recipe // savory stuffed mushrooms

I make a living as a cook and I was tasked with making these stuffed mushrooms for a catering event one evening. They were absolutely delicious. I adapted the recipe for a smaller portion that's easily taken to get togethers!

Savory Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:

20-25 medium sized cremini mushrooms, destemmed (save the stems)

2 cups roasted red peppers, finely diced

1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

3 tbsp minced garlic

4 cups spinach, finely chopped

1 cup parmesan cheese (I used finely shredded)

1/2 cup feta cheese, big bits crumbled

2 cups breadcrumbs

3 tbsp Lawry's Garlic, Rosemary, & Lemon Rub (or you can sub s&p, garlic powder, rosemary, and lemon zest/lemon pepper)

1/2 cup fresh chives, finely diced, for garnish

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350°

-Begin by removing the stems from the mushrooms. Keep the stems - you'll be finely dicing 1/3 of them and using them in the stuffing

-Bake the mushroom caps for about 10 minutes, remove from oven and cool

-Finely dice the roasted red peppers, onion, mushroom stems

-Mix the vegetables, garlic, and seasoning - sautee these in a pan with olive oil until they start to brown

-Finely chop the spinach and mix into the sauteed mix after the vegetables start to brown to wilt the spinach

-Once the spinach is wilted, remove the mix from heat and cool

-Mix the vegetables and parmesan/feta/bread crumbs together - add olive oil if too dry

-Mold the mix into sizeable balls that fit the mushroom caps

-Stuff the caps with the mix, then bake until the tops of the mix is crisp

-Once removed from the oven, top with fresh chives

Plate them in a shallow serving dish for easy pick up!

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easy vegan ratatouille

I started making this when I started eating vegan/vegetarian. This is super easy to make, is great for using up vegetables that have been hanging out in the fridge, and doesn't take long to cook!

I've made this with zucchini, kale, yellow squash, broccoli, bok choy, spinach, and more. You can definitely add any vegetable you fancy. Eggplant, bell peppers, etc. This is just the gist of how I make it! Like usual, I never really follow recipes and cook to taste.

Start with onions, carrots, and celery. I loathe the textures of these but they're vital for flavor, so I puree them, then brown them with olive oil in a sauce pan. Add minced garlic, then the vegetable that needs the most cook time - zucchini is my go to. I like my zucchini still slightly crunchy, but cook to your own preference.Once they're cooked, I add any other veggies that need to be cooked, though not the greens yet. After, I add a can of crushed tomatoes (or pureed diced tomatoes if that's what I have on hand) and get those almost to a simmer, then add in a can of rinsed cannellini beans and whatever greens I've chosen, which is typically kale. I season with every step - usually black pepper, nutritional yeast, basil, oregano, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder, among others. You could easily give this a Mexican vibe and go with cumin, coriander, and cilantro.

Other options for it can be pureeing the stems of broccoli with the onions to use them up, swapping the cannellini beans for black beans, or if you wanted to add meat (Wegmans have a great meatless beef crumble option). 

I usually serve this over rice, but you could add a little water or vegetable broth and thin it out for a pasta sauce or pizza topping. It's really versatile and super filling.

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lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*

recipe // ranch tortelloni salad

This is a quick and easy pasta salad recipe that I whipped up for Thanksgiving. Most of the ingredients were things I already had in my pantry and it's got a lot of flavor! I altered a pasta salad recipe I'd tasted at work and this was the result! I don't tend to measure accurately when I cook, so it's a lot of guesswork and working to your own tastes, but this is the gist!

Ingredients:
1 family size package of tortelloni or tortellini
1 packet of ranch dressing seasoning
1 package of cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Large spoonful of mayo
Handful of shredded parmesan cheese
Splashes of red wine vinegar and lemon juice
Parsley, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
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Cook the tortelloni as the package suggests, then drain the water and toss the pasta with some olive oil so it doesn't stick to itself. I then spread mine on a cookie sheet and put it in the fridge to cool completely.

Once it was cool, I put it in a bowl and added the spoonful of mayo and mixed it all together. I added the ranch in stages - some seasoning, stir, more seasoning - until the package was empty. I didn't want it clumping into the crevices of the pasta. At this point I stirred in the parsley and black pepper, too.

I added the tomatoes next, along with the red wine vinegar and lemon juice. Use these sparingly at first - it's mainly to cut the salt of the seasoning packet! You can always add more to taste later.

The parmesan was the last thing I added, sprinkling it in and stirring for adequate distribution.

Store it in the fridge and enjoy!

This is super easy to customize - you can add cucumber, olives, different cheese, more spices, anything you want!


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lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*

super easy pico de gallo recipe

I'll start this post by saying that I don't even like pico de gallo because I can't stand onions, so the raving review I got for this recipe was from a friend. I threw this together without a recipe, but I'll tell you how I made it! An alteration to traditional pico was the addition of garlic - we're garlic fiends around here, so it goes in everything.

Super Easy Pico de Gallo
Yields approximately two cups

12-15 cherry tomatoes, diced
small onion, diced
half a jalapeno, seeds removed and diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
juice of one small lime
half a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all together and let it sit for at least an hour so the flavors can marinate. You're done!

I'd never made this before and this is one of those recipes that can be tweaked and ingredients can be added or taken away to your taste. It was easy to make and prep time was only about ten minutes. Try it sometime!


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vegan tacos & leftover taco bowls

A few nights ago I made cabinet tacos. Super easy. Grab stuff from your cabinet, prepare it  and then my favorite part: MAKE TACOS AND STUFF YOUR FACE! I pick up most of my taco supplies when I have Cartwheel deals and coupons. It's a quick and cheap dinner that's almost always on hand if you pick up things when you pass them.

Gardein Beefless Ground cooked in a pan with chili & garlic powder (25% off deal on Cartwheel!)
refried beans (25% off deal on Cartwheel!)
multi-grain tortillas
Tofutti sour cream (leftover from making party dip!)
cherry tomatoes
Badia chipotle sauce
chickpeas

The best part? Leftovers! I'm a huge fan of leftovers. Sometimes I prefer them. Well, with tacos, the leftovers are so easy to take to work the next day: taco bowls!

Omit the tortilla, throw your leftover ingredients in a bowl, top it with sauce, and TA DA! Lunch.