Tag Archives: quick & easy

Vegetarian Breakfast Burritos

Vegetarian Breakfast Burritos

Could these be breakfast? Yes. But I like to eat them for dinner.

Before Nate and I lived together, I prepared a lot fewer meals. Dinner was often Thai takeout or a “salad” (a.k.a. a big pile of raw veggies, no dressing, that I ate with my fingers). I’m not entirely ruling that out as a dinner option as the weather gets warmer, but things are a bit more civilized around here these days. However, there is one of my “single” dinners I’ve been missing lately: Scrambled eggs.

Scrambled eggs with goat cheese, avocado and salsa was my favorite weeknight dinner for a while last year. It eventually slipped off my radar – there was the vegan thing, and then the fact that Nate expresses zero enthusiasm for scrambled eggs – and before a few weeks ago, I hadn’t made it in quite some time. I’ve since welcomed it back into my life, however – this time for good. And in my efforts to make it into more of a cohesive meal (one that I could actually serve to others rather than just eat by myself standing up at the counter), I turned it into a burrito.

And Nate, who I thought wasn’t a fan of scrambled eggs, always goes back for seconds of this. That is saying a lot!

This meal is super simple and is ready in 10 minutes flat, so it would be great for any time of day. The flavors are awesome together, especially with the peppery arugula, zesty salsa, and creamy cheese. Single people food for the win!

In other news, Nate and I are off to Mexico tomorrow! I’m super excited for our trip, but I’m also a little bummed because it means I am missing Blend. The Mexico trip is for work (although I don’t have to do any work while I’m there, yay), so I couldn’t really skip it for a blogging retreat. Sad face. I’m hoping to attend Blend next year, or maybe a different retreat or conference? Let me know if you have suggestions. And everyone who is attending Blend, have a BLAST and enjoy Utah!

Vegetarian Breakfast Burritos

5.0 from 1 reviews

Vegetarian Breakfast Burritos
 
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These egg and bean burritos are great for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Author:
Serves: 2 (2 small burritos each)

Ingredients
  • 1 cup cooked black beans
  • juice of 1/2 lime (or 1/4 lemon, in a pinch)
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp paprika
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 Tbsp milk
  • sprinkle of salt and pepper
  • 1/2 tsp olive oil
  • 4 medium-sized tortillas
  • arugula
  • 1/2 avocado, sliced
  • goat cheese or cotija cheese, crumbled
  • salsa

Instructions
  1. First, get your beans ready. Sprinkle beans with lime juice, cumin, and paprika and stir to combine. Set aside.
  2. Next, scramble your eggs. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Heat a non-stick pan or skillet over medium heat, add olive oil, and pour in egg mixture. Cook, stirring frequently, until no longer runny, 2-4 minutes.
  3. While the eggs are cooking, heat tortillas, either in a microwave or toaster. Keep covered until ready to serve.
  4. Just before serving, heat beans for 30 seconds to a minute in the microwave.
  5. To assemble the burritos, layer tortillas with arugula, bean mixture, scrambled eggs, avocado, cheese, and salsa. I like to have each person assemble their own burrito. Enjoy immediately!

 

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Filed under Breakfast, Main Dishes, Vegetarian

Warm Lentil Salad with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach

 Warm Lentil Salad with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach

At first, I wasn’t going to post about this meal. I started out following Grab a Plate’s lentil salad recipe for dinner one night, but turned it into something slightly different when I didn’t feel like making yet another roasted red pepper dressing. It came out amazing, but I still thought maybe I didn’t need to blog about it.

Then Nate went back for seconds. And in case you didn’t know, that is rare enough to qualify a recipe as blog-worthy 100% of the time.

Warm Lentil Salad with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach

So here we are with this weeknight lentil salad. It fits the mold for what I’ve been making so often this spring (grain or green + roasted vegetables + sauce or dressing), but with one thing that sets it apart: To me this feels very much like a recipe rather than a loose set of suggestions (the opposite of my usual salad posts)… because I wouldn’t change a single thing.

The sweet roasted peppers, the acidic dressing, the way the creamy goat cheese melts into the lentils… nope, it’s perfect exactly the way it is.

Warm Lentil Salad with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach

I love using red lentils here because of their quick cooking time. Dinner can be on the table in just over half an hour, start to finish! And even that time is reduced significantly if you buy jarred roasted red peppers or have the foresight to roast them ahead of time, which clearly I never do.

I can’t decide whether I prefer this salad hot or cold, so I’ve been compromising by eating it hot for dinner, and then cold for lunch the next day. I recommend you do the same!

Warm Lentil Salad with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach

5.0 from 1 reviews

Warm Lentil Salad with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach
 
Hands-on time

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Author:
Serves: 3

Ingredients
For the salad:
  • 3 red bell peppers, quartered (or jarred roasted red peppers)
  • 1 cup dried red lentils
  • 3 cups loosely packed spinach
  • 3 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
For the dressing:
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp prepared mustard
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 2 small cloves garlic, roughly chopped
  • pepper to taste

Instructions
  1. First, roast the peppers. (If you are using jarred roasted red peppers, skip to the next step!) Preheat your broiler. Lay quartered peppers, skin up, on a baking sheet. (I like to cover my baking sheet with foil for easier clean-up.) Broil until skin of peppers is completely charred, which will depend on your broiler, probably about 6-8 minutes. You want the skins to be totally black! Remove from oven and immediately place peppers in a large ziploc bag and seal. Set aside for 10 minutes to steam. (This can also be done ahead of time.)
  2. Add lentils and 1 1/2 cups water to a small pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender but not mushy, 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat, drain any excess water, and stir in spinach. Cover and set aside.
  3. Meanwhile, prepare the dressing by blending all ingredients together.
  4. After peppers have steamed for 10 minutes, remove from bag. Peel the charred skins off and discard. It’s OK if some charred bits remain – we’re not going for perfection! Chop into bite-sized pieces and stir into the spinach and lentils.
  5. To serve, top spinach/lentil/pepper mixture with goat cheese and dressing. Enjoy hot! This also makes awesome cold leftovers.

