Author Archives: Caitlin

WWAW this week

Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week.

And here is this past week’s dinners. Yum yum!!

Wednesday:  Tortilla Casserole

My friend Erin sent me this recipe. It is kind of like enchiladas and it came together super fast! (Literally threw it together in 15 minutes before going to tutoring and then baked it when I got home). We all really liked it. The only problem I had with it was that the tortillas got a little mushy, so I wasn’t wild about the texture but the flavors were great.

Thursday: Sweet Potato Soup with Chickpeas

My friend Jess sent me this soup recipe and it is so good!! Very simple but good. It calls for bacon so again, I subbed roasted chickpeas. These roasted chickpeas are maybe my favorite food ever. They were perfect with this soup!! I also stirred in some greek yogurt.

Friday: Leftovers

Clearing out the fridge before our trip!

Saturday: Pasta

My father in law made us a really good pasta with tomatoes and zucchini and we also had yummy breads and cheeses before dinner.

Sunday:  In-N-Out Burger

Vegetarians love this place too! We got grilled cheeses animal style, fries, and milkshakes. (Did you know you can also get the fries animal style?? Amazing.)

Monday: Passover Seder

First night of Passover. My mother in law made quinoa stuffed mushrooms and I made roasted broccoli. As part of the Seder, we also had hard-boiled eggs, matzoh, and wine. For dessert, Judi made Matzoh Buttercrunch. Yum!!

Tuesday: Thai Birthday Dinner

Rebecca, my sister in law, has her birthday on Thursday, but since we wouldn’t be together, we celebrated on Tuesday. Passover options are a little bit limited but she picked Thai takeout, which is very Passover and vegetarian friendly! We got drunken noodles, red curry, yellow curry, eggplant, and pad see ew. Judi and Campbell made a delicious flourless chocolate torte for dessert (similar to this).

WWAW last week

Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week.

Last week I was too busy getting ready for our vacation to do my WWAW post and this week we’re on vacation, but I managed to squeeze in a little blog posting! But I am going to try to keep this short

Wednesday:  Leftovers

Thursday: Caprese Pasta Salad

Good, easy, and fresh!

Friday: Girls Dinner

I went out for a fun Junior League event with my friends Nicole and Alanna and we grabbed dinner at PF chang’s afterward. I got the Mapo Tofu which was good but VERY different from the one we order at our favorite Chinese restaurant.

Saturday: Date Night

We went out to dinner with two of our good friends Jess and Matt. We went to Bandolero for dinner which was really delicious and then grabbed drinks afterward at the Ritz. Such a fun night!

Sunday:  Spring Vegetable Risotto

This is one of my very favorite foods and it is so springy–perfect for this time of year! I simplify the recipe by skipping the whole broth part of the recipe (I just use plain broth).

Monday: Roasted Vegetable and Orzo Salad

This recipe is so good! I really piled on the feta because I love feta and it made it very filling. Yummm!

Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

I really, really like this bean burger recipe. You should really try it!! Super easy, delicious, and healthy

WWAW: Friday Edition

Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week.

Sorry, late again!! But I made a lot of good dinners this week!!

On a side note, I just found this video and am finding it SO interesting. It is about the foods that are most commonly linked to death. Lots of good facts but also surprisingly entertaining!

Wednesday:  Caitlin’s Cobb Salad

I decided to make my own, vegetarian version of a Cobb salad. And it was great! I worked off this recipe but subbed these roasted chickpeas for bacon (salty, smokey, and crispy) and I subbed cubed mozzarella for the chicken. I also added diced pears because I had seen that in another recipe and knew we would all enjoy that addition! And I just used romaine lettuce. I think next time I would do a combo of romaine and spinach, just to make it healthier. The salad turned out great and everyone loved it! I highly recommend the Caitlin Cobb!

Thursday: Beans and Rice

I made these delicious beans and served them with some brown rice, a leeeettle bit of shredded cheese, avocados, and tomatoes. Yum yum!! This is such an easy, healthy, delicious meal!

Friday: Hot Dogs, Sweet Potato Tots, and Green Salad

I made yummy field roast “hot dogs,” sweet potato tater tots from Trader Joe’s (next time I’ll just make my own sweet potato fries or spring for regular tater tots), and a spinach salad. Easy and good.

