Spinach fettuccine with sauteed baby portobello mushrooms, pesto and shaved parmesan makes a great meatless, filling and nutritious meal.

Along with this beautiful salad of fresh yellow peppers and avocados our vegetarian meal satisfies everyone.

Annie’s Green Goddess dressing makes this salad heaven!

Boil spinach fettuccine, al dente.

Sautee the mushrooms with olive oil and garlic slices.

And mix in your favorites. I love basil pesto which I make myself.

I make it vegan and fresh!

Shaved parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil make this fantastic!

I love eggplant and I love basil!

This recipe combines my favorites along with cheese and the crispy fried goodness of eggplant in olive oil!

This is basically eggplant parmesean but with basil pesto instead of red sauce.

I also did not use ricotta cheese.

This was easy and so rich and delicious that I can’t wait to make it again!

Ingredients

2 large eggplants

2 large eggs

1 cup flour or Italian style bread crumbs

3 cups mozzerella cheese

1/2 cup parmesean cheese

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 eggs

1/2- 3/4 cup of basil pesto

a pinch of nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Begin by dredging the sliced eggplant in the eggwash and flour.

I added slices of fresh basil to the 2 eggs for an extra bite of flavor.

Fry the slices until light brown and crispy and set aside.

Combine the pesto, heavy cream and nutmeg and mix well.

Coat the bottom of a large baking dish with the pesto cream mixture..

Place a layer of the fried eggplant on the bottom of the dish.

Combine the cheeses and 2 eggs and mix well and layer on top of the eggplant.

Then add another layer of the pesto and cream mixture.

Just keep douing this until you run out of ingredients.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until golden and bubbly!

This light tomato, red onion and basil salad complimented the cheesy richness beautifully!

OK! So it wasn’t Steve Carell but it was a real fantastic pizza!

This guy was hilarious and ate up all the attention that his “Steve Carell-esque” similarity would allow!

This pizza, on the other hand, was the real thing and Delish!

Thin crispy crust with a light touch of fontina cheese and the freshest basil pesto and olive oil.

Gently roasted cherry tomatoes “pop” when you bite into them and ooz warm tomato-y goodness.

Meatless Monday! Was Pizza Night for us this week.

The girls were in charge.

I picked up dough at my favorite pizza spot; $3.50 for one large dough which makes a 17 inch pizza. That is a great value and a tremendous time saver. Plus, you know that it will be perfect every time.

We made tomato and basil, shiitake and spinach, pesto and pine nut, and a red sauce and cheese.

For the shiitake and spinach I sautéed the mushrooms and spinach in olive oil before adding them to the pizza. For the base I spread parmesan, garlic and olive oil cream sauce spread which I made beforehand then topped it off with shredded mozzarella cheese. Delish!

The tomato, basil and mozzarella pizza was fantastic! After preparing the dough we coated the top with a drizzle of olive oil then laid on the veggies…..this one was best; Belle’s creation! Gorgeous!

Homemade pesto, a few pine nuts and mozzarella made a great light pizza which was great with the Blue Moon Belgian wheat beer.

This is not only Meatless Monday! But family night and Pizzalicious!

Meatless Monday! was a huge hit tonight. It may have been the best to date.

The soup and sandwich idea was inspired by a cold and rainy day

This meal was not just meatless but vegan deliciousness.

My kale obsession continues and I have made it kid friendly and so satisfying.

I had planned to put the white beans in the soup and serve with a gourmet toasted cheese sandwich. When I mentioned this to my daughter she turned up her nose at the cheese sandwich idea, which actually made me happy as I am all about vegan meals.

So I began “deconstructing”. What to do with the beans? What do we get from cheese that we like so much? The creamy, filling, salty goodness! I can do that with white beans!

A baguette thinly sliced and lightly coated with fragrant organic olive oil was the beginning.

I then lightly toasted them and put them aside.
I sautéed ¼ of a white onion with 5 cloves of garlic and about 2 big tablespoons of rosemary in ¼ cup of olive oil until the onions were transparent.
Then I placed the cooled mixture into the food processer with 2 cans of white northern beans and pureed and set this aside, also.
I then sliced 1 large roasted red pepper.

I also had a large bunch of fresh basil. I used 5-6 cloves of garlic and toasted about a half cup of pine nuts and combined in the food processer with ¾ cup of olive oil and set that aside to assemble right before dinner so that the crostini did not become soggy.

The kale soup was easy plus I cheated with vegan soup bullion.

In a large soup pot I sautéed ½ a white onion with 5-6 cloves of garlic and about ½ cup of olive oil.

I chopped the kale and sautéed it for a bit, then added cubed yellow organic potatoes.

I then added about 8-10 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of vegan bullion and allowed it to cook for about an hour and a half.

Parmesan cheese tops my daughters soup.

This wine was great with the soup.

This was my “cheat” ingredient!

My food processor was my best friend today. I couldn’t have done it without her! I could have but it wouldn’t have been as easy or as fun!