Fast Diet Recipes For Vegetarians

No one will think about dieting when you serve these Mexican Baked Eggs!

(Day two with a hard cast on my broken arm, and although I'm slow at doing everything I'm hoping I'll get better at typing within a few days so I can share some brand new recipes again.  Meanwhile, for A Month of Daily Phase One Recipes, here's one of my favorite Phase One breakfasts, first posted in 2009, and enjoyed many times since at my house!)

This dish started out as one of those recipe ideas that get stuck in my mind and simply don't go away until I've finally tried creating the recipe. For sure it was the Tuscan Baked Eggs I made last summer that got me thinking of eggs baked in tomato sauce but I have no idea what inspired me to try simmering the tomatoes with black beans and spicy green chiles. It turned out to be a keeper though (and not all my spontaneous recipes are a success, so I'm happy when they are!)

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions for Meatless Monday, May 2013.)  This Pinto Bean Salad with Avocado, Tomatoes, Red Onion, and Cilantro salad was originally inspired by one I loved at a party I attended with my brother Rand where guests were asked to bring Oaxacan dishes.  Back home I came up with my version on one of those spring days when suddenly I had to have that fresh tomato flavor in my mouth. When the tomato urge hits me, I don't care whether it's tomato season or how much I have to pay, if I can find tomatoes that taste good I'll buy some. The tomatoes I used were from Costco, and they had that "tomato smell" I always look for if I buy tomatoes.  Even the best store-bought tomatoes can't match that late-summer umami-filled tomato flavor I get when I'm picking my homegrown tomatoes in August, but these tomatoes tasted pretty good.

This Quinoa Side Dish has extra flavor from Pine Nuts, Green Onions, and Cilantro (or use flat leaf parsley if you're not a cilantro fan.)

(For Friday Flashbacks I feature favorite recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this Quinoa Side Dish with Pine Nuts, Green Onions and Cilantro is a quinoa recipe that was really a wow for me.  This is also one of my easy Five Ingredients recipes; hope you enjoy!)

How do you feel about quinoa?  It's something I was slow to warm up to, and for a long time I didn't think I'd ever be much of a quinoa fan.  Then I made Quinoa Salad with Avocado, Radishes, Cucumbers, and Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette, followed by Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad and Southwestern Quinoa Salad with Black Beans, Red Bell Pepper, and Cilantro and I was surprised to discover how much I liked it.  This Quinoa Side Dish with Pine Nuts, Green Onions, and Cilantro may be my favorite quinoa recipe yet.  The quinoa is sauteed in oil for a few minutes before it's cooked in chicken or vegetable stock, and then a generous amount of toasted pine nuts and chopped green onion and a little chopped cilantro is stirred in before it's eaten warm.  If you're not a cilantro lover, I think chopped flat-leaf parsley could also be used here.  And if you haven't had quinoa yet, this is a recipe you should definitely try.