Punjabi-Style Lentils

Mmmm. These were rich and delicious. I will say the recipe needed a lot more liquid than called for – I just kept adding veggie broth until I got the texture I wanted.

White Pizza

This was delicious.

Basic Pizza Dough

This turned out well and was easy to make. The dough didn’t get very crispy on the bottom, but I think that’s more to do with the fact that my pizza stone broke and I made these on baking sheets. This was a none-too-fancy margherita; we were more impressed with the white pizza (recipe to follow). This is from “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.”

Recipe Variation: Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread

Man, what a difference subbing 1 cup wheat flour for 1 cup regular flour makes. A great change to this recipe; my best bread yet. Also, I definitely stand by adding about 1/4 cup of warm water to your yeast, and letting it stand for 10 minutes, before mixing with the remaining ingredients.

Pasta with Vodka Cream Sauce

John’s been talking penne a la vodka since Mostly Meatless March started, and damn did this taste good with homemade bread. I’m not sure it’s the ultimate recipe for me (sauce a little too thin, maybe?) but it’s definitely made for some tasty lunches. Via Smitten Kitchen, though she got it from Rachael Ray.

Fall Vegetable Curry

Nothing like making a recipe called “fall vegetable curry” in early spring. This was a nice Cooking Light recipe that my sister recommended. I think it got upstaged, though, by the daal I made on the side (recipe to follow).

Toad-in-the-Hole with Cheese Sauce

Now, I don’t often take my culinary cues from Paula Deen, but I saw her making something along these lines on television the other day and thought, “Hmm. I have homemade bread. I have leftover Velveeta from the mac and cheese. That sounds like breakfast to me.” My didn’t-really-rise bread wasn’t the best choice (just because it was too thin to cut a decent circle out of), but it was still delicious. Also, John had never heard this called “toad in the hole”…is that a Midwestern thing?

No-Knead Bread

I’m probably the last person on earth to have tried this recipe, but there’s definitely something to it, especially for the baking-challenged like me. My first batch didn’t rise quite as much as I wanted, so I’m trying a friend’s trick (adding water to the yeast beforehand) on the second batch, currently in process. I’m also not convinced I had “instant yeast” the first time around, so there’s that. Easy, but a long process given the 18 hour rest; it’s great for work-from-home types like yours truly.

Mostly Meatless March: We’re Halfway Through

MMM has been weird this year. Now in year, three, it’s felt the easiest to pull off. But I also haven’t been super creative, mostly relying on recipes I’ve made before rather than branching out into weird ingredients or new recipes. We’ve also dined out a bit more than usual due to travel and work events. That said, I thought it’d be fun to share our meals that we’ve made so far up to this point.Veggie Stackers

Tuna Southwestern Salad
Pan Bagnat (lunch)
Mac and Cheese
Broccoli Pasta
Veggie Patty Melt (breakfast)
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Avocado bean toast (breakfast)
Polenta with Marsala Mushrooms
Ginger scallion noodles with veggies, edamame and egg
Tofu Broccoli Stir Fry with shrimp, over soba noodles
Potato pancakes from a box (lunch)
Packaged broccoli and cheese rice (the day I was getting over food poisoning)
Coming up this weekend: Cornmeal Pancakes for dinner
Pineapple Fried Rice (with shrimp instead of chicken)

Vegetarian Tomato Soup

So yeah, my go-to tomato soup recipe actually uses beef stock. So I had to change things up a bit this month. This was a pretty impromptu recipe, but it turned out really nice. I’m not a fan of tomato soups that are either too creamy or taste too much like tomato sauce, and this was neither.