“Meat” and Potatoes for the Veggie Man

Dating someone with the same dietary habits is basically magical.

We never argue about where to eat.

Grocery shopping feels like going on a date.

And Patrick eats virtually anything I make for dinner.

Sometimes when I realize I’ve made too many quinoa and tofu stir-fries in a row, I decide to be nice and make him a real “man’s meal”. Meat and Potatoes style. Like a lumberjack would eat. Or a hipster that looks like a lumberjack would eat.

Manly Vegetarian Meal #1: Field Roast Sausage with mashed garlicky potatoes and maple brussel sprouts. 

1) Buy some red creamer potatoes. Wash and slice off any icky parts. Slice in halves or quarters than add to a pot of water. Boil potatoes until soft (typically 20 minutes?)

2) Get some sort of awesome “meat” for your manly man. I recommend Field Roast’s apple and sage veggie sausage. I try to limit processed replacement meats and processed soy products to once a week. Moderation for everything, yo! 

The ingredient list is pretty simple. Nothing weird in these babies!

3) Cook the delicious Field Roast on the stove top with a little bit of olive oil. At the same time, cook the brussel sprouts. I suggest cooking the sprouts over a medium heat and the veg sausage over a low heat.

4) One the potatoes are soft (and you can stick a fork through them easily), drain them and return them to the pot. Mash with a fork, add 1-2 teaspoons garlic, a splash of almond milk, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

5) Drain your sprouts. Return to the pot. Drizzle 1 table spoon maple syrup over them.

6) Eat this delicious meal with your manly man. He’ll thank you. Then he’ll go back to playing his ukulele and wearing skinny jeans like the vinyl-collecting, vegetarian, hipster that you love.

Vegetarian Sick Day Comfort Food

I’ve haven’t blogged in over a week! Its most likely due to the cold I’ve had. Having a cold in the summer is ridiculously annoying. It’s hard to nap, drink hot tea, and eat soup when it’s 85 degrees out and sunny. But I found some goodies at Whole Foods that made my sick day a lot more enjoyable:

Ginger Zevia! It’s really really rare that I drink soda, but when I want ginger ale  (or root beer!) I’m all about Zevia. It’s made with Stevia extract instead of regular sugar or those super, disgusting, chemically fake sugars.

Amy’s No-Chicken Noodle Soup is the perfect sick day food. It gave me that same comforting feeling that Campbell’s soup used to give me when I was like 10. I’ve already made a note to get a few cans of this to keep around the apartment for the next time my boyfriend or I get a cold or the flu.

And yes, I bought bunny shaped crackers to put in my soup. I’m a sucker for anything with bunnies. It’s like being a cat-lady, but I’m fortunate enough not to be a crazy spinster.

What’s your favorite comfort food for colds and flu? If you have any good recommendations, leave a comment below!

Healthy Living Summit Part 2

Saturday, Meagan and I woke up from our coma-like sleep, put on some work-out clothes and new Reebok sneakers, and headed down to breakfast. On the way there, we found some sponsor booths.

For taking a picture at the Reebok sponsor booth- we scored some free Crossfit socks.

Stole this photo from Meagan. It was 8am-we didn’t have a whole lot of sass going on yet.

Next up was breakfast and the opening remarks. Below we have fresh fruit, a  mango-pomegranate yogurt parfait, and a piece of Cupcake Kelly’s Greek inspired breakfast scramble. And coffee- which I would probably die without.

Up next was Crossfit. I’ve wanted to try it for a while, but it looked wicked intimidating. I’m more of a nature-walker , golfer, and yoga person in the world of fitness. (And not a very good yoga person at that- I can’t touch my toes…) After doing AMRAPS of air squats and jumps- I was covered in sweat and sore, but felt amazing! I was feeling thigh muscles in my legs for days afterwards that I never knew I had (or that I  never knew could ever be that sore!) I’m assuming my Crossfit confidence came from the sparkly purple headband Meagan gave me:

This brings me back to my tap-dancing days.

We spend a majority of the day in blogger seminars. We attended a photo editing session, held by Gretchen of Honey I Shrunk the Gretchen! Blogging with brands, a newbie blogger Q&A (Thank you everyone for asking the stupid questions I’ve been too shy to ask!), and then we finished out the day with   learning about social media. Do you know facebook’s algorithm for showing up on a newsfeed? I do now!

They ran out of chairs in the blogging with brands session- we sat on the floor. I kind of felt like I was in kindergarden.

Also, check out this amazing lunch we had. Salad with dried blueberries and goat cheese, a red onion, tomato, and avocado salad, vegan lentil chili, and naan. 

