Foodie Friday

You're going to want to eat this. I promise.

The meal plan for this week looks like this:

Day	Lunch	Dinner
M	Sloppy Janes	Stir Fried Tofu (FF veg P.104) w/ rice
T	Pita Melt: Mushroom & Cheese	Baked Eggplant (V Slow Cook P. 117) w/ rice
W	Bake Eggplant w/ pita	Sloppy Janes
R	Pita Pizzas	Med. Veg Stew (V Slow Cook P. 64) w/ pita & hummus
F	Sloppy Janes	Portobello tacos (F/K P. 137) w/ salsa verde
S	Med Veg Stew	Spicy Asian Quinoa Salad (F/K P. 63)
S	left overs	New Night!

Instead of using recipes from online, we decided to find some yummy looking meals in our various Vegetarian Cookbooks. (Fast & Fresh Vegetarian, Everything Vegetarian Slow Cook Cookbook, Forks Over Knives)

The Mediterranean Vegetable Stew that we had last night and for lunch today was AHHHH-Mazing. So amazing, in fact, that after I ate it for lunch today, I had to jump on here and tell you about it... and then maybe go get another bowl. Yum.

It is literally as easy as chopping some things up and tossing them in the slow cooker. That's it!

Mediterranean Vegetable Stew (from The Everything Vegetarian Slow Cook Cookbook) - Serves 6

Ingredients
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 eggplant, chopped
1 15oz can artichoke, drained and chopped
1/2/ cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
2 15oz cans diced tomatoes (we use low sodium)
4 cups (usually a whole box) Vegetable Broth (again, we use low sodium)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Method
Toss all that yummy goodness in a 4-quart slow cooker, cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

We served the stew over rice which was delicious and helped Big scoop it up better with his spanking-new spoon using skills.

It is seriously THAT easy. It's even easier if you meal plan and have a chop night like we do. However, this week we slacked and didn't have a chop night and guess what, I made dinner in no time while Big ate olives out of a measuring cup... Whatever keeps ya busy, kid!

I imagine it would also freeze well and then you could just add some broth and call it a day and do other fun things while your slow cooker makes dinner for you. Winning!


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Here's some nutritional information according to the cookbook:

Per Serving: Calories: 214 | Fat: 6 g | Protein: 6 g | Sodium: 522 mg (however, I'm unsure how this would change with no-salt and low sodium tomatoes and broth) | Fiber: 8 g | Carbohydrates: 31 g | Sugar: 12 g