Teriyaki-Flavored Happiness (or, These Vegetables Aren't Going to Eat Themselves!)

If you've been following my blog, you may notice the same ingredients used in multiple recipes. There's a really good explanation for that: I'm a normal person and not a gourmet cook. I make a trip to Whole Foods once or twice a year, for example, to purchase specialty ingredients and to stock my freezer with vegan meat alternatives. Other than that, I'm shopping down the street at Kroger, Meijer, or on a day when the three boys aren't trying to kill each other in the back of the mini-van, I may get a trip into the local health food store.

As far as the purchase of fresh vegetables goes, I have learned to think with my brain and not with my eyes in the produce section. When I stopped eating meat, I suddenly became a fresh vegetable hoarder. I. Had. To. Have. Everything. Every color and variety of peppers, everything labeled as organic, each and every kind of leafy green. I wanted everything and I wanted it all at once. And like a hoarder, my "collection" took on a life of its own, quickly turning bad before I could get to everything. My peppers got soft and wrinkly, my organic mushrooms were covered in slime, and my leafy greens dissolved into gelatinous black goo. I had to admit I was throwing out more than I could eat each week.

So- after a few months of fuzzy tomatoes, I wised up. I started purchasing produce more strategically. I refused to make eye contact with that already-ripe avocado unless I knew I was going to use it that night. I bought less, and attempted to use all of it before I purchased more. I'm not always successful. Right now as I type this, there are four tomatillos well past their prime, mocking me from a bowl on my counter.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this post. I write this blog for people like me, who want to eat healthier but aren't about to run up to the grocery store each day. I'm a working mom with a realistic grocery budget who hates to waste food. If I bring home a bag of shallots, you're going to see shallots in most of my recipes until they're gone, People. That's just how I roll.

Today's recipe was made with all my remaining fresh vegetables prior to Friday's trip to Kroger. A stir-fry it is!

4 Gardein Scallopine cutlets, thawed
1 cup teriyaki sauce
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon fresh, ground ginger
1 teaspoon Five Spice powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper
Vegetables for stir fry (I used cauliflower, shallots, portobellos, Brussels sprouts, bok choy and radicchio)
Grain of choice (I used brown rice)



1. Combine all the ingredients (except for vegetables and rice) and marinate for at least 20 minutes. I have a Food Saver Marinator, and it is one of my favorite things.
2. Add a little oil to a large skillet and heat it over medium-high heat. Add the marinated cutlets and cook about three minutes on each side, or until they start to brown up.
3. Add the reserved marinade to the cutlets in the skillet, and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer and let the marinade reduce down. You want it to get nice and thick, but still liquid-y enough to pour some over the vegetables when serving.
4. Meanwhile, do a quick stir-fry of the vegetables in a hot skillet with a little oil.
5. When it looks like the vegetables are almost done and the marinade is thickening, remove the cutlets to a platter so they can rest for about two minutes.
6. To serve, arrange vegetables over prepared rice, spoon a little of the marinade over them, and top it all with sliced cutlets.

Note: We had two cutlets leftover that we didn't eat. Later that night (as I am wont to do) I tiptoed to the kitchen under the cover of darkness for one wee bite more. The "chicken" was so good, ice cold and coated in the sauce, that I not only ate one entire piece, but TWO. I went to bed with sticky fingers and a smile on my face. So, long story short, these are amazing cold, and would be a great addition to a sandwich or salad, or as a midnight snack!

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Wanton Wonton Soup

I had this recipe kicking around in my head for a week or so. I had most all of the ingredients I wanted to use, but when it came time to cook tonight I had to do more improvising than I thought. I didn't have bok choy, so I tossed spinach in instead. I ran out of soy sauce and made up the difference with miso paste. Turns out I didn't even have regular wonton wrappers- I only had the round. Oh well. The flavors were great and it turned out to be a delicious meal.

There are numerous definitions for "wanton." For this recipe, I'm using it as a synonym for "reckless" and "without regard to the rules." But this soup was so good, you might think of the word "wanton" in a whole 'nother way.


Wonton Soup

1 16 oz. package of Match ground “beef”
1 cup chopped scallions
½ cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup spinach
1 cup bagged broccoli coleslaw veggies
½ cup water chestnuts, sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon ground ginger
½ tablespoon soy sauce
1½ teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Five spice powder
1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes (more or less to taste)
2 tablespoons dark miso paste, divided
1 package wontons wrappers
8 cups No-Chicken broth
½ cup bok choy, sliced (I didn’t have any, so I used spinach)
½ cup sliced mushrooms



1. Do a quick sauté of scallions, chopped mushrooms, spinach, coleslaw, and water chestnuts in a hot skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil until they just start to get tender. Once they’re cooked down a little, put vegetables in food processor (but don’t pulse yet).

2. In the same skillet, add more oil and cook the Match “meat” through with the garlic, ginger and soy sauce. Break it up like hamburger and let it brown a little bit.

3. Put the browned “meat” into the food processor with the vegetables. Add vinegar, oil, five spice powder, hot pepper flakes, and 1 tablespoon miso paste. Pulse until mixed and it begins to look like ravioli filling. Don’t pulse it down too much, though, because you want some different textures in there.

4. Assemble the broth. Add the No-Chicken broth, remaining miso paste, bok choy (or spinach in my case), and sliced mushrooms to a pot and cook to boiling.

5. While broth is heating, assemble the wontons, following the package instructions. I only had round wrappers, so my wontons ended up looking like empanadas. I made 24 using about a tablespoon of filling in each. That left half of the wrappers and mix for me to freeze and use another time.

6. Stir the broth to make sure that the miso is dissolved. When broth is boiling, carefully add the wontons. Do not overcook: wontons are done in about 3 minutes and if you overcook them they’ll start to fall apart. Serve soup immediately.

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