Tag Archives: meal planning

Purple Carrot Files: Italian Cannellini Bean Stew

Posted on November 28, 2016 | Leave a comment

I’ve been using Purple Carrot vegan meal planning/prep service on and off for about a year. While I like it, I don’t exactly love it. The cons are: tons of trash/recycling, expensive ($69.00 for 3 meals x 2 people OR 2 meals x 4 people), produce can be iffy upon arrival, produce doesn’t last long after delivery, some recipes are missing steps, instructions, ingredients or seasoning, there are lots of Asian & Thai flavors, and some meals seem suuuuuper cheap for what I pay for the box (like this one I’m profiling). The pros are: convenient, pre-measured, tasty and fun recipes I might not have otherwise tried, all the prep is done for you but the chopping (even in most cases the washing), lots of Asian & Thai flavors (yeah I listed that as a con too -but for me, I love these flavors), and finally, great customer support. Every single time I’ve emailed them, ranted on Twitter or tried to get a jab in on Instagram upset about a crappy piece of produce they have refunded me at minimum $20.00 and responded very promptly.

This last part is why I stick around: service. While it is not a perfect produce science. The service is friendly, prompt and honest. I’ve always been a big fan of a sincere apology, so I will take Thanksgiving off – they did a cool box donation to Feeding America, I fell for that noise and donated my meals to a charity this week and I’ll come back after the holiday in the hopes of more delicious Asian & Thai foods to combat my Thanksgiving sides hangover. Speaking of hangovers, food or otherwise, one of the recipes that I made this week struck me as being an excellent hangover cure: Italian Cannellini Bean Stew. 

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Ingredients:

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 large shallot, minced
  • 6 ounces carrot, diced
  • 3 ounces escarole, deveined & chopped
  • 1 can Cannellini beans, rinsed
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 3 T veggie broth powder
  • 3/4-1 tsp smoked paprika (I prefer Penzeys – especially because they are social justice badasses)
  • Fresh basil, chiffonade
  • 1/4 – 1/3 C vegan Parmesan
  • Olive oil (EVOO)

Directions:

Mince & dice: rinse & dry produce. Mince the peeled garlic and shallot. Peel and dice the carrots into uniform pieces.

Chop & rinse: rinse the escarole and basil. Separate the leaves from the thick/tough stems and discard the stems to both greens. Separately, stack the leaves of each green up, roll them and roughly chop them into ribbons (chiffonade). Drain and rinse the cannellini beans, set aside.

Start stewing: add 1 T EVOO to a stock pot and heat over medium high heat until hot. Add shallot, carrot, red pepper flakes and a bit of salt. Cook for about a minute stirring – careful not to burn the shallot. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant – 30 seconds to 1 minute – do not burn the garlic. Repeat: do not burn the garlic.

Finish stewing: add 4 C water, the veg powder and paprika to the pot. Scrape the bottom of the pot to dislodge any nummy bits from the bottom then add the beans. Bring the stew (stoup really) to a boil and reduce heat to low, simmer 10 minutes or until the carrots are tender (not mush). Add the escarole leaves to the pot, let wilt x about 2 minutes. Remove the pot from heat.

Garnish: season the stew with salt and pepper. Ladle into shallow bowls. Garnish with basil ribbons and vegan Parm.

 

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Posted in Dinner, Fall Food, Product Review, Recipes, Soup, Vegan

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Chana Palak Masala – Easy for YOU to say!

Posted on April 15, 2013 | 1 comment

I talked about the Happy Herbivore meal plans a few weeks ago in a post and I will again sing the praises that just $19.00 a month can bring you a little more peace into a crazed life by just telling you what to do and when to do it. I often like it when there is ONE area of life I don’t have to make yet another decision during they day and Lindsay Nixon is my beacon of hope in that regard.

Sometimes I look at a recipe in the meal plan and think, how in the world will that taste good? Fortunately I’m kinda brave and will mostly eat anything, this recipe surprised me at 1) how few calories it has, 2) how filling it is, 3) it really is delicious and 4) you can eat take-out like food at home in under 30 minutes.

