easy weeknight veggie meals

Here are some easy meals that can be thrown together in no time. The first one is a traditional stir fry recipe. At Costco this past weekend I bought a big bag of stir fry vegetables. One night this weekend we were running around like crazy and it was easy to throw everything in the pan and cook it. The thing that took the longest was the brown rice. We buy ours in bulk so I'm sure the heat up bag kind would be much faster. 

From our kitchen to yours :)


Vegetable Stir Fry
adapted from veggie stir fry


1 bag of stir fry frozen vegetables
brown rice
STIR FRY SAUCE:
1/3 cup veggie stock
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. lime juice
5-7 cloves of garlic
1 tsp. liquid honey
2 tsp. corn starch dissolved in 4 tbsp. water
1 tsp. chili sauce


Start by making the stir fry sauce. Place all ingredients in a sauce pan over medium-high heat- except garlic and cornstarch. When sauce begins to bubble, reduce heat to medium-low. Now add the garlic and cornstarch(dissolved in water). Stir until sauce thickens- about 30 secs to 1 min. 


Saute frozen or fresh veggies over medium heat. Adding stock as necessary. When cooking almost thoroughly add stir fry sauce. Serve over cooked brown rice. Enjoy :)


Spinach with Chickpeas and Fresh Dill

When I think of dill I usually think of potato salad. However, since it has taken over our garden (who knew it was a weed!?) I wanted to find or come up with some main dishes that used it. I stumbled across this recipe and thought it looked interesting. I had never had dill with spinach before but I have to say it was a nice party in my mouth :). The dill with the lemon juice, spinach, and earthiness of the chickpeas all worked well together. It also is a great low carb vegetarian meal. I am finding that when traditional protein is not an option we tend to fall back on carbs. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as we should eat many whole grains, but it can get old. One of the books I read on my turning vegetarian path is Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet. I know what your thinking...the girl from Clueless is probably not the smartest cookie in the jar and doesn't need to be giving any sort of eating advice. But upon further research (thank you wikipedia) Alicia didn't write most of the book, a ghostwriter nutritionist did. This made me feel much better about liking it so much. Any who, in the book Alicia (or nutritionist) says to try to eat three key ingredients at ever meal: whole grains (quiona, brown rice, rolled oats, etc.), protein (lentils, black beans, chick peas, etc.), and veggies (preferably green veggies i.e. green cabbage, bok choy, etc.). We try to follow this as much as we can, at least for dinner. She is a super vegan who eats green vegetables for breakfast. I'm just not there yet. But here is a easy weeknight meal that can be served with quinoa or brown rice. We ate ours with whole wheat pita bread. Enjoy!

Spinach with Chickpeas and Fresh Dill

Olive oil for pan

1 large onion thinly sliced

1-2 cans of chickpeas, drained and washed

1 pound of fresh spinach

1/2 cup fresh dill

2 lemons, juiced or 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste 

In a large skillet heat olive oil or cooking spray over medium heat. Saute onions until soft. Add chickpeas and coat in oil. Add dill and spinach. Cook until tender. Stir in lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Serve warm.