Saturday: Dinner Out

We decided to have a family dinner night out! We went to Pete’s Apizza which was very meh, in my opinion. The pizza wasn’t that great and it was overpriced. Oh well, we had fun!

Sunday:  Curried Cauliflower Salad

I LOVE this dish! We ate it with a little french bread on the side.

Monday: Dinner Club

I hosted our neighborhood dinner club this month and my theme was Pioneer Woman recipes! I got the idea here. It was really fun and all the food was, of course, delicious! I made this creamy pesto pasta (but with whole wheat pasta) and these orange muffins for dessert (they’re called muffins but they taste more like donuts!)

Tuesday: Taquitos and Guacamole

These taquitos were good, but I added some black beans in with the filling to make them more, um, filling! I served them with guacamole, made by Ben. Delicioso!

 

Eight Years

Eight years ago on March 25th, Ben and I got married! This year it snowed on our anniversary, which was especially funny when you think about the fact that we had an outdoor evening wedding in San Antonio. Oh the joys of living in Washington DC! But as I said to Ben on Facebook, I would follow him anywhere, even Siberia, I would just complain a lot. And to be fair, it was snowing in DC when he proposed to me, so it’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting into.

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It has been a great eight years. Full of ups and downs to be sure, but I can’t imagine going through life with anyone else. I feel grateful every day that we found each other. 

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To celebrate, Ben took me to a fundraiser for his boss. HA! He’s so romantic. No, actually, I am the one that requested to come to this fundraiser, because it featured one of my most favorite people–Nancy Pelosi.

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Ben’s boss gave a nice speech, and at the end even congratulated Ben and me on our anniversary! So we got wished a happy anniversary by a member of Congress and the Democratic Leader of the House. Not bad for a couple of DC nerds!

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But don’t worry, we did go on a nice date afterwards on our own. Dinner was delicious, and it was fun to celebrate with good food, fancy beers, and wonderful company.

IMG_8110Here’s to many more anniversaries. I love you Ben!

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WWAW

Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week.

I am not going to lie, I am getting a little bored with these posts! Partly because I always wait till the last minute to write them up, and then it takes a while. I have decided that I will try to go one full year. That way I can have a year’s worth of vegetarian dinners going through all the seasons. After that, I may still post a recipe here or there that is especially good. Well, with that enthusiastic lead out of the way, here you go!

Wednesday:  Macaroni and Cheese and Roasted Broccoli

We hadn’t made this in a while and the kids, Sam especially, were so excited! The macaroni and cheese recipe is from my grandma, and here is the broccoli recipe.

Thursday: Taco Salad

I have been craving salads lately–maybe it’s my body saying goodbye to this never ending winter? I decided to make a taco salad by basically using this recipe but adding tofu and subbing cheesy tortilla strips for the regular tortilla strips. I basically cooked the tofu like you would ground beef. I put it in a pan with a little oil, mashed it up really good and added a bunch of seasonings like cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, chili powder, and salt. I had never cooked tofu like this before and it was sooo good! Seriously! Obviously much less greasy than ground beef, which was a plus in my mind. For the tortillas, I just sprinkled some grated cheddar on 4 corn tortillas and put them under the broiler for a few minutes then cut them into pieces. These tweaks really turned this salad into a meal. Oh, and I used the Trader Joe’s version of the dressing.

Friday: Spinach and Cheese Quinoa Casserole

One of the best things about doing these posts is that now friends send me new vegetarian recipes they’ve tried and liked. I got this one from my friend Jessica. It was really, really good! It was one of those that was even better than the sum of its parts, if that makes sense. Campbell couldn’t get enough of it!

Saturday: Date Night at Home

While Ben was putting the kids to bed, I went to pick up take out from our favorite local Indian spot. Then we stuffed our faces while watching a movie on the couch. Oh so romantic!

Sunday:  Leftovers

Lots of good food to polish off!

Monday: Lentil Tacos

We all love these tacos! Plus, with the lentils in there, you feel really healthy after eating them! And thank goodness for great neighbors. I didn’t buy any lentils at the store because I was sure we had a bunch. Then at 6:00, when I started cooking, I realized we had almost none. Luckily our sweet neighbors were happy to lend us some!

Tuesday: Anniversary Date Night!

