but with extra diabla and some vegan crab Match meat.  All of which makes really good

Camarones a la Diabla Minus the Camarones

So, there’s a lot going on with this post today.  In brief, what I wanted to do was keep the week of #MeatlessMonday recipes theme going on, so this recipe is absolutely 100% vegan.  It doesn’t get much more #MeatlessMonday than that.

Secondly, in case you don’t know what camarones a la diabla are, they are one of my absolute favorite Mexican dishes.  Translated literally it means shrimp of the the devil, or deviled shrimp, but they are a fabulously spicy shrimp dish I order a lot at Mexican places.  The shrimp are stewed in a spicy tomato sauce and served with warm tortillas, rice, and avocado.  So good.

Of course, there’s a problem, right?  Camarones are meat.  This is #MeatlessMonday (Wednesday edition.)  That means no camarones.  So that’s when I turned to my good friends at Match and their Uh-may-ZING vegan crab made from plant proteins.  So good.

In the end, I came up with something that was not bad for a first attempt at a Mexican dish.  It still needs some work, but I think I got pretty darn close.

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Stir Fry

So, I was asked today about veggie stir fry recipes and after doing some searching and head scratching, I realized I hadn’t ever done a post on plain ol’

Vegetable Stir Fry

It’s an oversight I shall now correct.

Make no mistake about it.  Stir fry is so easy to do and, as such, is one of the WellDone family’s quick and easy go-to meals.  It’s also wonderful when we have a bunch of odds and ends that need to get turned into a dish just hanging out in the fridge.  Stuff like a stalk of celery, a carrot, half a green pepper, what have you.  We throw it all in a hot wok and in about 2 minutes you have a tasty, healthy, meatless, dinner.

Now, there is a trick to making a good stir fry, and it’s not what you think.  What is it?  Read on…

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Pigs In a Blanket - Veggie Style

I really should be ashamed of doing this, but tonight we’re kicking it old school with

Pigs in a Blanket … Veggie Style

And when I say old school, I’m talking like kindergarten.  You want healthy vegetarian cuisine?  Not on this Meatless Monday, my friend.  Not on this Meatless Monday.

See, a while back I threw a big Christmas bash for some friends.  I put together a nice little spread with some spring rolls, some chicken skewers, some nice vegan bread pudding, and some pigs in a blanket.  Knowing that there would be some vegetarians in the crowd, I bought both regular hot dogs and some Smart Dogs, which are my favorite brand of non-meat hot dog.  I wrapped both the vegetarian and regular dogs in croissants and baked them in the oven according to the croissants’ package directions.

Easy enough.

The thing is…every one seemed to like the food.  However, the one thing I couldn’t make fast enough was those pigs in a blanket.  Funny thing was, NO ONE fessed up to actually eating them, but somehow they kept disappearing.

So, go ahead, make these little guys for yourself.  I won’t tell.  I promise.

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Shawna Coronado's Pumpkin Harvest

Yep, that’s right.  It’s another #meatlessmonday and another installment of the 2009 Nude & Echo-Cheap Cooking Initiative.  Today we’re making

Pumpkin Soup

If you’re not familiar with the 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative, that’s where I take the delicious veggies grown by the always awesome Shawna Coronado and turn them into a meal for a family of four that costs less than $11.50.  Can I do it?

Yes I can with this easy, but delicious pumpkin soup.

I actually love pumpkin season.  I think it’s kind of a shame that it only seems to be popular for about two months.  Still, every year people go NUTS for pumpkins: pumpkin desserts, pumpkin soups, pumpkin coffee drinks, pumpkin pizza, and so on.  Then even before the Thanksgiving leftovers are done…BOOM… everyone’s on to peppermint or sugar cookies or some other Christmas phase.  Anyway, I’m ranting.

The good news is that for the next month or so we can continue to enjoy pumpkin recipes like this one.

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Broccoli and Eggplant

Okay, it’s #meatlessmonday again, which means it’s time to do right by yourself and the earth by going twenty-four short hours without meat.  Sound tough?  Not when you have

Eggplant Rollitini

I just love eggplant and I swear after this, so will you!

Also, you may have noticed, this is another fantasic 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative recipe, wherein I take the delicious vegetables that Shawna Coronado has grown and make them into dinner for family of four for less than $11.50.  Sadly, because winter is here (feels like it never left did it??? ) the growing season is almost over, so there won’t be many more of these in 2009.  But fear not, while the veggies keep coming, so will delicious, healthy dinners for less than $11.50.

With that being said, this particular recipe was inspired by Jasper’s here in Kansas City.  It was one of the dishes Chef fixed during the Best Meal I Ever Ate.   It was wonderful then and I just hope I can do it justice for less than $11.50!

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Roasted Red Peppersa

Homemade Creamy Tomato Red Pepper Sauce

Happy 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative and happy #meatlessmonday!  Hopefully you are enjoying many a meatless dish tonight, but if you’re out of delicious meatless ideas have I got one for you?!