Enough of my blabbering, here’s the recipe (2 servings):

  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 12 oz peeled whole or diced tomatoes (canned)
  • 15 oz chickpeas (canned), drained and rinsed
  • 10 oz frozen baby spinach (fresh okay too)
  • 1 C low sodium veg broth or water
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp coriander
  • 1/2 tsp mild curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp tumeric
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger (or double it with fresh)
  • dash of red pepper flakes
  • 1 tsp lemon juice (optional, but use it…it makes it better)
  • 1 tsp garam masala

Make magic:

In a large pot, saute’ onions and garlic with a few tablespoons of water, instead of oil. Once the onion is translucent, add spinach, chickpeas, tomatoes with juices and broth. Cover and cook over medium until the spinach cooks down [I used frozen and didn’t drain and it came out fine]. Uncover and break up tomato bits. Add all spices except garam masala, add lemon juice at this point. Cover and cook for 3 minutes. Add 1/2 garam masala and cook for 2 more minutes more. Taste, adding additional garam masala if desired plus salt and pepper if needed. Turn heat off and allow to sit for 5 or so minutes. The dish will thicken as it stands. Start to finish, this took me about 30 minutes. I served about 1/4 of this recipe over brown rice.

Per serving: 283 calories, 58g carbs, 3g fat, 10g fiber, 7g sugar, 12g protein

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Posted in Dinner, Less is more, Make Ahead, Meatless Monday, Quick Cooking, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

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Lost an hour? Gain a few back.

Posted on March 11, 2013 | 5 comments

Forget about Daylight Savings Time. The Happy Herbivore, Lindsay Nixon, fellow chickpea lover, has found a way to give you back a few hours of your week. Previously, I would spend a few hours a week, typically either on a Sunday as a diligent planner, or via freaking out when I get home from work worrying about what will go on the grocery list, or what I will cook for dinner, etc. The Happy Herbivore has eliminated the planning, digging, guessing, grocery list making, contemplating out of my weekly food equation with 7-Day meal Plans.

With this service, which is around $20.00 a month, I get a pdf link weekly with a calendar for meals, all the recipes in one place, a premade grocery list, calorie counts for all food consumed, and suggested snack ideas. Each day falls into the 1,200 calorie range so you can add snacks or decrease snacks as needed and the meals are interchangable with other weeks and other meals. She does a pretty good job of recycling ingredients through the week in different ways so you don’t feel like you are always eating say quinoa in the same way. Today for example, we ate quinoa for breakfast in chocolate *pudding* form with blueberries. Even I was skeptical, and I spend most of my waking life thinking about what I am going to next eat. Turns out, taking the thinking portion out of food is what I need during this part of life. I sometimes don’t want to make another decision that day which typically translates into take-out which is not good for my weight OR my checking account.

The Happy Herbivore has cookbooks too of course, so you could pull out a recipe and swap it for another if you so choose. At any rate. I’d be happy to share a week with you if you are scared of the initial investment-just leave me a comment including your email address below and I’ll send it out to you. Just one per person though, I want this service to continue and for that to happen, Lindsay has to be compensated for her time. I’m sure you will find, it’s worth all $18.88 per month to regain a few extra hours a week and a plan after you try.

Curious what Chocolate Espresso Quinoa Pudding is? Try it.

  • 1/4 C quinoa (rinsed)
  • 3/4 C unsweetened chocolate almond milk
  • 1 1/2 T pure maple syrup
  • 1 T unsweetened cocoa powder (I mixed 1/2 special dark and 1/2 regular)
  • 1/8 tsp espresso powder
  • 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 C blueberries (fresh or frozen)

In a saucepan, combine quinoa, chocolate milk and espresso. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce to low and simmer until quinoa is cooked and fluffy, about 15-20 minutes. Stir in maple syrup, vanilla, and cocoa [I made a quick paste of this before putting into quinoa], plus another splash of chocolate milk. Taste, add more maple syrup if you need it a little sweeter. Top with fresh fruit. Serve warm.

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Posted in Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert, Gluten Free, Less is more, Make Ahead, Meatless Monday, Product Review, Quick Cooking, Recipes, Vegan

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