Tag: meatless

Eating From the Freezer

I have decided to try to eat what’s in my freezer before purchasing any more meat or seafood.

I have lovely scallops, shrimp, boneless chicken, whole chicken, ground beef, etc. and I think it’s important to save some money and just concentrate on eating what’s there first.

So far so good! I roasted a chicken on Sunday, and it’s given us 6 meals! 4 dinners (including soup!) and 2 lunches!

I can’t believe that I haven’t been to Whole Foods since the end of August! I did shop at the local Market Basket grocery store to pick up a few things, I desperately needed a bag of King Arthur white whole wheat flour, yogurt, and some bananas.

This week, I’m glad that there isn’t much on sale again at Whole Foods. I’ll just pick up a few necessities at Market Basket, and grab all my produce from the local farms and from my CSA share at Farmer Daves.

With our lower meat consumption, I could actually be sustained for a few weeks, and possibly not need to visit Whole Foods until October. Wow, now wouldn’t that be a feat!

But for now, one week at a time!

Potato Eggplant Pancakes Recipe – Meatless Monday

Yesterday, I made some fantastic yummy potato eggplant pancakes for dinner. I don’t always go meatless on Meatless Monday, but we do try to eat meatless one or two dinners per week.

The main flavor in these pancakes was obviously potato, I purposely used less eggplant because DH isn’t a fan. I wanted to ease him into it. Next time, I will include more eggplant – maybe two smaller ones. I love using the smaller sized ones because there are virtually no seeds, and the peel is tender.

These pancakes are really a snap to cook, because the vegetables are roasted ahead of time. Roasted vegetables bring such a wonderful flavor and you can substitute different vegetables in many combinations. Carrots, potatoes, onions. Or how about zucchini, leeks, cauliflower. The possibilities are endless!

Ingredients for Potato Eggplant Pancakes

4-5 small/medium potatoes, quartered
1 small eggplant, halved
1 onion, quartered
olive oil
salt & freshly ground black pepper
3 large eggs
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
Optional-coconut oil or more olive oil for pan frying (not deep frying)

  1. In baking dish, arrange potatoes, eggplant and onions together and drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt & freshly ground black pepper.
  2. Roast vegetables in 350F oven. I like a lower heat, because I have a smaller countertop sized convection oven. It heats up quickly. Others roast vegetables at 400F. Choice is yours!
  3. Once vegetables are fork tender, allow to cool for a few minutes, then pour them into food processor. Pulse a few times, then process until fairly chopped and combined.
  4. Transfer veggies into large bowl, add eggs and flour, and mix until combined.
  5. Using a cast iron pan (or if you prefer non-stick), pour 1 tsp coconut oil and allow to heat. Spoon pancake mixture into pan. I like making two smaller pancakes. You can make one larger pancake.
  6. Add 1 tsp oil for each batch. You also might need to wipe out pan if necessary.
  7. Serve with salad. 2-3 small pancakes for each person, with leftovers for lunch next day!

These pancakes really were delicious, and DH thought so too, despite that dreaded eggplant was a hidden ingredient! I will for sure make them again!

Swiss Chard Ricotta Egg Pie (Frittata) Recipe

I found an inspiring recipe over on Kalyn’s Kitchen for ; I had some yummy swiss chard greens from this week’s CSA share, and I knew it would be a great substitution for the kale.

swiss chard ricotta egg pie

Recipe Ingredients

1 large bunch of swiss chard or other hearty greens (kale, spinach, arugula, turnip/radish greens, etc)
8 oz fresh ricotta cheese – I used whole milk ricotta, but to save calories, part skim might be preferred.
1 – 2 oz grated cheese – cheddar, Parmesan, Pecorino, whatever you have on hand.
1 cup eggs, beaten. I used 5 extra large eggs, but the original recipe called for 6 large
kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Recipe Instructions:

2-4 servings depending on how hungry you are! We turned what was originally thought to be four into just two servings for us.

  1. Preheat oven to 375F.
  2. Wash swiss chard leaves, pull/cut off ribs, then coarsely chop and quickly steam in a shallow saucepan or fry pan. About 1-3 minutes.
  3. Use a little coconut or olive oil to grease the bottom and sides of a baking dish. I used a large round quiche pan. Kalyn’s original recipe suggested to use a spring form pan. Any type of glass or ceramic baking dish would be fine.
  4. Line bottom of baking dish with steamed swiss chard or greens.
  5. In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, grated cheese, and salt/pepper.
  6. In separate bowl, beat eggs, then blend into the cheese mixture. It’s lumpy, so don’t be alarmed.
  7. Pour egg/cheese mixture over swiss chard greens in baking dish.
  8. Bake for about 20-40 minutes, maybe longer depending on the depth of your pie. The original recipe called for 40 minutes, but her pie was much thicker.
  9. Allow to cool and enjoy! Serve with a small salad or even veggie soup. Great for Meatless Mondays!

Recipe Notes:

  • Farm fresh ricotta is always the best choice before a grocery brand. It tastes like cream! I like Maplebrook Farms from Vermont…they also make fresh mozzarella cheese.
  • We also received 2 very small corn on the cob in the CSA share this week. I figured instead of boiling them, I’d add some freshly cut corn off the cob. Well, because there was such a small amount, the corn really didn’t add anything special to the dish, so I left it out of my recipe here.
  • I would have loved to add a sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg into the cheese mixture, but since my microplane grater/zester had soft cheese all over it, I couldn’t grate the nutmeg. Next time, I’ll grate the nutmeg first.
  • Leeks and tomatoes would also make a great addition! Hmm, like sliced tomatoes placed on top before baking! Yum.

swiss chard ricotta egg pie

Nutritional Data

Use the nutritional data as a guide; the info is not absolute, your results might vary considerably depending on the total weight of the finished dish.

Calories: 456
Fat: 33.6g
Saturated: 17g
Polyunsaturated: 2g
Monounsaturated: 9g
Trans: 0
Cholesterol: 591.7mg
Sodium: 716.7mg
Potassium: 532mg
Total Carbs: 7g
Fiber: 1g
Sugar: 1.7g
Protein: 33.5g
Vit A: 76%
Vit C: 13%
Calcium: 44.4%
Iron: 20%