Morningstar Farms sends me newsletters every so often and sometimes they include recipes. For tonights dinner I took one of their recipes, made a bunch of changes and created Rustin’s Crumble Bumble!

Rustin’s Crumble Bumble
2 cups veggie broth
1 1/2 cup diced onion
1 1/2 cup diced celery

1 1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 1/2 cup corn
1 can red kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
1 bag Morningstar Farms meat crumbles
2 bay leafs
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon black pepper
6 servings mashed potatoes
1 cup cheese

2 Tablespoons flour

In a large sauce pan bring the broth, onion, celery, carrots, beans, corn, pepper, garlic, and bay leaves to a low boil (high simmer) until the veggies are tender. Then mix in the bag of Morningstar Farms ground beef crumbles and mix well. Cook until the ‘meat’ cooks through. Next take a 1/2 cup of broth out and mix it with the flour. Slowly add it back in and let the mixture simmer until it thickens.

Pour the mixture into a greased 3 qt casserole dish and top with mashed potatoes that have been mixed with some Italian cheeses (Parmesan, Romano, Asiago, Mozzarella). I went light on the cheese–you can always add more once plated. The point of the cheese in the taters is to help it get golden brown and crispy on top.

Cook in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. I cooked mine for about 22 minutes and then switched it to broil for a minute or two. Watch it though, you don’t want it to burn!

Delicious!

I’ve posted about pizza before but it can’t hurt to do it again!

For the sauce I used Dei Fratelli pizza sauce. Toppings were yellow and red peppers, white onion, white mushrooms, sun dried tomato, Morningstar Farms Italian sausage crumbles and some organic mozzerella cheese.

Delicious!

I dreamt about it all day and finally the time came: the Hummus and Veggie sandwich!

On untoasted bread, spread your favorite flavor of hummus on one side of one slice of bread. To it, stack sliced cucumbers, sliced red onion, and sliced tomatoes.  On the other slice of bread, first put down spinach and then sliced ripe avocado. Squeeze a little lemon juice on top of the avocado and then put the two halves together and press down. The pressing down helps the avocado act as a bonding agent to the spinach, bread and the rest of the veggies.

Plate and enjoy! I served the sandwiches along side some chips and guacamole.

With all of the traveling we’ve been doing these past three weeks, I haven’t had much time or energy to cook up some new meals. I was out of town again this past weekend and when I got home I found out Loren was feeling under the weather. Needless to say, I made him some soup!

I went to the store without a recipe and just bought what I thought would mesh well together.

In a large pot, cook 1 diced yellow onion and 2 garlic cloves with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil on medium heat for 5 minutes. To that add 2 diced tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Then add a handful of shredded carrots, diced green pepper and 4 red potatoes cut into small cubes. Cook this for about 5-7 minutes while you open your cans of beans. I used 3 cans of black beans (drained and rinsed) and 1 can of light red kidney beans (drained and rinsed). I also added 2 small cans of low sodium corn (drained). Next I put in almost 2 boxes of low sodium Imagine Vegetable Broth. Cover and turn the heat to high. Let it boil for 10-15 minutes (or until the potatoes are soft). Uncover and turn off the heat completely. Let stand for 15-20 minutes so it can cool.

Plate and serve with some diced avocado, crumbled chips and some cheese. A lime wedge wouldn’t be bad either!

Woo hoo! I’m back in action! Tonight for dinner I made sun-dried tomato pesto pasta. I used whole wheat noodles, home made pesto and sauteed some onions with two kinds of tomatoes (fresh and sun-dried).

To make pesto, place 2 cups packed basil leaves, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 cup cheese (parm or romano or both!), 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, dash or salt and pepper and a small handful of pine nuts into a food processor. Pulse until combined–feel free to add more or less of any ingredient- I added more basil and oil because I needed more pesto than what it made.

Cook the onions and tomatoes in some olive oil in a skillet on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Then turn the heat to low and let it simmer so the onions loose a little more of their bite.

Mix all ingredients together and add 2 tablespoons of red sauce to the mixture. Once plated, I added some extra cheese, pine nuts and some steamed broccoli.