It's been too long since I did a Meatless Monday shout out and figured that as long as it was on my mind then I ought to go ahead and do it....even if it is a Wednesday! My wife and I have been eating the veggie Caulipower pizzas at least once a week and love them! They are vegetarian and also low carb, low fat and delicious!
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Today's Meatless Monday Shout Out is for blogger Renee over at Soul Beet.
There are many reasons to try Meatless Monday. For some people, like Renee, their bodies just respond better to plant based nutrition. Simply put, if you feel like crap then try eating differently. Renee has some great recipes worth checking out. Creamy Curried Zucchini Soup Goat Cheese Pizza Keep up the great work, Renee! Today's post is a Meatless Monday Shout Out to fellow Meatless Monday blogger Kimatni D. Rawlins.
Kimanti runs a website dedicated to motivating out of shape fathers like myself into becoming more active and eating healthier. Kimanti's website, www.FitFathers.com is a great read for any of you guys that need a push to get started. Let's face it guys...we cant be a good father if we are dead. After my Meatless Monday Fail last week I decided to get proactive and find some great meatless burritos that I could fix and eat "on the run". I was very happy to find the Sweet Earth burritos at Target. They looked pretty great! I grabbed four different versions and they all looked delicious. What I loved about them was that they were not packed with processed soy crumbles acting like meat substitute. These burritos were loaded with protein and didn't have any real soy to speak of. I grabbed a couple shots of the labels so you could see what's actually in these things. I ended up eating the Anasazi for breakfast and the Peruvian for lunch. Both were very filling and delicious. Last Monday was a definite Fail. This Monday was a Winner!
Have you ever just walked yourself into a really stupid situation? That's exactly what I did on Monday. I got up Monday morning and headed down to the store to pick up breakfast for the family. It was a holiday so I figured we we splurge a little.
I picked up some doughnuts for the kids, an apple fritter for my wife and a pre-made breakfast burrito for myself. I was about halfway through eating my burrito when I realized that in addition to potatoes, eggs and salsa that it also was loaded with sausage! There went my Meatless Monday down the drain. I finished the burrito, no point in wasting food, and spent some time thinking about Meatless Monday. It is amazing that, as a culture, we have to work hard at avoiding eating meat! We are such a "meat centric" culture that skipping meat for a single meal, much less an entire day, can be a real challenge. I guess that is part of the point of Meatless Monday. Let's try to bring some rationality back into our diets. There is no need to have to consume meat at every single meal. I am not going to beat myself up over this Meatless Monday fail. I am going to use it as a way to refocus my thoughts and efforts. Yum, Yum, Yum! I found these Pretzel rolls at Costco and have been going crazy making sandwiches with them. For this Meatless Monday post I decided to make a ridiculously delicious sandwich with pimento cheese, avocado and sauteed mushrooms. The portabelleas were seasoned with salt and pepper then sauteed in butter until golden and delicious. There wasn't too much prep for the rest of the sandwich...this sliced avocado and pimento cheese...pretty standard stuff.
What wasn't standard was how all of the flavors really came together and made something spectacular happen in my mouth! I am still loving Meatless Monday! This was very much a "let's clean out the refrigerator" meal! We had made tacos two nights ago and had some leftover tomatoes and black beans. We also had a small box of white rice leftover from Chinese takeout the night before that. I had some beautiful portabella mushrooms in the fridge and decided it was time for everyone to play together! The only real prep here was taking the stem and grills out of the mushrooms. After that it was pretty much just a matter of adding the stuffing and grilling. I made two of these stuffed mushrooms. The mushroom for my daughter had rice, black beans, diced tomatoes and cheese. I added some pickled jalapeno to mine! Before the mushrooms went of the grill I dipped them into an olive oil/chile powder mixture. These were grilled with indirect high heat for about 20 minutes. When the mushrooms were nice and soft it was time to eat! This was a very filling and tasty way to use up a bunch of leftovers. That's one big benefit of going Meatless on Monday...you will save a little cash when you come up with meatless meal ideas!
