Meg's Meal Planning

vegetarian

Easy and Healthy Veggie Panini

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Veggie panini is a healthy and incredibly easy dinner recipe.  Make the pesto in advance or use store bought and you have dinner ready in 15 minutes.


Every now and then, I find a vegetarian recipe that I just love. This panini was exactly that. The warm, crunchy bread and melted mozzarella cheese tasted amazing with the homemade pesto, eggplant, and roasted red pepper. Click here for the pesto recipe. Pair it with a glass of red wine and enjoy your carefree dinner!

5.0 from 1 reviews
Easy and Healthy Veggie Panini
 
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Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 1 eggplant, sliced into ½ inch pieces
  • ½ cup pesto
  • 8 oz fresh mozzarella
  • Roasted red peppers
  • High-quality Italian bread or bread of your choice, sliced
Instructions
  1. Grill eggplant slices (use only enough for the panini) on a panini press or George Foreman grill, 4 minutes per side.
  2. Meanwhile, spread pesto onto both sides of bread.
  3. Remove eggplant from grill and place on bread.
  4. Layer with fresh mozzarella and roasted red peppers.
  5. Place made panini on the grill and cook 2-3 minutes.

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Vegetarian soup 

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Even though we are far from vegetarians, my husband and I both love this soup. It’s a one pot meal, packs plenty of flavor, and between the kale, sweet potato, butternut squash, and quinoa, you will feel full and satisfied! 

  

Vegetarian soup with kale and quinoa

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 yellow onion, diced
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped 
  • 2 cups chopped butternut squash
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 4 cans  (14 1/2 oz) reduced sodium vegetable broth
  • 2 cans (15 oz) diced tomatoes
  • 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 2 cups chopped kale, ribs and stems removed
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Steps

  1. Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add onion and carrot and cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, sweet potato, butternut squash, and bay leaves. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
  2. Add the vegetable broth, tomatoes, and chickpeas. Stir in the quinoa and season with rosemary and thyme. Cook for 15 minutes or until quinoa is soft. Stir in the kale and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
 

This recipe was inspired from here 

Zucchini pasta with avocado cream sauce

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First off, let me tell you I debated for a while about buying a spiralizer.  I read about them, saw recipes about them, but it wasn’t until I recently read some reviews about the Veggetti, that I decided to take the plunge!  And I do not regret it.  I bought it from Bed, Bath, and Beyond for $15. Can’t beat that price.  I used it a few weeks ago to add zucchini to my egg muffins. But this is the first time I’ve used it for a full meal. I was a little nervous, I anticpated calling for take-out if it ended badly, but thankfully I didn’t have to resort to that.

Most recipes say you can cook the veggie any way you like, saute, boil, microwave (ew, gross), or eat it raw.  I decided to eat it raw because that meant one less step to do! I used two zucchinis, which was enough for two people. And used a food processer to make the avacado-basil sauce.  Toppped it off with cherry tomoatoes and you have a heathy, vegetarian meal! My recipe was inspired from this one, from Damn Delicious.

Spiralize zucchini into a bowl

Add avocados, basil, garlic, salt and peper into food processor bowl

Pulse while slowly adding 1/4 cup olive oil

Pour avocado mixture over noodles, add cherry tomatoes

Ingredients

  • Two zucchinis- washed, ends cut off, do not peel
  • Two ripe avocado, halved, seeded , and peeled
  • 1/2 cup fresh basil
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1. Insert zucchini into one end of the Veggetti, hold over a bowl and twist the vegetable clockwise while pushing forward.

2. Add avocado, basil, garlic, and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Turn on to pulse, while machine is running, slowly add olive oil.

3. Pour sauce over pasta and add cherry tomatoes.

Enjoy!