Once the HLS daytime activities were over, Meagan and I crashed in our room for a bit. Once we got hungry for dinner, we did some dinner research, and I came across Grasshopper in Allston. I lived in Boston for four years, but somehow never managed to go there. It’s an ALL VEGETARIAN CHINESE RESTAURANT. I was psyched.

Broccoli, seitan, carrots, brown rice? Yes, please.

After dinner, we walked about 2 miles to Pinkberry on Newbury Street. Then walked another 1.5 miles back to the hotel. I miss walking around Boston at night, it’s so beautiful! What’s your favorite city to walk around in at night?

Stay tuned for HLS12 Part 3!

Healthy Living Summit Part 1

Meagan (my boyfriend’s twin sister and one of my besties) and I traveled from Maine to Boston yesterday for the 2012 Heathy Living Summit! We’ve both been reading health blogs for a couple of years, and now that we’ve started our own blogs we though this would be a great trip to learn more about blogging and do some much needed networking!

We made a last minute decision to drive down, and got there just in time for a mini-mingle trip to a nearby bakery. After we raced out of the car, we met up with a group of girls in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge and headed out to Flour. Whoever thought of going here is a genius! Can you think of a better way for girls to bond than over chocolate?!

These dudes in front were not part of our group.

There were a lot of delicious treats to choose from- I went with the chocolate chip hazelnut cookie. It’s not pictured because I INHALED it.

Cupcakes? Brownies? Cookies? What do I piiiiiickkk?!

After we got back to the hotel it was registration time! Meagan and I checked into our room, had our bags (yes, multiple bags, because we each brought four pairs of shoes and too many clothes) brought up to our room by the very attractive concierge, and then booked it back to the lobby for our swag bags!

Meagan’s in the background trying on her sneakers!

Pictured above is the awesome fivebamboo HLS12 t-shirt. It’s super soft. Also, to the right is my sweet new pair of Reebok Realflex Fusion TRs. Inside the swag bag, there’s more stuff than I can list. Seriously- beyond the food samples, snacks, and coupons, there’s a Driscoll’s Berry strainer, a headband, and a vanilla yogurt flavored chapstick?

Way cooler than those Dr. Pepper lipsmackers I used to buy when I was like 12.

We totally geeked out and tried on all our swag, then took ridiculous pictures, like this:

“I am Hans. Und I am Franz. Und ve just vant to pump…YOU UP!”

We had a couple hours to kill before the Friday evening cocktail party, so we trekked over to the nearest Whole Foods and went to town on the salad bar.

The HLS cocktail party was a little awkward at first, especially because I’m a newbie blogger. I felt like a creeper when I realized how many faces I recognize without actually KNOWING that person in real life, but it got easier and easier to introduce myself as the night went on. I even jumped in a photo booth with some ladies!

That’s me, front and center, looking beautiful with my mustache and new nose.

The highlight of the evening was meeting my favorite blogger, Tina, from Carrots n Cake! Check out Meagan’s blog post of HLS Day 1 to see a photo with us and Tina!

Stay tuned for Day 2’s post! I tried crossfit, had some amazing food, and learned a lot of new tips!

Slackerrrr

I’ve been slacking in the blog department. To make up for it, here’s a compilation of things that have happened over the past week:

1) I didn’t totally suck at softball last week. I got walked and ran some bases. That’s better than all summer. I wish I was kidding. But hey- my glove is pink! Cute, right?

2) I refused to cook dinner for my boyfriend because it was wicked hot in our apartment (even with the AC running), so we went to whole foods, got a pre-made dinner, and then broke into my friend’s apartment to use their cable to catch up on Breaking Bad. (they were on vacation- they probably needed plants watered or something..?)

3) I’ve started doing push-ups, and sit-ups, squats and lifting some weights. I hurt all over- but I feel stronger! I’m going to try cross-fit out at the Healthy Living Summit this weekend, and I’m hoping I love it.

4) Patrick bought a ukulele. He’s learned The Twilight Zone theme song. It sounds a little Hawaiian.

5) I made whoopie pies. My great-grandmother’s recipe. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share the recipe. I’ll get permission from my mother and get back to you.

Candle 79 and Broadway

My weekend was awesome. I’m going to even say it was probably more awesome than your weekend. Why? I ate at Candle 79 and saw Harvey on Broadway with my mom. Unless you ran a marathon or snuggled with a litter of golden doodles, I think I win.

If you love bunnies, mental institutions, and laughing, you will LOVE this play.

