Vegetarian Week #4

January's vegetarianism is officially over.  I have to say, I enjoyed it.  The challenge was refreshing and easier than I expected.  In fact, meat doesn't really sound appetizing to me right now.  I'm sure I will change my mind and want a hamburger soon enough, but I'm nervous about it.  


Nick is very excited about the end of vegetarianism.  He has a plan of which restaurants he wants to visit and which recipes he has missed {most of which will appear here, no worries}.  


This week we had some very good recipes/creations. 


Bean Soup: Nick was very concerned about this idea.  He loves bean soup and corn bread, but couldn't figure out how we were going to get the desired flavor without ham or bacon.  

 Bean Soup

2 cans Great Northern Beans (drained)

1 can Kidney Beans (drained)

1 can Garbonzo Beans (drained)

2 Carrots (diced)

1/2 Onion (diced)

2 Celery ribs (diced)

Vegetable Broth (I used the big jug)

4 small Red Potatoes (diced at different sizes)

2 Garlic cloves

1 Tbs of Olive Oil

Heat the olive oil, add carrots, onion, celery and garlic to oil and saute until onions are clear.  Add the drained beans, vegetable broth and potatoes.  Heat until boiling and simmer for roughly 1/2 an hour.  

I diced my potatoes and different sizes so at the end I could smoosh them against the sides of the pot to thicken the soup.  We added generous amounts of salt and pepper and proceeded to devour this lovely soup.

Cheesy Tortellini: Nick was the master of this dish.  He combined prepared cheese filled tortellini noodles with farfle noodles, pasta sauce and an Italian mix of cheeses on top and baked the finished product.  It was so good!

Pizza...again.  


Pizza was the easiest thing for us to eat during this process.  We made another pizza over the week, with grilled peppers and onions and fresh mozzarella cheese.  It was amazing.  Have I told you that originally Nick thought homemade pizza was inferior to pizza shop pizza....he has been converted! 

We also made Garlic-Slathered Cheese Bread courtesy of Perry's Plate.  Natalie mentioned a few recipes that had changed her life a few weeks ago and this was one of them.  Let me just say, our lives have been changed too!  This was amazing!  Natalie provides a link to a quicker bread recipe {which we used} that works just as well as the one in the link.  Thanks again Natalie!

Cheesy Bean-y Enchiladas {kinda}


Nick was the master of this as well.  He took spanish rice, diced tomatoes, onions, refried beans {vegetarian of course}, enchilada sauce, Mexican cheese and tortillas to make an amazing dinner that tastes just as good reheated as it does the first time.

Any new dishes you want to share?  Just tell us about them in the comments!