Week 17 - Refried Bean Fajitas

A while back a friend sent me a photo of a couple of bits of paper with recipes on them, so I thought it only fair to give them a whirl!  First up were Refried Bean Fajitas.  The photo in it's full glory can be found here.

Refried Beans or Dog Food.....you decide!

Back in my old days as a meat eater, it is fair to say I was a fan of Chicken Fajitas, one of my favourite sunday night meals; beautiful with a nice cool glass of beer.  Nearly half way through my challenge, I am over the 'it's not the same without meat' phase..... but to be honest, on this occasion it wasn't.  There was something missing, meat (sorry veggies!).  That isn't to say this isn't a wonderful easy and tasty meal, but it is always going to have to stand up against the chicken equivalent and sadly, it failed there. 

Don't be put off though, the meal was tasty and really simple to make so it has a lot going for it (as reflected in the scores).

Fajitas!!!

Rating

Taste - 15/20

Cost - 5/10

Difficulty - 7/10

Prep Time - 4/10 

Overall 62%

Week 16 - Squash Lasagne

This Squash Lasagne was tasty.  The crunchy bits on top were a treat, although a dish full of squash was a bit sweet for my taste!

If you want to try it, you can find the recipe here.

mmmmm, crunchy bits

Rating

Taste - 14/20

Cost - 5/10

Difficulty - 6/10

Prep Time - 4/10 

Overall 58%

Week 15 - Nut Loaf

When you think of a vegetarian alternative to the tradition British Roast Dinner, must people would think of Nut Loaf. I was craving a roast dinner, so I figured I should give Nut Loaf a shot. 

Many Nut Loaves are heavy on mushrooms, I am a bit picky about mushrooms (I like them in certain dishes but not others), so I didn't fancy a mushroom based version. I went in search of a Nut Loaf recipe that did not contain mushrooms and I ended up with the little beauty below. 

Nuts

I say this little beauty, it was nice, but it just tasted like nice stuffing so it definitely was not a great substitution for the old Roast Dinner. Live and Learn.  Still it was tasty, but certainly not one of my amazing discoveries of 2014!

Recipe

Ingredients
1 carrot
1 onion
1 stalk of celery
1/2 cup each almonds, walnuts and pecans
2 eggs, preferably free-range
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary
Dried breadcrumbs (as needed, for coating the tin)

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375F/190C.

Place the carrot, onion, celery and nuts in a food processor and process until the vegetables and nuts are well chopped.

Transfer to a large bowl. Mix with the herbs.

In a separate bowl, beat the two eggs together. Add to the other ingredients and mix until well combined.

Line a 450g/1lb loaf tin with parchment paper. Grease it well, then sprinkle with dry breadcrumbs.

Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the top.

Bake uncovered for 45 minutes or until set.

Rating
Taste - 13/20
Cost - 4/10
Difficulty - 6/10
Prep Time - 4/10 
Overall 54%

Week 14 - Butternut Squash with Pecans and Blue Cheese

Worst (tasting) meal of 2014 to date, thanks Nigella.

I was a bit suspicious when I read the recipe, it all seemed a bit too simple.  It tastes fine and all the ingredients go well together, but this dish should not be served as a main meal......you can have too much of an OK thing.

Ironically as this meal is really simple, it doesn't score too badly!  Don't be fooled....recipe is here.

The meal was crap, but an awesome photo....at last!

Rating
Taste - 6/20
Cost - 6/10
Difficulty - 8/10
Prep Time - 8/10 
Overall 56%

Week 13 - North African Squash and Chickpea Stew

What a beauty this weeks meal was, it is  a stew so you just chop stuff up and throw it in a pan and it was delicious!

You'll find the recipe here.  There are quite a few ingredients in this one, so might cost a bit if you don't have the ingredients, but most of them should be in typical household cupboards.

Delicious

Rating
Taste - 17/20
Cost - 6/10
Difficulty - 6/10
Prep Time - 6/10 
Overall 70%

Week 12 - Black Bean and Quinoa Burger

Everyone loves a veggie burger, some may dispute they aren't as good as meat burger........ but they still love veggie burgers.

These burgers were pretty easy to make and tasted great, although I did rely on buying a bread roll and yam fries in the supermarket so I only really made a small proportion of this meal!

My only complaint, and this is the same with all home-made burgers, is they were difficult to keep together, both in the pan and the bread roll.  The recipe is here if you want to rock out with some veggie burgers.

The plate looks sparse, but this was a feast!

Rating
Taste - 15/20
Cost - 4/10
Difficulty - 6/10
Prep Time - 5/10 
Overall 60%

Week 11 - Tofu Thai Curry

I am sad to report that I don't really have a recipe for this weeks meal!  I just bought a jar of Thai Green Curry paste and followed the instructions on the jar (substituting Tofu for chicken).  

What I have found is a recipe for Thai Green Curry paste which sounds immense, I think I'll be giving that a go at some point this year.

The point of this blog; I thought worth mentioning was how to cook Tofu.  As a Tofu novice, I assumed you just throw Tofu in your dish and eat it.  I've tried that, and it was not good.  Infact, it was bad.  So bad that it almost put me off Tofu completely.  What the Tofu packaging doesn't tell you is how to get it tasting good; so here are my top tips for any fellow novice veggies:

How to Cook with Tofu

Tofu out of the packet does not taste good.  Fact.  It is curd made from mashed soybeans so that makes sense.  There are two simple steps to making Tofu taste delicious.

1 Press the Tofu
Tofu is saturated with water, it is packed in water when you buy it.... to keep it fresh I assume.  Anyway, to make room for flavours in the Tofu you need to remove that water and this is why you press it.   I have found cutting it into slices, placing it in kitchen towel and placing a heavy object on it for an hour does the trick, but I am by no means an expert.

2 Marinate the Tofu

Now you have pressed your Tofu, you need to get some flavour in their.  The best way to do this is to marinate it, give the Tofu time to absorb the flavours you are feeding it.  Just avoid oil in your marinate as that doesn't work so well with water based Tofu!

Cook it properly and it's OK!

Rating

Taste - 12/20
Cost - 6/10
Difficulty - 6/10
Prep Time - 4/10 
Overall 56%