Meatless Monday!

We're officially in the homestrech of our Vegetarian Lent! This Sunday is Easter Sunday so it's our last week of being meat free. I feel very comfortable with our new meat free lifestyle. It honestly hasn't been that difficult and I've made so many new dishes that I've absolutely loved! Tomislav on the other hand definitely misses meat and even though he won't be eating it every day like he used to, he'll be indulging every so often. It was a great challenge for us and I think I will (probably) continue with a vegetarian diet. I'm not completely opposed to eating meat, so like if we're at someone's house, I won't make a fuss and will just try to eat as much as I can and if there is meat, then I'll partake but if I can help it, I'll try to stick to no meat.

So this is one of the best meals I've made during Lent. I started to make dinner and kept getting inspired to add more to almost make it like a tapas style meal. This was my delicious Middle Eastern/Mediteranian Spread!

Our Delicious Dinner!

I started out with the idea of making falafel because a co-worker had told me how easy and delicious it was. I remembered that spreading some hummus with the falafel is totally delectable so I decided to whip up some hummus quickly too. In my magic bullet went:

1 Can of Chickpeas (plus about 1/4 of the chickpea water from the can)

1-2 Cloves of crushed and minced raw garlic

1 tsp Sesame oil

1/2 tsp Soy sauce

1/2 Lemon (juiced)

2 (or more) Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

You can season it some more if you'd like, but I just mixed this up and you can process it until it's smooth or if you like it chunkier, you can just pulse it a couple of times. It's so quick and easy if you have some kind of a food processer! Yum!

Mmmm homemade hummus and sweet, juicy yellow peppers!

Falafel with hummus, pickles, and a bit of the tomato cucumber salad on top. We ate it on something like a kaiser roll because we didn't have pita bread.

Couscous with apricots and nuts yum!

I heated up 1 1/2 cups of vegetable stock to pour over 1 cup of couscous. I covered the couscous with a lid for 5 minutes. Then I added the apricot pieces and nuts in the couscous which I fluffed up with a fork. I left it in for another minute with the lid covered. I seasoned it with salt and pepper,a little bit of olive oil and lemon juice and the secret ingredient which made it our favorite couscous recipe to date - curry powder!. Simple and so so tasty!

I love Euro Pickles

Frying up the Falafel

For the Falafel:

1 Can Chickpeas, drained

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped

2 tablespoons flour

Salt and Pepper to taste

oil for frying (I used sunflower)

 

I combined chickpeas, garlic, onion,  salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add flour and combine well. Then, I mashed the chickpeas with the back of a fork and mixed all the ingredients together very well. Take the mixture and form it into small balls and then slightly flattened them. After heating the oil in a pan, I fried them up for about 3 minutes on each side until they stick together well and are slightly browned.


It came out a bit messy but it tasted delicious!

Fresh and tasty cucumber, tomato, and scallion salad!

This salad is so good and refreshing and the dressing is very easy! I just diced up 2 medium sized tomatos, one large cucumber, and 3-4 green onions. For the dressing I combined:

about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar

about 1/4 cup of water

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Cover the salad and refrigerate it for at least an hour (up to four hours) - it is so perfectly delicious!

This spread is really easy to make and it's fun to eat a bunch of different little dishes that all go really well together. Try it out! Make it your vegetarian meal of the week ;) 

Meatless Monday!

This is an incredibly delicious alternative to a classic beef (or turkey) burger. It's meaty and filling and totally gratifying! These are my Bean and 'Bello Burgers! They were inspired by this recipe, also where the clever name comes from. ;)

Here's what I used:

2 diced portobellos

6 diced button mushrooms

1/2 onion

1 can of black beans

2 eggs (or egg whites if you prefer)

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/8 tsp black pepper

About 4 saltines (crushed into powder)

4 Kaiser Rolls

1/2 cup of BBQ sauce (mine was homemade)

This recipe is definitely versatile, if you want to add different veggies to it you definitely can, or other seasonings. It's harder to get these to stick together so keep that in mind. I didnt mind that mine fell apart a bit, they were so good! Next time I make these, I will put lettuce and tomato on them too, maybe even a pickle! I just didn't have them on hand an I wasn't about to go to the store.

So basically, heat up 2 tbs sunflower oil on a large pan over medium heat. Add mushrooms, onion and any other veggies in the pan. Cook, stir occasionally about 5-6 minutes.