Ben and I celebrated EIGHT years of marriage on Tuesday, which deserves its own post for sure. But for now I will just say that we had a lovely dinner out at The Arsenal at Bluejacket. It was delicious. We ordered the Asian salad, the pretzel bread, and the fried chickpeas to split and I got the rustic gemelli for my entree. They also treated us to a nutella pie, espresso fudge ice cream and their Mexican Radio beer for dessert, since it was our anniversary!

WWAW

Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week.

Wednesday:  2 Amys

We met up with our friend Angie, who was in town for work, at one of the best pizza places in DC! Ben, the kids, and I shared a couple of pizzas, a salad, and some appetizers.

Thursday: Sweet Potato Wraps

My mom and Jerry arrived tonight and I served them one of our favorite vegan meals (again, expletive warning). Everyone loved it! Super exciting news–my friend Nicole alerted me to the fact that Safeway now sells uncooked flour tortillas (like they’ve sold in TX grocery stores forever). I am SO excited about this! We used these for this meal and they were fantastic!

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Friday: Oyamel

This was the birthday dinner we were supposed to go out to a month ago. It was so much more fun with my mom and Jerry there! We got all of our favorites: guacamole, queso fundido, papas al mole, col de bruselas, ceviche de atun pacifico, acelgas, frijoles refritos, y muchas margaritas.

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(so nice to sip on our after-dinner margaritas while the kids were entertained by their grandparents!)

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Saturday: Date Night 

With our best babysitters in town, we were so excited to go on a date night to see one of our favorite series turned into a movie: Veronica Mars. It was SO good. Did not disappoint one bit! We saw it at Tyson’s so we grabbed dinner before at one of our favorite fast food spots: Cava Grill. It is a spin off of a great chain in the area (CAVA). It is basically a mediterranean version of chipotle. I got a pita with tzatziki, roasted red pepper hummus, babaganoush, falafel, feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, and pita chips. Mmmmm!

Sunday:  BBQ Chickpea Pizza

I was excited to find this recipe, since I have good memories of the CPK chicken BBQ pizza. Ben made it, and it was delicious but not quite what I was looking for. Maybe I will try tweaking it a little next time (red onions and cilantro? mozzarella cheese too?).

Monday: Green Eggs, Biscuits, and Sweet Potato Fries

I saw this recipe on 100 Days of Real Food and thought it would be good for St. Patrick’s Day. We all really liked the eggs!! And it was cool how the spinach turned the eggs green! I love making these biscuits whenever we have eggs for dinner, and I also made these sweet potato fries.

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Tuesday: My Favorite Vegan Meal

I made this recipe again and loved it again! My friend Angie had the idea to add a leafy green (I used spinach) which was great!! Since I found last time that the spaghetti and chickpeas didn’t mix so well, I plated it like this: handful of fresh spinach, hot spaghetti, a little lemon and olive oil, chickpea mixture on top. It worked great! Also, I doubled the chickpeas this time, but kept the rest of the ingredients mostly the same. Definitely try this recipe!!

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

We woke up to 7 inches of snow this morning!

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Not exactly what I look for on St. Patrick’s day, but the silver lining is that the kids slept in until 9! After a leisurely morning in our PJ’s we even went outside! I lasted for about 10 minutes before my fingers and toes went numb and I had to go back in. But I did get a pic of these little cuties first.

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And as usual, my wonderful husband shoveled out my car!

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I decided to make St. Patrick’s Day dinner (in color, not so much country of origin). And a sneaky leprechaun even turned the kids’ milk green!

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I can’t help but miss my wonderful Grandma Trish today, on her birthday. I know she is having a big party up in heaven. Happy birthday, Grandma!

WWAW

Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week.

 Wednesday:  Crockpot Tortellini Soup

The flavors in this soup were very good, but I just might not be a good crockpotter. The pasta ended up being mushy–maybe I cooked it too long!

Thursday: Tortilla Soup

We hadn’t made this soup in a while, and I don’t know why. It is soo good!! I added black beans to make it a little more filling. It would also be good with a side of cornbread. I may have to do that next time. Recipe courtesy of my in-laws.

