Fajitas, Veggie Style

Looking remarkably different from our old standby of oily beef fajitas with flour tortillas, these veggie packed veggie wraps still satisfy. 

Ingredients:

Mushrooms
Onions
Bell Peppers
Yellow Squash
and any other vegetable you might have hanging around the 'fridge (cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, eggplant, etc).

Water saute the chopped and sliced vegetables until just cooked.   Season with your favorites (pepper, garlic, onion powder)

Serve on corn tortilla or lettuce leaf.

Top with fresh vegetables (tomato, onion) and avocado and serve with no-fat added, low salt or no-salt, black beans or 'refried' pintos. 

 

Green Monster Smoothie #1

Our usual smoothie has fresh spinach in it, but these are our attempt at something different.   Everyone was nervous, but the taste was the same as the prior ones.    The greens are very mild and most of the taste is strawberries & bananas.


Ingredients, per serving:

Splash of almond milk
1/2 banana (frozen or fresh)
4 large strawberries (frozen or fresh)
1/4 - 1/3 cup frozen collard greens (or fresh)
Optional - 1 tsp flax (ground) or chia seeds
Optional - ice
Optional - splash of vanilla flavoring

Blend the fresh bananas and almond milk first, then add greens.  If using frozen bananas, blend the milk and greens first to make sure you don't end up with chunks of frozen greens.    Then add in the frozen items and finish blending. 

It even passed the 8 year old's yuck test.  

UPDATE:   Apparently, frozen greens are not ready-to-eat, so you'll need to cook these before using.    Either wash and freeze fresh greens, or cook the frozen ones and re-freeze them before using, to avoid bacterial contamination. 

Spicy Black Bean Soup

Sometimes a failure is still a success.    Lesson learned - you can't put an entire bunch of cilantro into soup and expect it not to taste more like Cilantro Soup than Bean Soup.   Thankfully, the jalapenos spoke loud enough to compete with the other flavor. 


Ingredients:

Black beans, 2 cans, drained and rinsed
Onion, 1 large, chopped
Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped
Bell Pepper, 1 large, chopped
Jalapeno, 1 large, chopped
Canned Tomatoes, 1 can low sodium or equivalent of fresh
8oz mushrooms, chopped
Cilantro, chopped, not the whole bunch. 
Pepper, to taste

Cook onions and bell pepper in a little water, on medium, until softened.   Add jalapenos, cilantro, and garlic, cook another few minutes, then add one can of black beans and one can of tomatoes.   Let the mixture cool a bit, then blend smooth. 

Meanwhile, cook mushrooms on medium in a little water or broth from the veggie mixture for about 5 minutes.  Then, add 1 can black beans and the blended soup mixture and continue to cook on low until ready to serve.

Makes about 4 servings of a main dish soup, about 8 of a side dish soup.

 

Broccoli, Tomato Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette

The first time we made this salad was for sixty, yes, sixty people.  It looked like a veggie bomb went off in the kitchen.    

This is super easy, keeps for a couple of days in the refrigerator, and tastes great to boot.  

Ingredients:

Broccoli florets
Cauliflower
Purple cabbage
Carrots
Red Onion
Yellow Bell Pepper
Cherry Tomatoes

Wash all produce and chop everything finely.  An easy shortcut is to add a bag of Broccoli Slaw to the mix.    Throw in the cherry tomatoes and toss with the dressing (below). 

Dressing:

Olive oil 1-2 TB
Rice Wine Vinegar 1 tsp
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1-3 cloves of garlic, to taste, mashed or finely diced
1/2 lemon (juice only)
1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
Spices/Seasoning (Pepper, Garlic powder)

Mix all well and toss into the salad.  The dressing will keep for a few days and gets more flavorful as it combines.  

Champagne Strawberry salad

Cosette & I made this gorgeous salad for a friend's wedding.   Thankfully, it tastes as good as it looks. 


Ingredients:

Spring Mix or other greens
Yellow Bell Peppers
Feta cheese (optional)
Strawberries
BlueBerries

Chop the lettuce, peppers, and strawberries and toss it all together with the blueberries and crumbled feta.   Toss with the Strawberry Champagne Dressing. 

Strawberry Champagne Vinagrette Dressing:
Fresh Strawberries, 1 cup, blended smooth
Dijon Mustard, 1/2 tsp
Garlic, minced, 1 clove
Lemon, just a squeeze or two
Rice wine vinegar (or champagne vinegar)  1 Tbsp
Champagne, a few good sized splashes
Olive oil, 1/4 c or chia gel equivalent
Pepper, to taste

Veggie Fajitas

Our first week as Nutritarians, we were out of town and had to find a Veggie Friendly place to eat.  We happened upon a chain Mexican restaurant but were afraid of what we'd find in the heart of East Texas, land of the beef & BBQ crowd.   Nervously, we told the waiter what we wanted, and he and the chef produced an amazing assortment of vegetable fajitas.   Not just the standard onions and peppers, we had carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, green beans, and more.   

Now, this is one of our favorite meals.  It's easy to prepare and we don't miss the beef (much!). 


Veggie Fajitas

Slice the vegetables you have on hand such as:

Onions
Bell Peppers
Scallions
Cauliflower
Carrots (matchsticks)
Green Beans
Squash (yellow, zucchini, etc.)
and so on

Heat 1 tsp of olive oil (optional - could just use a bit of water) and toss the veggies in to cook on medium/low.   Meanwhile, heat some fresh corn tortillas in the microwave, in the oven, or on the grill.    Serve with black or "refried" (mashed) pinto beans, fresh avocado, and salsa.  

Lettuce Bundles

Romaine lettuce wraps are super easy, low cal, and very convenient.    The possiblities for the insides are great - from a peanut butter, banana, and honey breakfast wrap to these spicy black bean bundles.  


Black Bean Bundles

Wash a few romaine leaves and pat dry with a clean cloth. 

Fill with black beans (spiced with pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne), black olives, tomatoes, and fresh avocado slices.  

Bean Burgers

So, the first thing to remember is that these are not really burgers...they are beans.  With that in mind, sadly, you can't just slap them between two buns and enjoy.   They need a little help in the way of spices, seasoning, and toppings.  Okay, they need a lot of help.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that you can dress them up in many ways.  This one is a spicy burger topped with sautéed mushrooms, but you can add avocado, onions, barbecue sauce, and the like.   With a little shredded cabbage and soy sauce in the mix, they have an Asian flair.   Add taco seasoning, avocado, and top with salsa for TexMex burgers.

They freeze really well either "raw" or cooked so make a double batch to make next week's dinner easier.


Black Bean Burgers

1 can black beans, rinsed well, or equivalent
1/2 cup salsa, drained of juice, as spicy as you like it
1 cup chopped mushrooms, optional
1/2 cup dry oatmeal or whole wheat flour
Seasonings (pepper, garlic, cayenne, etc)
1 tsp oil or water in pan,  OR bake them


Mash beans with fork or potato masher.  Season well with spices to your tastes.
Add salsa, mushrooms, and oats or flour and mix with fork.
If mixture is too dry, add more salsa.  If it's too wet,  add more flour.
Heat oil in pan and add burgers.
Cook until crispy on one side, flip and do the same to the other side.
You can also cook these in the oven.