Recipe Review: Vegan Dinner

In following along with the theme of Comfort Food that I posted for my own recipe yesterday, I decided to try a different kind of comfort food. On a whim a few months ago, I purchased nutritional yeast and soy curls. For some reason, I kept thinking that I would need these ingredients for the vegan meals I would start preparing once a week. Since that purchase, these two ingredients have been taunting me from the pantry. I didn't really know what to do with them because I hadn't done enough research. But finally, I put my foot down and decided to see what their appeal is to the ordinary vegan.

Since I'm an omnivore and love meaty things, I didn't want to try anything too outside the box with these ingredients. So, I decided to keep it simple and see if I could veganize some comfort food. I found a recipe for Homestyle Soy Curls BBQ and one for Macaroni and Cheese (the creator of the macaroni proclaims it to be the best vegan macaroni and cheese in the world, but I have nothing to compare it to at the moment).

I was happy to find that the BBQ recipe was a crockpot recipe. It's always so nice to come home from work and find that dinner is basically waiting on me instead of vice versa. The first thing I did before even putting the first ingredient in the crockpot was to scale down the recipe. I didn't have nearly enough soy curls for 5 cups worth, so I cut the sauce mixture in half and just put 2 cups of soy curls in the crockpot. Also, instead of soy sauce, I used liquid aminos to try to cut back on some of the sodium. Then I dumped it all in the crockpot and set it to low. Since I'm away from home anywhere from 8-10 hours, I figured it's better to cook it on low rather than cooking on high for 5 hours when I won't be there to check on it.

While my BBQ was simmering in the crockpot, I took a moment to total up the nutritional information for both the BBQ and the macaroni and cheese. It is quite a calorie-heavy dinner, but I think I can make it work with my calorie budget if I portion correctly.

For the macaroni, I actually cut the ingredients by 1/3 before calculations. Again, using the liquid aminos instead of the soy sauce helps with the sodium level. Curiosity got the best of me. I had to know what vegan cheese sauce tastes like. I took a taste, and I can detect the "cheesiness", but it definitely isn't like real cheese in the raw sauce form.

Sorry the pic isn't better quality. I was so hungry when I finally sat down to eat that I scarfed it all up without getting a picture of it on my plate. As for my review, I was pleasantly surprised. The BBQ was really yummy. There was something about the mouthfeel of the soy curls that seemed similar to pork. It actually tasted decadent. I really enjoyed it.

I'm probably a little more picky about the macaroni and cheese. It was pretty good, but I wasn't fooled into thinking it was real cheese. I can definitely understand why people believe that nutritional yeast makes it taste cheesy. It has a tangy quality that sort of mimics cheese.

I would definitely have this meal again, and I can't wait to see what else I can do with those soy curls. I'm imagining a "beef" stew.

Clean Eating: Spinach-Mushroom Macaroni with Chicken Meatballs

I love pasta. There is something so comforting about eating a big old bowl of carbs. However, eating a lot of pasta isn't so friendly for the waistline, so I always try to figure out ways to have my pasta but not go too overboard on the calories. One of the ways to cut calories is to have a healthy sauce instead of one saturated in fattening cheese or dripping with fatty beef sauce. So, today's recipe is my version of pesto spaghetti and meatballs (except with elbows instead of spaghetti, chicken instead of beef and spinach instead of basil). And what I like most about this dish is that the noodles are quinoa noodles instead of the normal semolina. You won't even notice the difference.

Chicken Meatball Ingredients:
1 lb. ground chicken breast
1/4 cup egg whites
1 tbsp. wheat germ
1 oz. favorite cheese (I'll confess that I used a non clean cheese for this; use something around 70 cals.)
2 tsp. crushed red pepper flake
2 tsp. dried onion
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 F.

Put ground chicken breast in a large bowl. Add seasonings, cheese, egg whites and wheat germ. Mix well with hands. Form into ping-pong sized balls (makes 16 meatballs).

Place a baking rack on top of a cookie sheet. Spray with cooking spray. Place meatballs on baking rack.

Bake for 20 minutes until cooks through.

Nutrition Facts
Serves 4
Serving Size 4 meatballs (141.8g)
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Calories - 142
Calories from Fat - 18
Total Fat - 2.0g
Saturated Fat - 0.8g
Cholesterol - 70mg
Sodium - 379mg
Total Carbohydrates - 4.2g
Dietary Fiber - 0.8g
Sugar - 1.7g
Protein - 27.3g
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Vitamin A - 2%
Vitamin C - 2%
Calcium - 2%
Iron - 7%


Spinach-Mushroom Macaroni Ingredients:
4 oz. dry quinoa pasta elbows
8 oz. frozen spinach
6 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp. whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flake

Directions:
Bring a medium pot of water to boil and add 1/4 tsp. salt (use more for taste if you like). Add elbow pasta to salted water, and cook for 9 minutes.

Meanwhile, add olive oil to a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and spinach, and saute until mushrooms have browned. Sprinkle flour around pan and stir to cook with mushrooms and spinach. Add chicken broth, seasonings and garlic to pan, and stir until thickened, reducing heat to medium-low. Before draining pasta, add a ladle full of pasta water to saute pan.

Drain pasta and add to spinach-mushroom sauce. Stir for 3 minutes and remove from heat.

Nutrition Facts
Serves 4
Serving Size 191.2g
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Calories - 174
Calories from Fat - 42
Total Fat - 4.7g
Saturated Fat - 0.6g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 300mg
Total Carbohydrates - 29.3g
Dietary Fiber - 4.8g
Sugar - 1.3g
Protein - 6.7g
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Vitamin A - 137%
Vitamin C - 4%
Calcium - 9%
Iron - 18%


Serve one-quarter of the pan of pasta topped with 4 chicken meatballs. Enjoy!