2 Tbl. Vegetable oil
1 med. onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
3 Tbl ground cumin 
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
3 four-oz. cans diced chile peppers, drained
4 cans vegetable broth
1 eleven-oz can whole kernel corn (we used frozen corn)
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated cheddar cheese, about 1 cup
1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced (for garnish)
Tortilla chips 
 
Heat the oil in large pot over medium heat. Stir in onion, bell pepper, garlic, and cumin and sauté for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender (maybe closer to 10 minutes). Mix in tomatoes and chile peppers. Pour in the broth. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Mix corn into soup and continue cooking for about 5 minutes (maybe a little longer with frozen corn). Put tortilla chips into bowls, pour soup over, sprinkle with cheese and top with bits of avocado.
Friday: Leftovers

Kind of boring for a Friday night!

Saturday: Date Night with Friends

We were supposed to go out for a date night with our friends Heather and Rich last week but Ben was sick so we rescheduled for this week. We went to an adorable restaurant in DC called Chez Billy. I got a yummy salad and the moules frites. DEEE-licious!

Sunday:  Tacos

Again, we were supposed to have dinner with out friends the Hobbs last Sunday but since Ben was sick, we rescheduled for this Sunday. And we made the same meal, but with a few little extras! We had this southwestern chopped salad and bean and cheese tacos with homemade, whole wheat tortillas. Ben made Mexican rice (but with veggie broth, not chicken broth) and amazing margaritas. We had these delicious molten chocolate mousse cups for dessert.

Monday: Roasted Vegetable and Orzo Salad

I made this delicious orzo and roasted vegetable salad. So good and so healthy! I kind of combined this recipe and this recipe. I roasted broccoli, red pepper, red onion, sweet potatoes, and cherry tomatoes. I added the veggies to the orzo with a simple vinaigrette, feta, and sunflower seeds.

Tuesday: Leftovers

Boring but easy!

WWAW

*Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week!*

 Wednesday:  Queso Fundido, Corn Tortillas, Brussels Sprouts, Roasted Sweet Potatoes

I would not recommend trying to make this meal on a weeknight. I think I was supposed to do this on a weekend but then somehow it got pushed to Wednesday. It was good, but I was frantic trying to make it all! Obviously you could just buy corn tortillas, which would make it easier but I hadn’t done that so I had to make them! I was trying to make a queso fundido similar to the one at Oyamel, and though this one was good, it wasn’t the same! I guess we’ll just need to go to Oyamel again soon!

Thursday: Leftovers

Obviously I wasn’t up for cooking again after that crazy meal!

Friday: Chickpea Spaghetti

This is one of the best vegan meals I have ever made! If I had found it when we were having our vegan month I might have made it every night! As it is, I plan to make it once a week (or at least once a month). You need to try this one. And it is SO easy! The only problem is that the garlic gets a little burnt. Next time I would either roast the garlic cloves whole and then chop later or add the chopped garlic a few minutes before the chickpeas finish.

Saturday: Chipotle

We were supposed to go out for a date night with some friends but Ben got sick. Boo! So we had Chipotle instead. I was excited to try out their new sofritas filling, which is vegan. It was super delicioso. It’s been a while since I have had meat, but I would love to hear from someone who eats meat to see what they think. I don’t think you can tell the difference!! It is not yet available across the country but we already have it in the DC area!

Sunday:  Tacos

We were supposed to have dinner with out friends the Hobbs tonight, but again, had to cancel due to Ben being sick. But the good news is we still made a yummy dinner! We had this southwestern chopped salad and bean and cheese tacos with homemade, whole wheat tortillas. This time I actually made the dressing since Trader Joe’s was out of their version. They taste very similar so make your own if you like homemade things and buy it if you like simplifying your life.

Monday: Veggie Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

This veggie burger recipe was really good and fast!! I will definitely be making it again! Since it only called for 1/4 C of onion, I sliced up the rest of the onion and caramelized them for a burger topping. I also added tomatoes, but otherwise served the burgers just as they suggested. I made sweet potato fries using this recipe and they were great! I didn’t realize ahead of time that I was supposed to soak the sweet potatoes so I skipped that step and they still turned out great! I also used a bowl instead of a ziploc bag.

Tuesday: Tomato, Pesto, Mozzarella Sandwiches and Caesar Salad

I copied this meal exactly from my friend Nicole. She served us this dinner the last time we were at her house. It is super easy but really good: just slices of bread (a nice one) topped with pesto, mozzarella, and tomatoes made grilled-cheese-style. And a Caesar salad, which was really just chopped romaine lettuce with bottled dressing. And since it’s Mardi Gras, we had King Cake for dessert from the delicious bakery down the street. YUM!