Mini Soy Chorizo Crustless Quiches

Being a stoner on the go, I always try to find ways to make my life easier without sacrificing eating healthy homemade vegetarian meals.

I recently stopped at a Target store with my mother who bought me a new pan. She was feeling guilty for burning the one I previously had after forgetting it on the hot stove one evening while she was enjoying some relaxing time in the jaccuzzi.

Target is full of fun kitchen gadgets, and just like a kid in a candy store, I started whining and I asked my mother for everything in the store. "I want this! I want it, I gotta have it,  get it for me"

I left with a new pan....and a few cliff bars which are often used as my breakfast on my way to work. But I had my eyes on a muffin tray and it would take me a few days to work up the courage to go back to the store to buy it for myself. It's not easy being a man with a muffin tray at the cash register.

When I came back home I immediately put it to use and started working on my first batch of mini crustless quiches. I do enjoy a good muffin once in a while but I was looking to use it to make all kinds of savory snacks that I could then freeze and reheat later whenever I would get hungry. Since the tray has 12 compartments, it allows me to get a few meals out of one batch, hence minimizing the amount of effort required for each meal. But cooking so much for one person can also be dangerous if you end up eating all twelve quiches on your own...I know

Recipe for 12 quiches

Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 cup of flour
- 1/4 cup of heavy cream
- 100g soy chorizo
- Basil
- salt and pepper
- Thin Zucchini slices
- 1/2 cup of Grated cheese of your choice (I used swiss and Comté cheese)

Mix the eggs, the cream, the flour, the chorizo, the basil, 1/4 cup of cheese and the salt and pepper together. Pour the mix in the muffin tray about 1/8 inch from the top and add a slice of zucchini on top of the mix. The slice should be thin enough to stay on top of the batter and not sink. Then add the remaining cheese on top the zucchinis.

Place the tray in the oven at 375 degrees for 35 mn or until the top is becoming brown. I also tried it with a handful of ground mushrooms and loved it. It's an easy and festives recipe.

Movies in a plate: The March Of The Penguins

I recently channeled Steve Carell from "Dinner for Schmucks" and started working on a series of pictures depicting famous movie posters in vegetarian dishes: a true food nerd experiment.

My first food poster was done right after my trip to Japan where I had an incredible culinary experience. When I returned home I headed straight to the local Japanese supermarket and bought some of my favorite vegetarian ingredients like daikon, seaweed, pickled cucumber and sticky rice.

It was enough to work on my project and eat a decent meal.

I was inspired by the contrast of the black seaweed and the white rice and "The march of the penguins in a plate" wad created. And it didn't taste that bad even though that was a lot of daikon for one small plate (the clouds were made out of daikon). It wad hard to destroy it and eat it, but it was a better alternative than just letting it rot away.

The Vegetti Spiral Slicer: My New Favorite Kitchen Toy

I have recently gone from being omnivorous to being pescatarian, but I have been eating vegetarian for the most part. Now it wasn't an easy transition: I was a meat lover for years and I would try anything on my travels and ate things that most people would never touch (eg: 7-Eleven hot dogs). But I decided to make the jump for a few personal reasons and I have been happy with this decision. I essentially only eat fish when I get a craving after a big workout or a long hike, but I keep it to a minimum. Who can forget Finding Nemo's most famous quote: "Fish are friends, not food". I had to change my way of thinking along the way and find new staple food to keep in my kitchen, while still making my cooking fun and delicious.

Going cold turkey was the only way to make this happen, but of course it meant that my first month of meatless dishes looked like....well... it looked like something was missing. As they often say on the show The Taste: "Where's the protein?" I still love to host diner parties and cook for my friends, and even though I will never try to impose my personal beliefs on others, I enjoy the challenge of treating them to a meatless but tasty dinner that hopefully will inspire them to cook more vegetarian dishes in the future. My quest for the perfect Vegetarian party dish had started. 

There have been some hits and there have been a lot of misses, but practice makes perfect and I persevered. Along the way I peeled, I boiled, I steamed and I puréed and green veggies don't scare me anymore: I have come to love every produce in the grocery store (except celery, now that's just nasty). I've also always wanted to keep having fun in the process, whether I'm having fun cooking or plating for a nice picture. And after too many visits to Bed Bath and Beyond, I finally gave in and bought myself a Vegetti Spiral Slicer.

Whether you're looking to cut back on the controversial gluten, or you simply want to find a fun way to eat vegetables for you and your family, the Vegetti will become one of your favorite kitchen utensil.

I have used it repeatedly with Squash and I have yet to experience with more veggies, but here are two of my recent dishes.

The picture on the left is a baked portabello mushroom with grilled cheese on a bed of yellow squash Vegetti with a homemade tomato sauce. The picture on the right is Squash Vegetti in a bowl of Gazpacho.