Colorful Weekly Meals for NNM

Last week I made sure my meals wedre packed with color.  It was a little funny when I announced to Ryan that all meals I cook in March will be super colorful in support of the National Nutrition Month theme "Eat Right with Color" and he just looked at me for a second.  Then I laughed and said, "Oh right, that is no different from usual.  Nevermind then" and I told him to just go back to whatever he was doing before I jumped in to profess my plan for colorful meals.

I must say I am very lucky that my husband likes vegetables, enjoys the colorful meals, and does not mind having meals at home that are meat free.  He can still eat meat, and he does when we go out, and he understands that it is OK to not eat meat all meals and in huge amounts.  I guess more than anything he is flexible and eats a wide variety of foods.  Lunches at work are a good time for meat for him if he really wants it.  But the end result is that he is just as happy with my veggie loaded, color packed meals.

Here are the dinners I made last week:

I started early in the week with a couscous veggie bake.

 

I usually sub quinoa for couscous, but this recipe did not call for cooking the coucous.  Rather it baked with the small amount of liquid from the veggies.  It made me nervous to try quinoa the first time around since I do not think it will cook all the way.  Next time I may try this with partially cooked quinoa and see if it will finish up in the oven.  Quinoa has a better nutritionally panel than coucous so I try to go for that complete source of protein.

A major reason, other than color, that I was drawn to this recipe was the use of black olives.  I love olives!  As I mentioned before, I am heading to Israel in May.  I can't wait to enjoy olives while in the Mediterranean. 

 

Next I chopped up the green peppers and sliced the zucchini for a healthy dose of GREEN!  I also added in onions and garlic, which to me gives so much flavor I don't even need salt.

In went stewed tomatoes, black beans and couscous.

 

I placed it in a casserole dish.  By the way, I think casseroles are the way to go.  Really any meal that can go in the oven for at least 20 minutes because I love to use that time to do the dishes and straighten up the kitchen.  Our kitchen is small, so it fills up fast.

 

The final step was covering with cheese.  I may have gotten a little carried away but it did make a nice complement to the dish.

 

YUM!  Now looking at the picture I am wondering where the red went too.  I guess it's burried under the cheese, LOL!  Oh well, it is in there, I promise.  This was an amazing dish.  Odd that the recipe said this was for a 2 serving dish, and I know I put some extra veggies in, but this gave us about 6 servings.

Next up, a chunky veggie sauce on pasta.  I did use a recipe for this from a cookbook, but I think I could have come up with something similar on my own.  That will make for some variations in the future.

Looks like last week was big on REDS and GREENS.

 

I have gotten into the habit of prepping everything now and having it all out in front of me, in order and ready to go.  I think it is important because our gas stove has two settings- high and super high.  Not kidding, that stove is a dangerous thing.  I even change the gas valve but it just seems so darn hot.  Anytime I step away there is the potential for something to go wrong.  Here I have the green pepper, broccoli, red pepper and sun dried tomatoes. 

 

The light above the stove blew out and it was the second bulb in one week.  Needless to say, we gave up in an effort to save on bulbs.  That is why I used my flash for this picture of my sauce mixture.  Also in here is some garlic, a can of artichokes and stewed tomatoes. 

 

I love thin noodles.  Good thing the recips already called for these because I would have picked them anyway.

 

Hard to believe, but there is some pasta underneath this chunky sauce.  It was so good.  I will definitely be making this dish again soon.

 

I love when both dinners I make are successes.

QUESTIONS:  How have you been adding color to your meals?  What was your last new dinner success?

Happy National Nutrition Month!!!

This years theme is Eat Right with Color, so I thought I would kick off the month with a post on two recipes I cooked before heading back to the States.  You probably already know that I am a vegetarian (lacto-ovo-pesco if you want to get technical) so it is no surprise that I pack our meals with veggies whenever I can.  You can almost always spot me at the commissary or local grocery store scoping out the produce, and in the warm months (yes, I know that is all relative), you can bet I am the local organic farm down the street.  I love color and I love it on my plate.  All those different colors pack different nutrients into our foods.  By adding a variety of color to your meals you can help ensure a variety of nutrients are obtained as well.

My first meal is a gingered couscous.  I started off with zucchini, yellow squash and onions.

 

Then I sliced up some red and yellow peppers.

Wow, this recipe even called for dried cherries!

I cooked up some brown rice couscous along with the cherries.

I let all my veggies cook with grated ginger.  Look at all those colors!

When both were ready, I tossed them together for a great hot meal.  Oh, and the cool part of this recipe is that it tastes great cold too.

I aim for 2 fully cooked dinners a week, which is a huge increase for me, sorry to admit it.  So, for my second meal that week I went with a taco-corn chili from the Betty Crocker Diabetes cookbook, which I love.

 

Again, I made sure there would be a variety of color in this meal, even if a little darker than the previous meal.  I also altered this recipe to use soy crumbles to replace the meat.

I have learned that the premixed chilies and tomatoes have a lot more sodium than the plain no added salt tomatoes and 1 can of green chilies.  I am always looking for ways to reduce sodium, and I learned this trick last year with a beans recipe I love.

As I said, I am always looking for ways to reduce sodium, and this meal was up there, so I am pleased that I found this less sodium version of taco seasoning.

HOORAY!  This was my first time using my brand new dutch oven.

I tossed everything in and let it cook up. 

Ryan asked if we could have these in taco shells, which I assume were not part of the original recipe because this was a diabetes cookbook and would increase the carb choice count.  I thought that sounded like a good idea, so I used a little less liquid and made it a bit thicker.

I love the color that the kidney beans, corn and green chilies added to this delicious dish.

QUESTIONS:  What plans do you have for National Nutrition Month to Eat Right with Color?  What is your favorite colorful dish?

Colorful Burrito

About 2 weeks ago I had a huge craving for a burrito.  I had made a breakfast burrito, but I found I wanted something more.  On a Monday afternoon, while on the treadmill, watching The Food Network, I dreamed up a vegetarian burrito packed with many different colors.

It started off with the red rice I bought when I was in Boston.

 

My main vegetable layer was with broccoli for that great green color, and then Portobello mushrooms, which although are brown and not some eye popping color, give a great flavor.

I cooked up the mushrooms and broccoli, along with some onions, but did not add much for seasoning because I knew I was adding some elsewhere.  I mostly used black pepper and crushed red pepper here.

My next layer was my main protein source.  I cooked up some black beans with some corn (used up the last of my frozen corn) and then added some Spanish paprika.

By the time all the veggies and beans were done cooking, my rice cooker had done it’s job and the rice was ready to go.

I started with the rice, then added some beans.  I did use my low carb sample tortillas, although I was nervous they would crack.  The low carb tortillas don’t hold up as well as the regular product, at least not in my experience.

Then I added in the veggie layer.

To top it all off, I added a little shredded cheese and then rolled up the burrito.  At the last minute I used foil to help the burrito from falling apart.

This was the perfect burrito, packed with so many nutrients and colors.  It definitely hit the spot.

QUESTIONS:  What is the most colorful dish you prepare?  What should I try in my burritos next time?