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!

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.

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!!

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.

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!

 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!

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!

You’d think by now I would have the hang of it. But I sat up in bed last night because I suddenly remembered I had never done my WWAW post! Sheesh! Well, sorry it is late but here you go!

Wednesday:  Black Beans, Rice and Mexican Chopped Salad

I have been wanting to try these beans for a while! My friend Lacey recommended them and they were soooo good! We served them with rice and a little shredded cheese. They made a bunch so we had them for leftovers for days!  I also made this southwestern chopped salad that I love!! Rather than making the dressing, I just bought the cilantro dressing from Trader Joe’s. Obviously I left off the black beans, since that would have been a little weird given our main dish.

Thursday: Black Bean and Butternut Squash Enchiladas

I got this recipe from my friend Erin who has recently started making Meatless Monday dinners. Yay Erin!! She warned me that it was spicy, so I didn’t add the jalapeno but it was still spicy! We all really liked it, but you may want to go with the mild rotel if you don’t like spicy.

We decided last minute to have dinner at District Taco because I realized I didn’t have the right ingredients for what I wanted to make. Oops!

Sunday:  Spaghetti

We made spaghetti with tomato sauce and meatless crumbles from Trader Joe’s and some garlic bread.

Monday: Wild Mushroom Pizza with Caramelized Onions, Fontina, and Rosemary

This recipe was really good but really rich!! I think it could probably be made with fewer onions to make it a little less rich. I would also do something different with the mushrooms next time, as they ended up really watery and I had to drain them. But the pizza really was delicious, promise!

Tuesday: Minnesota Wild Rice Soup

I decided to make this soup after seeing my Uncle Brian mention Wild Rice Soup on Facebook! Ha! Even though half my family is from Minnesota, I had never made this soup before. It was delicious, but richer than I was expecting. I was not picturing a creamy soup for some reason. So if you are looking for a wintery, delicious soup, try this!

And here is this past week’s menu.

Wednesday:  Pimento Grilled Cheese and Baked Sweet Potatoes

Love these pimento grilled cheese sandwiches and the baked sweet potatoes made me feel like this meal wasn’t THAT unhealthy!

Thursday: Leftovers

We had a lot of soups and sandwich-makings left over so we had those for dinner.

For my family birthday dinner, we took the kids to Oyamel, my favoritest restaurant in the whole world! We got queso fundido, brussels sprouts, tuna ceviche (I normally don’t eat fish but made an exception for my birthday), guacamole, nopales (on Sam’s direction, not my fave), papas al mole, and margaritas.

Sunday:  Garlic Roasted Mushrooms and Manchego Toast

These mushrooms were freaking fantastic! I think next time I would serve them with a simple pasta, maybe a cacio e pepe, just to be  a little more filling. But you’ll definitely want to serve them with bread too, to sop up all the juices. Ben made some delicious bread, tomato, and manchego toast, inspired by one of our favorite dishes from Jaleo, pan con tomate y queso manchego.

Monday: Kale and Scrambled Eggs

This recipe may sound a little odd but it was SO good–like I could have at the whole thing in one sitting good! Ben made some scrambled eggs to go with it and we also had bread.

Tuesday: Fried Chickpea Pitas

These were very simple to make and really good. I think Ben had 4 of them and Sam went back for seconds! I highly recommend!

Um, whoops! I forgot to do WWAW for last week. Rather than do them both in one LONG post, I decided to do last week’s WWAW first and then post this weeks. Enjoy.

Wednesday:  Basketball Food

We went to see the Spurs play the Wizards and didn’t have time to grab dinner beforehand so we had to grab dinner there. I didn’t have high hopes but was pleasantly surprised with our dinner. The barbecue concession stand had a vegan Sloppy Joe (they called it a Sloppy Jane which I found mildly offensive–boys can be vegans too!) and the best macaroni and cheese I think I have ever had!

Thursday: Birthday Dinner for Campbell

I tried to make a dinner I knew Campbell would like, and with a little help from Sam, settled on cheese pizza (crust, tomato sauce and shredded cheese from Trader Joe’s), a Caesar salad, and roasted broccoli–Campbell’s favorite.

We went to one of our new favorite restaurants, Jerusalem. We got a bunch of yummy vegetarian foods.

Sunday: Chinese Take-Out

Grandma Judi got take-out from our favorite Chinese restaurant, Hong Kong Palace! We got homestyle bean curd (tofu), mapo tofu, garlic spinach, spicy garlic eggplant, and golden corn.

Monday: Corn and Chipotle Chowder and Quesadillas

I made this soup and sandwich combo from the Williams-Sonoma catalog of all places. It was delicious! Again, I skipped the bacon–totally unnecessary! And you could definitely make either the soup or the sandwich on their own and have a nice meal (together they are kind of a lot of work for a week night!)

Tuesday: Corn and Chipotle Chowder

This is one of my favorite soups and I hadn’t made it in a while. I only use half of a chipotle chile (it calls for 2) and that is plenty spicy for me. And I like things spicy, so be careful! Also, I obviously skipped the bacon. The recipe calls for TWO CUPS of cream and a sprinkling of feta (or queso fresco) so I am quite certain it is rich and salty enough without the bacon!  I also made quesadillas with fresh corn tortillas

Well we are done with our month long vegan challenge. Although it was a struggle to stay vegan when we were out to eat, I really enjoyed making a vegan dinner almost every night. I normally try to have at least one vegan meal every week, but now maybe it’ll be easy to incorporate a couple more. I do have to say though, that I may be the first person in the history of the world to gain weight on a vegan diet. WTF?