This one is super simple and delicious.  I was actually inspired to make it when eating at Em Chamas (please no nasty comments about getting meatless recipes from a Brazilian barbecue…)  They have this fantastic cheese ravioli dish on their buffet made from a sauce of tomatoes and roasted red peppers that was just terrific.  Right next to it, they have a tomato-based chicken stroganoff that is light, creamy, and more than a little tangy.  So I got the idea to blend them together and make a delicious creamy tomato red pepper sauce.

Better yet, you can make it for less than $11.50 as part of the 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative.  If you’re not familiar with the challenge, Shawna Coronado grows chemical and pesticide-free (ie nude) vegetables and I turn them into a dinner for a family for four for less than $11.50.  Ready for the recipe?

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The White Album- Perfect Music to Listen to for a White Meal

Okay, so the fashionistas all agree that you can’t wear white after Labor Day, but, I’m wondering about eating white after Labor Day.  Think about it.  If you can’t wear white, you’re probably wearing darker colors and if you spill… yikes!  Who knows…maybe tomorow the manner experts are going to outlaw fettuchini alfredo, sugar cookies, and White Russians!!

Just in case, maybe you should try this all-white Labor Day menu.  It’s not exactly the most waistline-friendly, but that’s not my fault.  I was trying to think of what was white and, of course, I thought of heavy cream!  It’s not my fault this meal is so creamy and delicious.  I have to make sure every one gets one last white meal during Labor Day.

You know, just in case.

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Grilled Eggplant

You ready for some Italian?  How about

Grilled Eggplant Paninis?

The inspiration for this dish came from a great man and an amazing chef: Chef Jasper from Jasper’s restaurant in Kansas City.  He actually let me hang out with him for a Saturday (which, mind you is the ONLY reason I would wake up at 8 on a Saturday!) 

It was such an experience!  I got to attend his radio program, we talked food, we stopped by a grocery store, and he showed me how to tell when mozarella hasn’t been pulled long enough.  (hint: hard mozarella needs more pulling.)  I even got to hear about the real Jasper from his wife.  Amazing.

Part of my day was eating with Chef’s wife at Marco Polo’s, which is this amazing little deli connected to Jasper’s.  They fed me a startlingly refined, slightly spicy sausage sandwich from the deli.  It was topped with onions, green peppers and potatoes and came with a very unique barbecue sauce that was kind of sweet and kind of tangy.  A lot of times sausage sandwiches are greasy and taste like burnt sausage.  This one was perfectly balanced sausage sandwich with meat that didn’t overpower the other ingredients.  And I got to take some of the sausage home.  (yay!)

Anyway, last week I got hungry (like I do) and was in the mood for a sandwich.  So my buddy and I headed over to Marco Polo’s in the hunt for another sausage sandwiche.  Sadly, there was no one manning the grill!  Disappointed, but undaunted I headed in and ordered a fairly outstanding consolation prize: a grilled eggplant panini with mozzarella and roasted red peppers.

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Eggs on Tortillas

This #meatlessmonday, I wanted to do something simple like

Scrambled Egg Tostadas

Why go with something so homey?  Being meatless doesn’t necessarily mean being complicated.  In fact, when my wife and I went vegetarian, our strategy was to take dishes we ate all the time and swap out the meat for something similiar.  Given how much we loved Mexican, this dish was only natural.

I love making egg tostadas because they are so easy.  They’re filling and can be made in about 10 minutes.  So they’re perfect for the vegetarian and the #meatlessmonday fan who needs to get dinner on the table and wants to do it without meat.

If you want to make these tostadas for yourself, all you need are a few simple ingredients and literally about 10 minutes.

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Finished Lasagna

So I was hanging out on Twitter today and saw one of my Tweeps, amoyal, mention that today was #MeatlessMonday.  I had never heard of this particular Twitter tag,  but I got pretty excited since it’s so close to what I want to do with Vegan Weekend.  Anyway, never one to let a good Twitter tag go, I figured I couldn’t not start doing #MeatlessMonday posts.

(For the record, I’ve already been reminded Mondays are hard enough, so giving up meat is just cruel.  I, however reminded my friend I wasn’t asking him to give up caffeine! )

So, the long and short of it is that you can be 100% sure that every post I write on Monday will be completely meatless.

Like today’s recipe for:

Lasagna Made With Italian Sausage Match Meat

Using delicious Match Meat flavored Italian Sausage, Mrs. WellDone, BWD, Jr., and I made our own lasagnas this evening.  Me, I like lots of sauce, garlic, and mushrooms.  Mrs. WellDone likes lots of cheee.  BWD, Jr. likes noodles and that’s about it.  So we all made our own.  And to get some protein and the flavor of meat, we used Match Meat Italian Sausage.

The Italian Sausage Match Meat was perfect.  It was spicy like Italian sausage should be and it crumbled like Italian sausage, so the texture was ideal, but at the same time, there was a ton less grease, making it healthier, too.  I know that to a lot of people going without meat may seem like a huge deal, but no one missed!

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