexican-y flavored dish, it's an easy one pot dish. I cook up a cup of quinoa (I have to import that) until it's well done. The I just add in a can of well rinsed black beans and a can of corn! I also add some cumin, ground coriander and salt. I eat it topped with avocado and diced fresh tomatoes. For Joel I cook up some chopped chicken- you guessed it, also seasoned with garlic salt. :) When I used to serve quinoa as a side dish, Joel referred to it as bird seed. In this dish, he was really happy to eat it, really enjoyed it. I haven't given Beni this yet either.
Roasted Butternut, Onion and Feta
This is one of the simplest meals I love to make. I just peel and cut up a butternut squash and cut up an onion into thick slices (not rings). I throw it all in a baking dish, drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle with either just salt and pepper, or cumin, coriander and cayenne, or garam masala. Then I bake this until the squash is cooked through. I take it out, and crumble some feta over the top, and put it back in for about 15 minutes (until the cheese gets melty and the squash and onions go kind of brown). While it browns, I cook up some rice. I eat this over rice and sprinkled with nutritional yeast. Joel gets it with a piece of meat on the side (chicken, or recently ostrich or karoo). To date, Beni is not a fan of rice or whole squash (she'll eat it pureed).
Stir-fry
I love Chinese...so trying to make my own is always something I'm up for. For this simple stir-fry I just cut up any veggies I've got (recently that has been onion, carrot, red and yellow pepper/capsicum, and broccoli). I cook them in some oil- I usually cook the onions first and for the longest cause I like them really well cooked, not at all raw. Once all that is cooked, if I have them I will add snow peas and bamboo shoots. Then when it's all done cooking, I pour my marinade over it. I make my own marinade using soy sauce, honey or agave nectar, ginger, garlic, lemon juice, coriander and maybe some cayenne. I don't measure anything, just throw it all together. Once it's over the veggies I also add some corn starch/water to thicken the sauce up. I serve this over rice, and Joel usually has it with some chicken. Beni hasn't had this either.
That is what we've been eating a lot of around here lately... I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of options present themselves when we move to Laos!
What are your favorite family friendly recipes?
1 comment:
White Wine Sauce
Cook chicken breasts or sausage. Baked or pan-fried works with this recipe. If we're going with chicken, we either use cajun spices or simple salt, pepper, and garlic powder and pan-fry. We usually bake our sausage if we're going that route.
Get a big pot and fill with water, then put it on high heat to boil.
In a large pan, heat a couple tablespoons worth of olive oil on medium heat, then add about 8 cloves of minced garlic and heat for a minute. Then add one onion, finely chopped and one bell pepper julienned and cook for about 2 - 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Toss in a palm-full of dried basil and a palm-full of salt, along with about a fourth to a third of a palm-full of black pepper and a couple pinches of crushed red pepper flakes. Add a hand-full of sliced mushrooms and stir. Get a large measuring vessel and put in a cup of cream, half a cup of white wine, and two tablespoons of flour and stir. Then add the cream mixture into the veggies. We add the meat here too, but you can always wait and add it after since only Joel eats it. It's probably time to add the pasta to the boiling water, so do that and allow the sauce to thicken on low heat while the pasta boils. When pasta is ready, drain and add the sauce. We serve with a healthy topping of shredded cheese.
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