Bon(eless) Appetit

2010-02-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

Oh boy, I have really been slacking on this haven't I? Well, not any more! Today, I have a recipe for you! No pictures unfortunately, but that's okay, right?

This recipe was so easy it was crazy! You've got to love pre-chopped frozen vegetables and slow-cookers!

It was really tasty, but it could have used some more depth of flavor. If you make this at home, play around with the seasonings. I think a bit of cumin and the juice of one lime added in the beginning would be nice, and some fresh cilantro when you serve it would be delicious.

Spicy Black Bean and Rice Soup (serves 6)
1 (15oz) can black beans, drained
1 can Rotel tomatoes
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen Cajun mirepoix blend (I used Kroger brand, you could replace this with 1/2 a small onion, 2 stalks of celery, and 1 small green bell pepper, chopped finely)
Tabasco or other hot sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Cajun seasoning to taste
1/3 cup rice of your choice (I used Basmati)

1) Combine beans, tomatoes, stock, corn, mirepoix, and seasonings in crockpot. Cook on low heat for 4 hours.
2.) Turn crockpot to high, then add rice. Cook for 1 hour, then serve.

This is great as a hearty stand alone soup, or can be a side dish served with quesodillas.

My rating/labeling system

2009-10-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

For each recipe that I post, I will be putting icons as a quick reference to the type of vegetarian that the recipe is.

There are five different types of vegetarian recipes that I'll be posting. These are the icons that go along with them, and what it means:

Vegan. This means there are absolutely no animal products used in the recipe.

Lacto-vegetarian. This means that dairy is the only animal product used in the recipe.

Ovo-vegetarin. This means that egg is the only animal product used in the recipe.

Lacto-ovo-vegetarian. This means there is egg and dairy but no other animal products in the recipe.

Pesca-vegetarian. There is seafood, and possibly dairy and/or egg in the recipe.

There also be two rating scales at the end of each post for recipes. These will have a simple 1-5 scale as well as comments about why it got the rating. If anyone can think of other aspects of the dish they would like rated, please let me know and I'll see if I can add it!

This is used to show how tasty the recipe is. This will be rated 1-5. 1 is the least tasty, and 5 is the most tasty.

This is used to show the effort that went into the recipe. 1 is the easiest, 5 is the hardest.

The last icons that will be seen on the posts, are icons showing the expense of each recipe.

This means that the ingredients for this recipe cost 10 dollars or less. Most recipes that I make will fall into this category because I am a broke college student! :)

This means that the ingredients in the recipe cost between 11-20 dollars.

This means that the ingredients in the recipe cost between 21-30 dollars.

This means that the ingredients in the recipe cost over 30 dollars. It is highly unlikely that this icon will be used, but maybe some day I'll get an insane bonus or something and be able to afford some crazy expensive ingredients and go crazy. Its a good idea to have it just in case, right?

Welcome to Bon(eless) Appetit

2009-10-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

I've been kicking around the idea of a foodblog for a while now. I love food, I love writing, I love the internet, what could possibly be better than a blog?

So here I go. I'm a bit scatterbrained, but my plans for this blog, which I'll hopefully keep up with, are to post one sweet and one savory recipe that I have tested, or created, each week. Each recipe will be accompanied with pictures, as well as a rating system on tastiness, difficulty, and appearance. Also, this is going to be a vegetarian blog, so each recipe will have a "stamp" on it saying what type of vegetarian the recipe is.

If I can figure out my camera, I'll also post a video of me cooking a dish every other week.

Whenever I find an interesting vegetarian premade product (burgers, pierogis, etc.) in the supermarket that I want to test out, I'll be doing product review on those, as well as any vegetarian or vegetarian friendly books that I can get my hands on. =)

With that I say, welcome to my blog! I hope you have as much fun here as I do!