I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

vegetarian

Quinoa and Brussels Sprouts Salad

Quinoa and Brussels Sprouts Salad is the perfect side for grilled hot dogs, steak, or chicken. It’s flavorful and pairs well with everything. Yum!

Post from 3/29/12, Pictures Updated 10/8/18

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I am going to be one of those people who argue the amazingness that is the brussels sprout. It can be raw in a slaw or cooked and eaten by the bowl full. You can saute it, bake it, or roast it. I don’t remember if I grew up hating them (mom?), but I can tel you now that I love them. I really think that if you hated them growing up you should give them a try again. You rock if you already love  Brussels sprouts as much as me.

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Roasted Broccoli- The perfect side

The thing I miss most about our old apartment is our little yard with grill. We had to ditch all the behind for this new place but the one thing we would not give up was grilled broccoli. Since we no longer have a grill we have been roasting it. Sometimes you just need to improvise and change things up to make one of your favorite foods stay with you.  And since we had a gas grill (don’t judge, I have no patience to heat coal up on a nightly basis) I can’t tell the difference. Bliss.

 

I swear that grilled/roasted broccoli is life changing. I had it at a BBQ for the first time and I swear the world stopped for a moment and everything went into slow-mo around me as I inhaled a plate of it. Screw the steak, give me grilled broccoli. Roasting it produces the same crunchy bits on the floral part of the broccoli. The stalk still has some bite to it as well that makes you shudder at the thought of steaming broccoli ever again (unless you downed it in cheese). I’ve had it with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled over it once I’ve taken it out of the oven but swear the best way is just to have it with some lemon juice on it. I love lemon juice on it so I use 1/2 a lemon but you can adjust to your own taste, as well as the amount of juice that comes out of the lemon.

 

Roasted Broccoli

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

  • 2 large crowns of broccoli
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, optional
  • 1 lemon

Process

  1. Preheat the oven to 375. Place a rack just above the center of the oven.
  2. Trim 1/4″ off the bottom stalk of the broccoli. Cut the broccoli into tree like segments.
  3. Add the broccoli to a large bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over the broccoli pieces, mix to coat. Evenly sprinkle the salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper evenly over the broccoli, mix to coat.
  4. Evenly spread the broccoli on a baking sheet.
  5. Roast for 20 minutes, mixing at least once at the half way point.
  6. When you remove the broccoli from the oven, squeeze 1/4-1/2 the lemon over the broccoli immediately.

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Vegetable Enchiladas with Easy Homemade Sauce

These Vegetable Enchiladas are packed of flavor from the colorful vegetable filling and an easy homemade enchilada sauce that will knock your socks off!

Original post from 11/28/11, pictures updated 1/16/19

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I love making healthy comfort food. It makes enjoying a big filling meal, less guilt inducing. Cozy without the conflict, which is perfect for me.

Really, who doesn’t love hearty meals!?!? I want to enjoy them, but I don’t want it to impact my waist line. Sure, salads are crave-able, but really, let’s focus on what we really want: some yummy enchiladas! 

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Easy Spiced Carrot Soup

Easy Spiced Carrot Soup is a wonderful vegetarian soup that will warm your belly and soul with it’s bold flavors from the spices you blend in. Yum!

Healthy dinners don’t have to be complicated. This Spiced Carrot Soup is an easy recipe to make that is great for vegetarians and meat eaters alike because everyone loves rich bold flavors. 

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Sweet Pea and Mint Soup

This Sweet Pea and Mint Soup is a soup that welcomes Spring with open arms. It’s vibrant green hue is on par with the rich, fresh flavors in this vegetable soup.

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Post originally from 4/16/10, Pictures updated 2/8/19

Spring has sprung!!!! I love the freshness of spring. I love the new beginnings of it all. It is hard not to feel happy in spring with everything waking up from a long winter. Maybe you don’t love it, if you have allergies, but I love everything in bloom. It just makes me happy. 

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Stuffed Artichokes

Stymie: It might choke Arty, but it ain’t gonna choke Stymie!

Whenever I hear someone say Artichoke I think of that line from the Little Rascals. I remember my mom making stuffed artichokes when I was younger but I was not a fan then. I slowly came around to them, just like tomatoes. One thing at a time, first it was okay in dips, then marinated in salads, and now I even cooked them for our dinner! Over the weekend I went to grocery store and artichokes were on sale. Crazy on sale…. I got 7 for about $3. I could not pass them up so I called my mom when I was there to find out how she made stuffed artichokes. Luckily, she told me how easy they were so I planned for them to be our dinner on Sunday night.

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To be quite honest I don’t have a recipe for this because I just winged it. My mom told me what was in the filling but no amounts so I just got to work and made it up as i went along. I think I was a little heavy on the hot pepper but the amount of garlic and cheese was good. They are easy to eat- snap off a leaf and scrape off the filling and ‘choke with your teeth. Plus, I was able to add all the post meal leaves to our compost.

Filling:

breadcrumbs
parmesan cheese
parsley, finely chopped (I used a lot)
garlic, minced
hot pepper flake
olive oil
salt and pepper
 

Mix breadcrumbs, cheese, parsley, garlic, and seasonings together in a bowl. Add olive oil to make a paste to stuff into artichoke.

Artichokes need to be prepped by carefully opening them up. Trim away the tips as you go. Wash them at this point and trip the bottom so it sits evenly. Separate the leaves to you have room for the stuffing. Stuff the artichokes.

Steam the artichokes for 20-30 minutes in a pot with an inch of water, add water if level gets too low. (Don’t walk away and start to watch TV! I almost forgot about them!)