Herbivore+Omnivore meal

I became a vegetarian almost 4 1/2 years ago.  I've been with Danny for almost 9 years now.  That means I'm not allowed to pull the vegetarian card on him and refuse to cook meat like some other lucky lifetime vegetarians I know with significant others who eat meat.  This also means I have to come up with ways to incorporate meat into vegetarian dishes I eat as main courses, make my vegetarian main dish a side for him, or fix things that will please him enough he won't miss the meat.

It's not always easy, but I am pretty pleased with what I came up with today.

The menu:

Spicy Panko Crusted Baked Chicken

Roasted Parsnips

Avocado "fries"

leftover asparagus

Spicy Panko Crusted Baked Chicken

What you need:

For the marinade:

8-10 fresh, free-range organic chicken strips (I recommend Trader Joe's version, very affordable)

2 T Sriracha

1/4 c rice wine vinegar

1/4 c olive oil

1 T Worcestershire 

1 t garlic powder

1/2 t cayenne

1/2 t smoked salt

For the crust:

1-2 eggs, beaten

1 cup panko 

1/2 cup flour

1 T cayanne

1 T garlic powder

1 t smoked salt

What you do:

1.  Combine all marinade ingredients together in a shallow dish.  Place chicken in the marinade and refrigerate, turning occasionally.  Marinate all day, or as long as possible for best flavor (I think...) :)

2.  When ready to cook the chicken, preheat oven to 425.

3.  Set up a breading station from left to right as follows: chicken, beaten egg in a shallow dish, crust mixture in a shallow dish, pan that breaded chicken will be cooked in.  (see picture below for similar set up with the avocado fries)

4.  Take chicken, one at a time and dip in egg mix, removing excess before dipping and coating in the panko mix and then placing in the final dish.  Do this to all pieces of chicken.

5.  Drizzle a little olive oil on all the pieces for extra crunch and color.

5.  Bake for around 30 minutes, checking occasionally for doneness, as all chicken will have different thickness.

Baked Avocado "fries"

What you need:

2 ripe avocados

3 T ground flax seed

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 c water

1 c panko

1/2 c flour

1 T cayenne

1 T garlic powder

1 t smoked salt

What you do:

1. Cut avocados in half, remove pit and cut each half into 4 sections.

2.  Carefully remove sections with a spoon.

3.  Set up your breading station in the same manner as the chicken.

4.  Mix together the flaxseed, water and baking powder.*

5.  Dip avocado pieces one at a time into the flax seed mixture, ensuring to get some flax on each piece before dipping into the panko breading.

6.  Drizzle olive oil on each and place in pre-heated 450 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.

*You can use eggs for the coating, but to make them vegan I wanted to try this option, it worked really well!

Roasted Parsnips: (Thanks Jarrett and Dave for introducing me to this delicious veg!)

What you need:

2-3 parsnips, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

rosemary

What you do:

Generously drizzle the parsnip pieces with olive oil and balsamic and sprinkle with some rosemary. Bake in 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until parsnips are nice and tender, stirring occasionally so they do not burn.

For dessert, Chocolate Covered Katie's chocolate chip cookie pie, made with beans.  (I halved her recipe, so it is half as thick, but equally delicious I'm sure!!!)

this picture is from yesterday...it is all gone now because I devoured it all. :(

perfect day for a family bike ride!