Tomato Rice Soup and Grilled Cheese à la Melanie

What makes the grilled cheese special? Well, first it's on the best kind of bread - thick, caraway-laced rye. It also uses Daiya cheese and dill pickles. Yes, pickles! I don't know why I started doing this, but I started adding pickles to my grilled cheeses when I was a picky child who considered grilled cheese to be a food group. Add them when you add the cheese  - it's good, I promise! Do not use bread and butter pickles or any other sweet pickle; I have tried it and it's not something I would repeat.

Hey look, it's another recipe with tomatoes! 

This tomato rice soup is very good - it was rated a 5/5!

Ingredients:

2 TBS olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 stalk of celery, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
4 large tomatoes (about 2 lbs) peeled*, cored, and chopped
1 tsp Parisien Bonnes Herbes
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
6 cups of broth (I used 6 cups of water,  1 cube of mushroom bouillon and 1.5 cubes of not-beef bouillon, but pretty much anything should work)
1/2 cup uncooked jasmine rice

*Peeling tomatoes is easy! Boil enough water to cover them, make a little X on the bottom, put them in the water for 90 seconds, then drop them into an ice water bath. The skins peel off very easily!

Instructions:

Heat the oil and add the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook on medium for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables are softened.  Add the garlic, spices, and tomatoes and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring regularly. Add the broth, stir well, and cook for 20 minutes on low, stirring occasionally. Add the rice and cook for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Take an immersion blender and blend the soup briefly (you can also add about 2 cups to a blender if you don't have an immersion blender). You want to leave most of the texture, but blending it a little makes it thick. I served with black pepper and a sprinkle of dill weed.

Makes 6 1-cup servings

Nutrition (per cup):

Calories 131

Calories from Fat 46

Total Fat 5.1 g

Potassium 395 mg

Carbohydrates 20 g

Dietary Fiber 4.8 g

Sugars 4.9 g

Protein 6.2 g

Vitamin A 77%  

Vitamin C 36%

Calcium 1%

Iron 12%

Unpretty Uncheese Unsteak

My daughter encouraged me to pick this blog back up, so I'm making an effort!

This meal is so very simple and so very ugly, but MAN is it tasty!

I am not sure why the idea of cheesesteak popped into my mind when planning the week's meals, but that was the inspiration for this dish. I know this is nothing close to traditional, but this fixed my craving.

Ingredients:
(makes 4)

1 package Gardein Beef Tips
2 bell peppers, diced (I used yellow, red, and green because I had them, but any color will do)
1 large onion, diced
1 package Teese cheddar sauce (any vegan cheese will do, but if it's in shred or block form, you'll need to add some soy milk to thin it a little)
1 TBS olive oil
A few dashes of cayenne - optional
4 Buns! Traditionally, you'll want a hoagie bun, but I used pretzel buns and this was tasty

Cook the beef tips in a pan with a few drops of the olive oil (reserve the rest of the tablespoon).

When it's done (about 6 minutes), set it aside, then use the same pan to heat up the rest of the olive oil, the onion, and the peppers. While they're cooking, dice up the cooked beef tips.

Once the onions and peppers are soft and caramelized, add 1 cup of the Teese sauce (or 1 cup of other vegan cheese plus a tablespoon or two of plain soy milk), then add in the diced beef tips. Toss on a little cayenne if you like things spicy, then serve atop toasted rolls.

Slawwiches

This is an odd-sounding meal, for sure, but it's quick, easy, and filling and is fairly nutritious for something so creamy and rich. I served it with little side salads.

For 3 sandwiches:

First, make the slaw:

Add these ingredients together:
1/4 cup reduced fat Vegenaise
1.5 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 tsp agave nectar (you can use sugar instead)
1/2 tsp dill weed
1 tsp caraway seed
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Then toss with 10 ounces of chopped cabbage (it's easy to use the prepared packages or about 1/2 head of cabbage).

Then pan-fry some vegan lunch meat. I like peppered Tofurky slices, but I think anything could work here. You don't need oil, just cook it to warm it up a bit. 15 slices = 3 sandwiches.

Finally, toast some bread. I used an onion rye. You can add a little spicy brown mustard to the bread, then heap on 1/3 of the coleslaw and 1/3 of the Tofurky for each sandwich. I ended up serving some of the slaw on the side because it was massive!

We gave these a 4.

Nutrition, per sandwich:
Calories: 315
Protein: 19.2 g
Carbs: 41 g
Fat: 13.3 g
Fiber: 8.3 g
Sugar: 9.2 g
Vitamin C: 136%
Calcium: 8%
Iron: 29%