Add the beans to the pan along with all the spices and seasonings. Cook, smashing beans with the back of the spoon for two more minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl an allow it to cool a bit. Once it's slightly cooled down, add te eggs and cracker crumbs. I used my hands to mix it (hence the cool down) and then formed it into 4 (large!!) patties. Put 2 tbs oil in a skillet on medium and cook the burgers until firm (6-7 minutes on each side). Put them on the buns with anything else you like on your burger and top with barbecue sauce. Mmmm delicious!

Meatless Monday Meal

When Oprah challenged her entire staff to go vegan for an entire week, some people were extremely hesitant about it. It was around this time last year that they all went a week without any animal products. By the end of the week, the consensus was that it was actually easier than they had orginally anticipated (perhaps also because all of the lunch options in the cafeteria were made vegan for the week) and everyone felt better inside and out during their week off meat. Many people continued with a vegan/vegetarian diet following that challenge!

During Lent, Tomislav and I have decided to give up meat. Meat is a huge part of Croatian diet (and really, lifestyle). There are a lot of customs and traditions based on making, cooking, and eating meat so it definitely is a challenge for us and we'll be tempted in many ways. I love a good challenge though! I made this absolutely delicious vegetarian soup, which could be a great starter or light meal for lunch or dinner.

The color is so beautiful! This is a carrot-ginger soup inspired by a recipe I saw in Bon Appetit magazine. So simple, I knew it would be good so I really wanted to try it! Here's the page I ripped out of the magazine with the recipe-

  

The recipe calls for roasted peanuts and chili butter on top of the soup. I didn't have peanuts on hand when I first made it so I skipped them but I did make the chili butter (so good!). Of course, if you'd like to make this vegan, omit the butter.

Ok, so for the chili butter you mix butter with green onion and dried crushed red pepper (if you do make it, it makes the soup so luxurious then and the red pepper gives it a little heat that melts in beautifully with the soup). Put the butter mixture in the fridge to harden up.

For the soup:
1.5 lb carrots cut into 1/4 inch rounds
1 big onion -chopped
1 white skinned potato - chopped
2 tbsp minced ginger
5 cups (or more if you want it thinner) of vegetable broth
6 tbsp roasted peanuts (again, I didn't have this when we had the first bowls of soup and it was still so yummy but later we did buy some and the crunch was just awesome!

Sauté all the veggies for ten minutes until they are a bit softened:

Then, add the broth, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Cool a bit and then purée in batches until smooth. (I had to do it 4 batches because I only have the Magic Bullet but it worked great!) Add salt and pepper at the end. If you want to add the chili butter (or maybe just a bit of chili flakes) and the peanuts, do it right at the end. We squeezed a bit of lime into our soups one time and that was nice too.

 

After Oprah and her staff did the week long vegan challenge, they decided to continue having meatless meals one day a week at their office cafeteria, hence, meatless Monday! It's a great idea to reduce the amount of animal products you eat, even if it is just for one day a week. Or if not for a whole day, try having just one meat meal a day and the rest vegetarian, and definitely try the carrot-ginger soup!

This soup is silky and so flavorful. Next time, I will make a much bigger batch because we gobbled it all up quickly. But the point is, I will definitely be making this one again!

Just one thing...

I've been sick the last few days so maybe that's why I feel the need for a small rant. (You've been warned!) It's this unspoken nuisance that I refuse to let go unnoticed anymore because actually, it's something I have to consider every time I go anywhere in Zagreb.

I'm so over the smoking! It's not something that people bring up a lot here because it's so normal to everyone. Although smoking has been banned in Zagreb, it's still widely accepted to smoke in bars and cafes. True, some places have truly banned smoking or they have make specially "vented" areas for smoking which naturally, doesn't help since the entire place is smoked up anyway. You have to carefully consider what you're going to wear and when you're going to wash your hair when you go out anywhere.

I feel like this relaxed attitude towards the smoking ban law (and the rather low prices of cigarettes) makes so many more people smoke than normally would. I know in Philly sometimes it would be a drag because half of the group of friends would have to leave the bar to go smoke outside and that might dent the party atmosphere for a bit if most of a group is missing, but in Zagreb, you don't even have to face the outdoor cold to light up. I know it's something that won't change so it's something to adjust to and I really think that I have gotten used to it. I just needed to acknowledge how much I dislike the stale leftover cigarette odor on me and my (non-smoking) fiance's jackets (and clothes!).

So in conclusion, my dear smoker friends, I really do care about your health (and mine) and I hope that you'll decide to quit smoking for good! Since tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of Lent, I think it's a great time for any smokers out there to give up cigarettes for the next 40 days (which will hopefully motivate you to quit for life!).