Vegetarian

Matar Paneer

Despite the fact that we live in international food heaven, paneer can be a pain to find in conventional grocery stores.  It happens that a couple of my favorite Indian recipes are centered around paneer, so I was really excited when my friend Missy sent me a link on how to make homemade paneer.  It was super easy to make and really good.  So we needed a recipe, and I picked Matar Paneer, one I like a lot.  This was kind of a mish-mash of a Madhur Jaffrey recipe and some other cobbled-together on the internet.  We liked it, but next time I’ll add WAY more liquid.  We both like our curries on the soupy side. 😉  It was enjoyable and I’d give it a spin again.  The paneer will *definitely* happen again.

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Butternut Squash Soup

Shawn makes the best soups, and this butternut squash with an array of different veggies was definitely right up there with my favorites he’s made.  This makes a lot, is very adaptable, and *very* filling.  We had this with some garlic flatbread crackers for dipping, but honestly this is so filling that a side isn’t needed.  Great for lunches!

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Cucumber Melon Salad

I was surfing around for interesting salad ideas for our Memorial Day cookout, and this one caught my eye on Chowhound.  It seemed like a pretty nifty one, and I really liked it.  Very refreshing and easy.  Plus I love anything that includes cucumber and mint, so there you go.  I would definitely repeat this with any number of grilled main dishes for a nice summer side salad.

cucmelon

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Onion Dip

As much as I love onion dip, I’ve never tried to make it before.  I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was – caramelize some onions and blend.  This was delicious – I could have eaten the whole batch myself.  This was from an Ina Garten recipe, and my only alteration was to add a pinch of smoked paprika, which I think was a good addition.  Another of our Memorial Day picnic recipes.

oniondip

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Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are one of my favorite appetizers, especially for picnics.  Shawn makes some killer deviled eggs, and it’s possible I helped myself to way more than my share.  They’re also great for lunch and snacks.  You may want to double this for a crowd.

deviledeggs

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Baked Egg Foo Young

I’ve been working on cleaning out old cooking magazines that have now made 3 moves with me, tearing out pages of old magazines, etc.  I tear out the page and keep it, which is kind of silly since I access the recipe online in the kitchen when actually cooking!  This one came from an old Eating Well and it was worth a try – with good results, we thought.  I augmented with some traditional egg foo young recipes as far as seasonings, but did not modify the cooking method.  I served it with brown rice and some sugar snap peas and we would definitely make again.  A pretty quick no-fuss weeknight meal and good vegetarian option.

eggfooyoung

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Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup

After not-so-fun dental work today, and strict orders not to chew, some kind of soup seemed in order.  Not to mention it was an ugly rainy day…perfect for a yummy soup.  I had gone to a great little cafe with one of my managers a couple of weeks ago, and we’d had a delicious yellow and orange pepper soup – I was dying to try to recreate it, and this was a good opportunity!  This was a mish-mash of a few recipes, but what I liked about the base (from Epicurious) was that it didn’t use cream or milk – the thickness comes from a couple of potatoes.  I used chicken stock in this because that’s what I had, but I think it would be better with vegetable stock and would of course be an easy vegetarian option that way.  It was delicious and healthy…definitely going in the regular rotation!

yellowpepper

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Quinoa Salad

A quick lunch that was a nice break form all the sandwiches and fast food that come with crazy schedules and moving.  It was nice to have our kitchen unpacked enough to make lunch.  I saw something similar to this on Skinnytaste, though I left out the onion and halved the olive oil.  We really enjoyed it – nice to have leftovers for lunches, too!

quinoa

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Spinach and Yellow Pepper White Pizza

Quick weeknight meal that uses up some veggies in the fridge.  The combination of the spinach with the yellow pepper and kalamata olives was awesome.  We used our tried and true Mark Bittman Whole Wheat Pizza Dough, though we did actually use all white whole wheat flour (I was out of all-purpose) with good results.

pizza

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Smoked Gouda Mac and Cheese

The groundhog was seriously wrong and Spring did not come early.  In fact, it’s rather late…it’s snowing right now, no lie.  We were thinking today that comfort food would go well with this disappointing weather, and given it is MMM, Mac and Cheese was the first thing that came to mind.  Definitely a splurge meal, but we enjoyed it. 🙂  I used a Cooking Light recipe and tweaked it a bit – we will definitely do this again.  Recipe below is with my adjustments/additions.

macandcheese

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