Perfect Leftovers

Over a year now my husband has not eaten any meat and I for the most part as well.  Finding something new has less to do with the ingredients and more to do with the imagination. Removing meat from a dish only requires 3-4 types of animals (on average), however, the range of vegetables I've seen from some sources to be over 400 varieties.  

So...it's only a matter of imagination and while I love to cook, sometimes what to cook is the most difficult decision. Having cooked meat dishes for so many years, the brain is often scripted to have some type and amount of meat. For example, lasagna. Most would expect when ordering lasagna that their is ground beef. Not in the dish above. I have been meaning to make lasagna in the past few days and today, Greg wanted more of a Ratatouille, so I combined the two. While zucchini was not available, I used egg plant, tomatoes, spinach and mozzarella with a white cream sauce (bechamel sauce)with a  few dashes of basil pesto onto top and your traditional lasagna pasta shells. I'll have to admit this is one of the better lasagna's I've had and definitely made.  

Tip: The eggplant was cut in 5mm then slices and rubbed with salt and lightly fried in olive oil then layered into the lasagna. 

Pasta madness

Probably one of easiest, tastiest and quickest recipes to make is what we call tuna casserole. In the USA, a can of campbell's cream of mushroom soup mixed with can of tuna, 250gr sour cream, salt and spiral noodles and then bake in the oven for 20-30min.  Here in Austria we simply use a package of mushroom soup and make a rather thick broth and had some freshly cooked champions. As well one can top it off with bread crumbs or just graded cheese.  

Chili Outside

Chili con carne as most of you know is with carne, i.e. meat. However, when one does not eat meat, one only needs to replace it with soy and in this case, soy granulate. Quite honestly the taste is almost unrecognizable with this simple change of ingredient, otherwise everything else is as always, an important ingredient to the test and texture.  Our chili is a mix of kidney beans, soy granulate, corn, red(& green or yellow) pepper, tomato juice, chili powder, salz and pepper and most important ingredient, cumin. A great dish for when it's chili outside. 

We like to top off our chili with grated cheddar and a dash or two of sour cream or even greek yogurt. 

Corn bread almost always belongs chili and there are many recipes. It's my experience that most are dry and that's fine if you prefer it so. Our preference is a more moist cornbread, which some recipes might call for almost a cup of oil.  If you not tried honey on cornbread, try it! Cut the bread in half, add a bit of butter and top of with some honey. It's delicious and adds a sweet touch to your chili.

3 of a Kind

This doesn't warrant a recipe other to say that 3 simple vegetables that go well with each other: zucchini, wild rice and fennel.  Just quickly fried/steamed in olive oil and then add rice and salt & season to taste.

Apple Delights

Apple muffins with no sugar.  No complicated recipe. It's all in the pictures of what one needs to make really simple apple muffins or mini apple pies. A couple substitutes for sugar to keep the sweetness was a dash of honey and/or "Birnen Dicksaft" and a dash of cinnamon along with mix of breadcrumbs. Super easy, super fast and super tasty.

Fruit of the Sea

A mixed package of frozen seafood is almost always in my freezer. Whether for soup or "frutti de mare" as I prepared today. Really simple: fry one chopped onion then throw in a package of mixed seafood then chop tomatoes and cilantro. Once cooked I added some soy cuisine or in the States something like a soy half-n-half. Then mix in dinkel (spelt) spaghetti and top off grated parmesan & some chopped fresh basil. Nothing more to say really..., as it's that easy and that quick to make. Salt & season to taste of course. 

Fry then Stir

One of my husband's favorite dishes, as he loves rice and preferably dry rice. Not only my husband's but my 12-year old loves it just as much. It makes for great left overs. This might be called the lazy man's or woman's meal as it's so easy to cook and often with ingredients we often have in the fridge: carrots, frozen peas (hard to come by fresh); onions, zucchini, fried eggs and shrimps.

Just fry one chopped onion in a bit of olive oil and add a couple splashes of soy sauce and oyster sauce (okay...not in every household but good to have) then add carrots first and add shrimps. Zucchini does not need long so don't cook too long...thereafter throw in bio jasmine rice, stir and then a thin cooked scrambled egg (cook thinly in an egg pan and slice in strips). Also add peas at the end as not to over cook. I prefer not to overcook the vegetables. In fact, to retain the most health benefits it would be wiser to steam them first and throw them into the mix at the end...but again...being lazy and making this dish in less than a half hour...it's just a simple stir fry of a fridge raid. If available some fresh mushrooms also goes well in this dish. Add salt, seasoning to one's own taste.