Vegetarian and Green Just Go Together!

Happy St. Patty’s Day Bloggies! 

How many of you are celebrating are really Irish?

I am not but I still had fun with the day.   Once I got over some frustration of what to make for dinner!

But first let’s talk about lunch!

Since I work from home, lunch is pretty readily available to me and I usually end up with a nice salad, a sandwich and veggies, or some combo of leftovers.

Somehow along this health quest I have learned that almost anything  can be thrown together, put over a salad, and topped with goat cheese to make an excellent meal!

My family still isn’t quite getting how heated rice with green onions and feta, or roasted veggies and feta over salad goes together…but these are two of my favorite combos.

Today I rummaged through the leftovers and found:

• A tiny amount (quarter-cup?) of veggie fried rice.
• A leftover sauteed garlic/cauliflower/kale combo.
• Goat  cheese.

We had salad as well (we always have salad!) but I changed my mind once I started putting it together.

I put the veggies on top of the rice, and sprinkled goat cheese on top, heated it up, and came up with this masterpiece:

Looks  kind of gross but tasted fantastic and was really filling.  Plus the GREEN KALE fit the day perfectly!

After I was almost but not quite satisfied and had a sweet craving!  I remembered my friend had given me a blueberry living food bar to try.  She had shown me three flavors and I had chosen blueberry.

This bar is from a place called Hallelujah Acres which promotes a vegan, mostly raw lifestyle. 

This bar was one of the best bars I have ever tasted!  (These and Glo bars of course!!)  I was in LOVE!  I definitely have to get some more of these!  I love Larabars but these put them to shame!!!

These filled me up perfectly and kept me satisfied through dinner!

Now on to dinner…..

In past years I have always made GREEN dinners for fun!   We have gone usually the traditional route…corned beef (I LOOOOOVVVEE corned beef!), green mashed potatoes, and a green veggie such as broccoli.  I would also color our drinks green!  Yes me…who normally runs away as fast as she can from artificially colored stuff.

It is actually the only time I have ever used food coloring…other than in science experiments!

Anyway…after almost six months of not eating meat, corned beef was not an option…but I knew I wanted to find something green and satisfying for my family for dinner (somehow green and satisfying don’t fit in the same sentence together).

I knew I had a few green things from our produce box on Monday and planned on using the asparagus, rapini, and collard greens.  I was going to make  a dish with the rapini and white beans!  Green enough?

But somewhere along the way I ended up changing my mind and making spinach/white bean burgers…green and white…which came out fantastic!

For hurry up sake I used canned navy beans.  I opened two cans, rinsed them well, and put them in a big bowl and then the fun started.

I added one cup oatmeal, two eggs for binding, a bunch of cumin (I poured and didn’t measure), Adobo seasoning, chopped onion, lots of garlic, and for green value I steamed some organic baby spinach, squeezed it dry, chopped it up, and threw it into the mix.

Almost forgot…I also grated a bunch of parmesan cheese and put that in there too!

Then we mashed and mixed…leaving lots  of chunks in it.

Then I stuck it in the fridge to chill for a few minutes while I prepped the rest of the green dinner.

First the asparagus…That was tossed with a little EVOO, syrupy balsamic,  and Adobo…and into the oven in a single layer at 450 degrees.

Next came  the rapini!

Rapini (or broccoli rabe) looks kind of like greens with little broccolis on them…but is actually related to turnip greens!  It is very healthy, easy to prepare, and delicious.  I treated it like I do all of my greens…to quick dip in heated EVOO along with rough cut garlic and onions…and then when brilliant green I top with some grated parmesan.

Once the two veggies were underway…it was time to get the burgers going!

They look just like my black bean burgers….only green and white!  The taste was different too, but just as good!  I think I might even like these a tad more!

I did end up pan frying them which didn’t thrill me…but it was so fast whereas baking them would have taken longer..but next time I do want to bake these.  I was a little irritated with myself for using olive oil in a third recipe!

FabPreteen was being difficult with the greens…so I made a small burger for her, see it in the middle  of the other four above?  I don’t force her to eat full meals of what we eat…but she does have to try everything.

She has come a very long way with her pickiness and I am thrilled at some of the things she eats willingly now whereas before it was a major argument and turned the meal totally unpleasant!

I also put out a green salad because she had to eat a good helping of veggies and she loves salad!  They added red bell peppers and tomatoes on their own!

I made her Ramen noodles (another thing that drives me crazy that I hope I can wean her off of in the future) and she  went ahead and added green to it so her meal would fit right in!  Yes…along with her green drink.

Yes…here is my guilty green beer!

Final meal…which was really great……and green!

And for dessert, this delicious organic sweet pineapple.…well it is green on the outside!                

I really thought  I was going to blow it this year and other than a green veggie didn’t think we would have our green fun!

Overall it worked out very well…and other than the green beer, was all vegetarian, natural, organic and not processed!

How was your St. Patrick’s Day?