Thanks for reading along and have a blessed day. Welcome back for another Meatless Monday post! I am so glad I am doing "Meatless Monday". This is a great way to force me to try new ideas, new ways of cooking...new ways of approaching food. It also helps that these Italian Stuffed Zucchinis were freaking awesome! Speaking of trying new things...I am also signed up with Yummly to start sharing my posts and find great new recipes! Speaking of great recipes...here is how this one went down! For the stuffing I used a medium shallot, package of fresh mushrooms, feta cheese, Italian seasoned bread crumbs and a small jar of pimentos. Don't these veggies look great? I put a tablespoon of butter into a cast iron skillet and let the pan heat up on my grill. The shallots were cut into a fine dice, lightly salted and added to the butter While the shallots were sweating down I chopped up the mushrooms and hit them with a little salt and black pepper. As soon as the shallots were soft and translucent the mushrooms joined the party! The mushrooms cooked down for about 7-8 minutes and released a lot of liquid. Time for the diced pimentos! I had meant to used roasted red peppers for this but the grocery was out and I was too dang lazy to roast my own. Pimentos worked just fine. I gave the pimentos a few minutes to introduce themselves to the mushrooms then added 1/3 cup of seasoned bread crumbs and 1/3 cup of feta cheese. Mixed everything up and took it off the heat while I worked on the zucchini. Making the zucchini boats was pretty simple and a little bit of fun. Just cut the zucchini lengthwise and use a spoon to scoop out the middle. Pile the stuffing into the boat.... Then top the zucchini boats with Parmesan cheese and place them on the grill. I grilled these stuffed zucchinis with indirect medium heat until the zucchini was soft and the Parmesan cheese had browned. On my grill this took about 20 minutes. These were flat out spectacular. Nobody noticed that this was a meatless dish. My daughter tried some and thought it had been stuffed with sausage :)
Thanks for checking in on my grilling adventures and have a blessed day! I'm back from vacation and getting ready to fire up the grill! I need to get hardcore on the diet changes since my exercise routine is shot. I tore up my knee playing volleyball and running simply isn't going to be happening anytime soon. Looks like my plans for a 5k race in August just went out the window. So...if I can't exercise more I need to be eating smarter! That brings me back around to Meatless Monday. This is a simple way to eat healthier for just one day a week. It helps the environment and saves me some money. I fully intend to make some pretty tasty stuff for Meatless Monday so it wont be boring! Grilled pizza is always fun; no reason it can't be just as fun and delicious without meat.
I am doing some research for grilled veggies pizzas and wanted to share some of the recipes I plan on enjoying. Pesto and Mozzarella Pizza from Delish.com. 50 Vegetarian Pizza Recipes from OhMyVeggies.com Spicy Grilled Veggie Pizza from Tabasco. Spinach and Ricotta Salata Grilled Pizza from Whole Foods. One of the tricks to a great grilled veggie pizza is to grill and char the vegetables before you put them on the pizza. If you put the veggies on raw they really won't be able to take on any flavor from the fire and smoke since they will be shielded by the dough. These pizzas ought to keep me busy for a while and I suspect I will be eating them on Tuesdays as well. Have a blessed day! I am digging this Meatless Monday routine! This week I played around with some Griller's Original Veggie Burgers from MorningStar Farms. These veggie burgers are only 130 calories per patty so I figured it wouldn't hurt to eat two of them. That is definetly something I like about Meatless Monday. Since the calories are lower I get to eat a lot more! These grilled up pretty fast. About four minutes per side over high heat. The grill marks weren't great. That's okay though because I covered them up with some Swiss cheese! I toasted a slider bun then added some classic yellow mustard. I stacked up the double cheese veggie burger and dug in! I am not going to tell you that these taste just like a hamburger. That would be crazy!
I will say that they were very tasty and extremely filling. As long as you are not expecting Veggie Burgers to taste exactly like a hamburger then you will enjoy them! |
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