Ever since I read Alicia Silverstone’s book, The Kind Diet, I have been dying to go to Candle 79, which she raves about it her book and on her blog. So obviously, when my mother and I decided to plan a weekend trip into NYC to see a show, I made reservations for Candle 79.

*This photo is from Candle 79’s website, I was so excited to be there that I forgot to snap an outside photo!

Candle 79 was everything I wanted in a fancy vegan restaurant and more. The atmosphere was lovely, the lights were dim and romantic, and their menu was outstanding. My mother and I wanted to start off with cocktails- but since it was 90 degrees out and we had been walking up and down 5th avenue all day,we decided to go with the non-alcoholic lemonades. I went with watermelon and my mother tried the limeade. I loved it so much that I’ve already tried to recreate it at home!

We pondered getting an appetizer or salad, but we wanted to save room for dessert later that evening, so we went ahead and just ordered entrees. I went with the signature dish, Seitan Piccata, and my mom had the Harvest Paella. You can check out their menu here.

…my iphone camera and the lighting didn’t mesh well.

Both dishes were absolutely delicious and filling. My mother (who is not a vegetarian) was so impressed that she bought me two of the restaurant’s cookbooks. I can’t wait until fall or winter now because there are so many delicious soup recipes I want to try! Maybe I’ll just crank the AC….

orange “chicken” and stir fry

While I was at my gym this weekend, I noticed everyone was watching the Olympics. Everyone. It was pretty inspiring. Usually its a slew of women watching trashy reality TV, old men watching the weather channel, or weirdos like me who like to go to the gym to watch re-runs of 30 Rock and try not to embarrass themselves while they simultaneously try to run and stifle giggles.

Anyway, back to the Olympics. I love the USA- they are doing great. The male swimmers are hot stuff. But I think I love China more. Why? Stir Fry bitches, stir fry.

Stir Fry with Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken-less Morsels:

1) Find a large frying pan or a wok. Add 1-2 tablespoons oil.

2) Cut up an onion, a red pepper, and carrots (or be lazy and buy pre-shredded carrots to toss in). Add to the frying pan and saute on a low-medium heat. Add some steamed broccoli. And some garlic (about a teaspoon)

3) In another pan, cook Trader Joe’s Orange “Chicken-less” Morsels according to the package. (Note: I don’t typically like fake “chicken”, usually it grosses me out. But this stuff is excellent.)

4) Once your orange morsels are done, and your vegetables are cooked to your liking, serve over brown rice and inhale like you’ve just won the Gold Metal.

5) Don’t forget your victory beer. I know Patrick didn’t.

Chickpea Salad

As a kid, I had no interest in seafood- which is pretty weird for a girl that grew up on the coast of Maine, surrounded by lobsters, clams, sardines, and whatever else has a fin and can be eaten by my Dad and brother.

Unless it was Tuna fish salad.

There was even a summer where my Dad made me the same dinner every night- which consisted of a scoop of tuna fish salad, a pickle, and a chopped up, boiled hot dog (sans bun). What else would a five-year-old girl want for dinner? Cookies?

Now that’s its summer, all I want is something cold, something filling, and something that was as easy to make as tuna fish salad. Without the icky smell and scales of course.

Chickpea “Not Tuna” Salad:

1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 1/2 tablespoon vegan mayo

1 tablespoon spicy mustard

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

Step 1:

Pulse the chickpeas in a food processor 3-4 times. (DO NOT BLEND, you’ll get hummus)

 

Step 2: Transfer your new chickpea mash to a mixing bowl.

Step 3: Add vegan mayo, mustard, and nutritional yeast. Mix with a spoon.

Step 4: Eat it over a salad, with sliced veggies, or with some crunchy dill pickles.

First Post!

Welcome to my blog!

After years of reading other food, nutrition, and fitness blogs- I’ve decided to jump in and try it out myself! I love to cook, bake, eat (and exercise!)- why not write about it too? I’ve created Meatless Margaret as a place where I can share recipes, review restaurants, rave about my favorite vegetarian and animal friendly products, and work on my fitness goals.

As a vegetarian, I find myself defending and explaining my choices a lot. I never try to be “preachy” about my lifestyle to my meat-eating friends, but I also never ask them “but, why do you eat meat?”

So, while we’re talking about it, here are a few reasons why I don’t eat meat:

• I never liked it as a kid. I remember I stopped eating steak at age 8, when I found a piece of bone in it. Gross.
• My father often threatened to cook my pet bunny. I took him seriously- he worked in a fine dining restaurant.
• This picture: