Vegetarian Times Win - Again!

Monday night was a Vegetarian Times Win - which seems to be a pattern lately. The best magazine subscription ever.

We made 2 different dishes from the April/May 2009 issue. They didn't go together per-se, but worked well in their own right.

Whole-Wheat Shells with Asparagus and Peas

This was from their "Greening Up Your Kitchen" section. Normally, I dislike their preachy lifestyle guides - although I do try to live an environmentally friendly lifestyle, I don't need VT commanding me to do it and make all my friends do it - but they had some interesting ideas and recipes (i.e., a scone recipe since scones cook 10-15 minutes faster than bread; using toaster ovens instead of conventional ovens). This recipe is "green" since it uses the same pot of water to make the veggies and pasta. I made it Sunday night (it was to be Saturday evening's dinner but Chinese food trumped) and it was fairly simple and tasty. I did make some quick switches, which I won't do next time. (I didn't have enough fresh basil, so I used dried. Not worth it. I didn't have garlic oil, and instead of thinking ahead to soaking some garlic in EVOO for a bit I used EVOO and garlic powder. Also not good.) But it was refreshing and tasty. It has 1/2 cup fresh mint and lemon zest which give it a tang. Also, some feta, and I love crumbled feta.

Thai Eggplant and Green bean Stir Fry

This is from their "30-minute meal section" where the "secret ingredient" is coconut milk. This dish was a complete win. Basically, cut up and stir fry small eggplants. Then using the "coconut cream" (the part of the coconut milk on the top of the can before shaking it) you stir fry the aromatics - ginger, garlic, Thai chili paste and add in the green beans and 1 red onion (our red onion was very unhappy so no go for that) and the rest of the coconut milk. Let it stir fry to perfection. And it was perfection. We said next time either we can add in chicken, tofu or both to make it a more filling dish.