Meatless Recipes (not only for Lent)

It's Fri-Yay!  It means the weekend is here and it means no meat for me today!  As a Catholic, it has been our practice to abstain from eating meat on Fridays during the Lenten Season (which starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday), something that my Mom inculcated in us when we were growing up.  I remember that our default food during this season was. . . ginisang munggo (sauteed mung beans) and fried galunggong (round scad).  And I remember getting hungry easily too, haha! And when I started working, I started to give up something else too besides meat on Fridays as a sacrifice.  There was a year I gave up coffee, another year it was chips.  This Lenten season, I gave up. . . Diet Coke!  You might say this is easy but sacrifice means giving up something which is precious to you. . . and I love my Diet Coke!  (And yes I know, it's bad for the health!)  Actually, I find giving it up harder than giving up meat!  Haha!  

Now that I'm older and learned my way around the kitchen, I know that there is more to fried fish and mung beans, haha!  Here are some meatless dishes I've prepared during this Lenten season.

PASTA

I bought a few bottled pasta sauces and just sauteed them with garlic, onion and a can of tuna flakes (my favorite is Century's Hot and Spicy!).   You may add vegetables too like mushrooms, bell pepper, capers or olives . . .or even green peas!

Pasta with Creamy Alfredo Sauce and Pesto

Spaghetti Marinara with Tuna

While I love pasta, there are days that I still look for my rice.  Besides fish, another seafood I love (love, love, love!) is shrimps!  My go to recipe is usually the Butter Garlic Shrimps but for a change, I've cooked it with Ampalaya (Bitter Gourd).

For a Ginisang Ampalaya recipe, please click on this link to go to Panlasang Pinoy.  The only changes I did was I used fish sauce instead of salt and I added shrimp in the recipe.

Another Shrimp recipe I tried for the first time (also from Panlasang Pinoy) was Ginataang Hipon, Sitaw at Kalabasa (Shrimps, String Beans and Squash in Coconut Cream).  I like this dish because it has two of my favorite things. . . shrimps and coconut cream! =)  It is a winner in my book. . . and it's hubby-approved too!

Please click here for the recipe.

Another dish which I tried for the first time was Baked Salmon with Teriyaki sauce.  

I just marinated the fish (prepared it in the morning and had it for dinner) with the following:

Bottled Teriyaki sauce 

*(it's healthier to prepare a Teriyaki sauce from scratch which I plan to do next!)

Honey

Garlic Powder

Grated Ginger 

Lemon

Pepper

I don't really have measurements because I taste the marinade as I go.  But for a pound of fish, you can start with 3/4 of a cup of teriyaki sauce and 1/4 cup of honey or less and you can just work your way from there.  Just whisk everything in a bowl and put the fish and the marinade in a ziploc bag, put it in the fridge and let the marinade do its wonders on the fish the whole day!

How to cook it?

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Put the fish in a baking dish (skin down).  As for the marinade, put a little bit of water to thin it out (just a bit), and olive oil (just because I think it would be nice to add some, haha!) and whisk these together. Then pour the liquid mixture over the fish and put it in the oven.   

The fish cooks really quickly that I suggest you stay near the oven, haha!  I've read that for every half of inch thickness of your fish, give it 4-6 mins. cooking time.

You know your fish is ready when the meat turns flaky.

I am soooo happy how this turned out!  

Hubby and I loved it soooo much that we did this again (using a different fish) the week after, haha!

The second time I did this, I seared the fish in a skillet pan before baking it in the oven which I think is better. =)

Which reminds me, I have to get some more fish fillets the next time I go to the grocery!

Another favorite fish recipe of mine is Tuna Sisig which I blogged about here.

So there you go, these are some of the recipes I've tried in the kitchen that are worth keeping and sharing.

Do you have a favorite meatless recipe too?  Please share! =)

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend ahead!