WEEK ONE:

Wednesday:  Chili

We made a delicious veggie chili that my mom sent. One of her friends won a chili cook off with the recipe! What I liked the most about it was the roasted sweet potatoes. Unfortunately I don’t have a link but I will try to type it up soon.

Thursday: Rice and Beans and Brussels Sprouts

I made this dish, but without the turkey. It was pretty good, but a little monotonous. The roasted brussels sprouts were delish!

We made this delicious Indian dinner from a recipe from my friend Puja’s amazing blog! It was delish, but I need a little more practice on perfecting my dosas, which are basically Indian crepes.

Sunday: Quesadillas, Guac, and Chicken-less Buffalo Dip

For the superbowl, we had quesadillas with homemade corn tortillas (made by Ben) and what I call my “poor man’s guacamole” which is just avocados, lime juice, salt, and garlic powder. Though I should probably call it my lazy man’s guacamole, since the avocados aren’t cheap! I also made my friend Alison’s yummy buffalo chicken dip, without the chicken. She makes it a lot for parties and always makes a little chicken-free batch for me and it’s so good!!!

Monday: Sweet Potato Wraps

I made these again but this time I roasted the sweet potatoes instead of steaming and pureeing them and I liked it even better! I also made fresh flour tortillas, which is obviously better (you might be guessing how I gained weight on this vegan diet…)

Tuesday: Crock Pot Tomato Soup

This was really yummy but too rich. I think next time I would use half as much half and half. I also made yummy garlic bread to go with it.

I was so late with last week’s WWAW post, that I just decided to combine two week’s worth of dinners! Hopefully it’s not too long to read.

WEEK ONE:

Wednesday:  Fried Rice

This is a nice easy dinner. I just marinate extra firm tofu, cut into cubes, in soy sauce and then fry it up in a non-stick pan over medium high heat until it’s crisp on all sides. Then I fry a little cooked brown rice in a skillet with oil, add frozen veggies, and season with more soy sauce. I normally add a scrambled egg, but I skipped that this time and it was still great!

Thursday: Dinner Club

I love my neighborhood MOMS club’s dinner club. Each month the host picks a theme and everyone brings a dish. This month’s theme was salads, which was really fun and relatively healthy! I brought my curried couscous salad. I made pasta and TJ’s meatless meatballs for Ben and the kids.

After a long day with cranky kids, we decided it was in everyone’s best interest to get take out.

Sunday: Cilantro Pesto Tacos

This was another recipe from Thug Kitchen (expletive warning!). It was really good, but I should have cooked the beans more. I normally like to heat them in a pot with a little water and some seasonings but i just heated these in the microwave and then mixed them with the pesto, so they were too dry.

Monday: Caramelized Tofu

Ben’s former colleague now has an awesome Indian Food Blog. She recommended this recipe to me when I asked her for some good vegan dinners. This was really good! We all loved it!

Tuesday: Roasted Buddha Bowl

I thought this was really good, and the kids seemed to enjoy it, but it was pretty light. Ben said it seemed like “spa food.” If I make it again, I will pair it with a soup or just make a lot more of it.

WEEK TWO:

I surprised Ben with one more special birthday dinner at Elizabeth’s Gone Raw, after reading an article listing it as one of DC’s most innovative restaurants (thanks for sending the article, Nicole!). It was such a cool experience and I would highly recommend it! We’d never had “raw” food before and it is very impressive to see what they can do without really cooking. Ben and I both LOVED the “ceviche.”

Saturday: Coconut Lentil Soup

I have to be honest, and admit we have cheated a little bit lately on the vegan thing. I am loving making vegan dinners, and while not all recipes have been a success, I have found some great new veggie-full dinner recipes. But I hate trying to order vegan food at restaurants–it’s too hard! And Ben and the kids really miss dairy at breakfast. Ben tried making some vegan pancakes but they were about as good as you’d expect. I am quite happy with my pb, honey, banana on english muffin breakfasts, but I have been itching to do some baking, which is tricky without eggs! But we’re half way through the month now!

Wednesday:  Bean and Avocado Tacos

While I miss cheese in general, I was really surprised how much I didn’t miss it in these tacos. They were still totally delicious and filling!

Thursday: Girls Dinner

I went out to dinner at Rustico with some good friends of mine. We shared delicious pizzas (yes, I cheated!). One was a margarita and the other was roasted mushroom, which was amaaaazing! (I made pasta with tomato sauce and meatless crumbles from Trader Joe’s for Ben and the kids. And fruit salad for dessert.)

After being stuck inside for what felt like an eternity due to cold and rain, we decided to have a fun family outting to the mall. We got dinner at Cava Grill, which was not vegan, but not super dairy-full either. We all had falafel wraps. Yummmy!!

Sunday: Chickpea and Broccoli Burrito

This was another recipe from Thug Kitchen (expletive warning!). I was really excited about this one but it was pretty disappointing. The filling was really good, but it was just too dry for a taco. The next day I ate it for lunch without the tortilla and liked it much better that way. I might serve it with rice next time.

Monday: Peanut Tempeh Summer Rolls

Yet another Thug Kitchen recipe! This one was great!! And I felt like a master chef making these because they were so beautiful. We had these with rice.

Tuesday: Carrot Soup, Lemon Tahini, Roasted Chickpeas

I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and did a happy dance when I realized it was vegan! It was just as delicious as I thought it would be! But the lemon tahini sauce was amazing! Like, weirdly good. The carrot soup was a tad sweet, but I bet these accoutrements would be good with any pureed soup!