Stuffed Button Mushrooms with Garlicky Rice Noodles

Yum! Yum! I'm a huge mushrooms fan! I love their texture and how they can easily replace meat in your diet. High in proteins and low in calories, they're just perfect for anyone who wants to maintain a healthy lifestyle! Portobellos are my favorite because they're easy to cook and have a really a soft texture. 

Easy and diet-friendly, this recipe can be made by anyone. The stuffed mushrooms can be served as a main or side dish or even a party appetizer! The rice noodles are also really healthy and super-fast to cook! Just put some boiling water over them and they'll be ready in no time! The sauce although must have a strong flavor or else they'll be pretty tasteless.

Hope you'll like this recipe!  

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Vegetarian Mushroom and Brown Rice Dolmas

First of all let me tell you what dolmas are . Dolmas are grape leaves traditionally stuffed with a mixture of rice and meat and then cooked. They are a Middle Eastern and Mediterranean specialty and are served as appetizers. The vegetarian ones are usually served cold and the ones with meat warm.

 I prefer them warm and served as a main dish with a tasty sauce on top. If you are vegan you can try a tomato based sauce and if you are vegetarian some sour cream (+ garlic - optional) on top will make these dolmas just perfect.  

Unfortunately I didn't count them before I put them in the oven and now once they're ready it's pretty impossible to do it. I think I made about 30 dolmas but this is only an approximation.  

Enjoy this healthy and delicious low calorie meal!

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The Perfect Butter Beans Stew

This dish goes straight to the first place in my favorite foods list! It is absolutely perfect! I like beans a lot and I have tried different recipes but this one has the ideal combination of flavors. I know, I know I'm bragging but still...you have to try it and you'll see that I'm right.

Use dry butter beans! Don't cheat and use canned ones because I don't guarantee that the taste and texture will be same.

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Brown Rice Mushroom Pilaf

This is one of my favorite dishes. I love everything about it, texture, flavors, you name it. It is so simple and yet so tasty. I usually eat this with a big bunch of chopped parsley on top because I’m such a parsley lover and this combination seems perfect to me.

Another great thing is that it doesn’t take much time to make; you just throw there some ingredients and let the fire to its job. Unfortunately I don’t have as much time as I’d like to spend in the kitchen and I know that most of you are in the same situation as I am, that’s why I want to show you simple, quick and healthy recipes.

Do you know other brown rice pilaf recipes? I only tried it with mushrooms or chicken (when I wasn’t vegetarian). Do you think that this will work with other veggies as well but still maintain its smooth texture?

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Traditional Romanian Polenta

This is such a simple recipe and yet it can be modified in so many ways to create new and even more delicious recipes. This is the basic polenta with just 3 ingredients: water, cornmeal and salt. I often eat polenta instead of bread because it is much healthier and also it contains a higher amount of fibers.

Studies have shown that by eating polenta we fight against diabetes, liver and even respiratory diseases. Eating polenta also helps us prevent obesity and thyroid diseases. Cornmeal has many great benefits but we should choose only the organic non-GMO version because this one does not contain additives and other bad substances .

Most times I use polenta as a side dish but it can also be a main dish if you add more ingredients like chopped onion, parsley, tofu etc. In future posts I will show you ways to incorporate polenta in different recipes and also how to make this dish more flavorful. Until then enjoy this traditional Romanian dish known worldwide!

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Mashed Butter Beans with Tomato Sauce

This is an easy recipe that can be used as a side, appetizer or even a main dish. Because this recipe is high in fibers and low in fat and sodium, it is recommended for those of you who are on a diet trying to lose weight.

What I like most about this recipe is that it is also very versatile; you can add a carrot instead of celery, which will give the beans a beautiful orange color or you can change the sauce, for example tahini paste will be delicious if served on top of these mashed beans. Feel free to try an combination you like.

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Asian “Chicken” Stir Fry

This is the perfect meal if you want to fool a meat eater into believing that what he eats is chicken. This happened to my boyfriend and he realized he’s not eating chicken only when he saw that I was eating too.

You’ll love the soy texture and the spicy aromas. This recipe is easy, fast and healthy. Let me know if the trick worked for you as well.

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Black Bean Veggie Nuggets

I am constantly trying to make my bf give up meat and what is a better way than cooking some meat-like, fast food looking, healthy meals. He loved this recipe! And I mean LOVED! It resembles the traditional Romanian meat nuggets recipe which honestly is delicious but really unhealthy. I used a very small amount of oil, gluten free flour and black beans which are a lot better than the white ones because they contain more fibers and have an impressive amount of antioxidants.

By the way, these nuggets can be easily transformed in burger patties.

I really hope you’ll like this recipe. It is simple and delicious!

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Vegan Bolognese Spaghetti

I love Italian food, especially pasta! This is the well known Bolognese Pasta recipe turned vegan. The texture and taste are almost the same as in the original recipe, which is a great thing! Even better, I used gluten free spaghetti.

Hope you'll like it!

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Autumn in a plate - Oven Roasted Vegetables

I love roasted vegetables; so easy to make, so simple and yet so delicious. Of course raw vegetables are a lot healthier than cooked ones but sometimes you just need a hot meal right?! Anyway this dish is very healthy, low in calories, low in fat and also low in sodium, diet friendly and it is very filling too.

Did you know that unlike other fruits and vegetables, where nutritional content such as vitamin C is diminished upon cooking, processing of tomatoes increases the concentration of bioavailable lycopene. Lycopene in tomato paste is four times more bioavailable than in fresh tomatoes. For this reason, tomato sauce is a preferable source as opposed to raw tomatoes. If you don't know, lycopene is a powerful antioxidant and it has been considered a potential agent for prevention of some types of cancers.

Another great thing about this recipe is the combination of tastes and textures: sweet and salty, crunchy and soft...amazing! I also love the colors; the potatoes look like they were painted! It’s like having autumn in a plate!

Try it!

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Multigrain Bread

I’m not a huge fan of baked goodies and I also don’t eat bread very often, but unfortunately my boyfriend needs bread at almost every meal the same way he needs air to breathe. I decided then to make a compromise, so once a week I make him a healthy and tasty bread which is surprisingly filling and instead of eating 5 servings of “filled with chemicals” bread a week, he only eats a healthy one. This is a simple recipe that does not require a lot of kneading.

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