Notes
For a heartier option, serve over short pasta such as fusilli. Adapted from Grab A Plate.

 

7 Comments

Filed under Main Dishes, Salads, Vegetarian

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties)

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) | coffeeandquinoa.com

You guyssss. It’s coming up on that time of year again. The time that we all look forward to, without wanting to admit we’re looking forward to it.

Girl Scout cookie time!!!!

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) | coffeeandquinoa.com

Except this year I couldn’t wait.

And that’s how I made this dangerous discovery: That you can have homemade Girl Scout cookies year round.

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) | coffeeandquinoa.com

I blame this on my friend Jacquey.

Jacquey brought these over a few weeks ago when we were watching The Bachelor. I assume she was doing the same thing I do when I bring treats into work – getting them out of her house so she wouldn’t eat them all. Maybe not. Jacquey is fabulous, has lots of self control, and would probably never eat a cookie with her breakfast just because it was there.

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) | coffeeandquinoa.com

Anyway, it worked. I ate them all instead. Then I made several more batches, and ate those too. Thanks a lot, Jacquelyn.

These are like crack to me. They are just like tagalongs/peanut butter patties, but better. Better because they are bigger… they basically have twice as much of everything in one cookie.

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) } coffeeandquinoa.com

Side note: Did you call these tagalongs or peanut butter patties growing up? They were definitely peanut butter patties in New England, but I’m now smack in the middle of tagalong country. That was pretty weird for me last year when I went to buy Girl Scout cookies here for the first time, but I think I’m OK with it now. A rose by any other name…

Well, whatever you call these, they have always been my faaaavorite Girl Scout cookie. Sure, I like thin mints. I might even make some of those soon. But the peanut butter patty, despite its unsexy name, just can’t be beat for me. Thinking back to my childhood Girl Scout cookie obsession, the only bummer was that there were so few peanut butter patties in a box. Remember that?! Thin mints came in sleeves of like 18, with multiple sleeves per box, and I’m pretty sure that each box of peanut butter patties only contained 12. Same price. So unfair. The thin mint was definitely the best bang for your buck.

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) } coffeeandquinoa.com

Once again… enter the homemade peanut butter patty. No more feeling like you should have bought thin mints so you could get 3x as many cookies. Now you just need an extra jar of peanut butter and you are good. to. go.

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) } coffeeandquinoa.com

These cookies, believe it or not, are super easy to make, and have only 3 ingredients (plus an optional garnish). But it’s worth saying a few words about the ingredients you use here:

Think like you were Brownie age again, instead of the incredible health-conscious home chef you are today. That means no homemade gluten-free crackers, no all-natural peanut butter, no high-quality dark chocolate. Straight up Ritz crackers, Skippy, and chocolate bark.

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) } coffeeandquinoa.com

Embrace it. They are better this way, trust me.

I made two other versions of these, one with milk chocolate chips and one with dark chocolate. They didn’t even come close to the chocolate bark version. Chocolate bark doesn’t taste great when it’s melted (it’s very sweet), but once it’s hardened, it’s really what makes these taste like Girl Scout Cookies and not just chocolate peanut butter Ritz crackers.

If you’ve never heard of chocolate bark before (umm, I hadn’t), it is just a big chocolate slab that you can probably find in the baking aisle at your grocery store for $1.99. As far as I can tell, it’s just melted-down scraps from other chocolates. It also seems to have a pretty high fat content, because it stays nice and melty while you’re dipping these peanut butter Ritz sandwiches in it, which I found was not the case with chocolate chips. But if you’d rather use chocolate chips, dark chocolate, etc., I might suggest adding a bit of butter or coconut oil to it if you have trouble with the dipping.

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) | coffeeandquinoa.com

Just look at that little tin of heaven… I really can’t emphasize enough how good these are. I thought I liked Girl Scout cookies… until I had these. I may never spend $4 on 12 peanut butter patties again.

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) | coffeeandquinoa.com

Last but not least, I need to give a birthday shout-out to my little sister Alban, who is 19 today! Happy birthday sister! Hope you are having a wonderful start to your birthday, and that it includes real-life sweets :)

That’s all for today, folks! Happy Friday – have a great weekend!

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) | coffeeandquinoa.com

Better Than Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties)

Makes 20 cookies

Ingredients:

4o Ritz crackers

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Skippy)

8 oz. chocolate bark

sprinkles, sea salt, chopped roasted peanuts, etc. for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

First, make peanut butter and Ritz sandwiches, using almost 2 tsp of peanut butter in each sandwich.

Melt chocolate bark in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring between each.

Dip each peanut butter Ritz sandwich in chocolate, coating completely. I like to use a fork to turn the sandwich over a few times and make sure it’s totally covered in chocolate before removing it.

Set chocolate-covered cookies on a baking sheet. (Unlined is fine.) If desired, garnish with sprinkles, sea salt, or crushed peanuts.

Place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to firm up. Once firm, store in an airtight container at room temperature. You can also keep them in the fridge, but bring to room temperature before serving. Will keep for several days.

Time:

30 minutes

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23 Comments

Filed under Cookies