Lately Through Photos

Things are busy with school and the rest of life in full swing, but I'm determined to keep my little blog going, even if it means checking in a bit less often.  Here's what's been going on in the month of October.

Oliver turned 6!

Now that the birthday celebration is over, it's time for doggie boot camp to begin.  The vet informed us that Oliver weighs 47 pounds, which is pretty ridiculous for a beagle.  He needs to lose at least 7 pounds stat.  Poor guy...he just loves food so much!

Wendy continues to crack us up everyday by acting like the world's most privileged princess.

I'm loving all things fall. 

Pumpkin everything!

Halloween treats for our neighbors. 

Beautiful heirloom carrots. 

Fresh-squeezed apple juice.

So much ethnic food.  Jay and I are obsessed with Ethiopian and Moroccan. 

We've also eaten dinners like this many a night.  Can't go wrong with tofu+veggies+grains. 

And this sweet potato and white bean pasta recipe from the Humane Society was a big hit earlier this week.

 

 

It sort of reminded me of my very favorite sweet potato mac & cheese, but less cheesy and sweet, more savory and creamy.  

Jay's volleyball team is still dominating the competition.  I'm looking forward to going to Dallas tomorrow to cheer them on against their toughest opponent. 

When he's not coaching, Jay stays busy with various projects around the house, like hanging the lawn mower from the ceiling.  It's genius!

Also on the agenda: a trip out to California next Thursday to visit my friend Catie!  Catie is fighting recurrent breast cancer and has been a real trooper over the past few weeks.  Can't wait to see her along with lots of other friends from college. 

 

I'm off to start enjoying my fall break!  

Vegan Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese

Mac & cheese is one of my favorite classic comfort foods, but healthy it is (usually) not.  The boxed processed types are full of scary ingredients, and homemade versions generally aren't much better.  The average mac & cheese recipe calls for tons of butter, white flour, milk, and cheese.  Throw in some white pasta, and it doesn't get much more nutritionally void than that. 

Fortunately, thanks to wonder that is nutritional yeast, it is possible to make a mac & cheese that is both delicious and really good for you.  My go-to version involves the no-cheese sauce from the Forks Over Knives cookbook, which I shared a while back.  Last night, however, I was craving something a little different.  We had some sweet potatoes to use up, and the thought of a slightly sweet, cheesy meal sounded appealing.  I did some searching, and, sure enough, I wasn't the first person in the world to think of using sweet potatoes in a mac & cheese dish.  I ended up making some modifications to this recipe that I found on Alicia Silverstone's website (which is awesome, by the way) to create what you see below.  I highly recommend!

Vegan Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese

Total cook time: 1 hour

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 large sweet potato, cubed
• 1 box (13.5 oz.) elbow macaroni (I used whole wheat)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon liquid aminos (or soy sauce)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup shredded non-dairy cheese (like Daiya)
• 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast and 1/2 tbsp of olive oil for topping

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425° F. Place sweet potato cubes onto lightly greased baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Place in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until tender, turning once half way through.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and return to the pot.

In a medium bowl, combine lemon juice, mustard, garlic powder, chili flakes, nutritional yeast, olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Remove sweet potatoes from oven (don’t turn off the heat) and add them to the bowl with all your seasonings, almond milk, and shredded cheese. Mash well.

Add macaroni noodles to the bowl and stir it all together.  Transfer the mixture to a large casserole dish.  Top with nutritional yeast and then drizzle with olive oil to form a cheesy "crust."

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the top begins to brown.  

Serve and eat!  As usual, we also topped ours with some Sriracha for an extra kick.  

This macaroni turned out even better than I had imagined.  Jay was a huge fan, too.  We practically ate the entire thing in one sitting. 

Hope it was a great week.  Happy Friday!

Black Bean Tempeh Burgers

Hello! I hope it was a great weekend, especially for all the moms out there.

I enjoyed a fun few days, beginning with a happy hour with coworkers ...

(We were really excited that we all had the exact same lip balm.)

And ending with a delicious Mother's Day dinner last night.  We had my mom, step-dad, and grandma over for vegan sweet potato enchiladas, tamales, and salad.  I wish I had taken some pictures, but I was too busy enjoying the food and company.

In between, I cheered on the Thunder in a couple of intense games and attended a super fun bowling party for a friend who turned 30!

Wendy also enjoyed some R & R.  She may not be a mother, but she sure didn't feel guilty about putting her feet up yesterday. 

That dog never stops cracking me up!

The majority of my weekend meals weren't particularly noteworthy, but I do have a tasty recipe from last week to share with you today in honor of meatless Monday!

I'm not one to ever really crave burgers, but, last Thursday, Jay came home from work early and really wanted to make them.  Since he was cooking (or helping at least), I was all for it.  We decided to stray from our typical black bean burger recipe and try adding tempeh to the mix to bulk it up a bit.  We researched some recipes online and came up with what you see below.

They were fabulous topped with avocado and Sriracha and served with spicy roasted sweet potato fries.

On a side note, my grandma commented that I should have named the blog "100 Ways to Eat Sweet Potatoes."  I suppose we do eat them a lot.  They are just so nutritious, inexpensive, and versatile - you can never go wrong with sweet potatoes!

Black Bean Tempeh Burgers

Ingredients

1-8oz package tempeh

1/2 cup cooked black beans

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 medium scallions, sliced thin

1/4 green pepper, diced small
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
3 tbsp water
1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp grilling or hamburger seasoning mix

1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper

1/4 cup vegan or regular shredded cheese (we used Daiya mozzarella)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425.  Line a baking sheet aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. Combine ground flax seeds and water in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Crumble tempeh in a large bowl.  Add seasonings and toss gently.
4. Add black beans, scallions, cheese and flax mixture.  Mash it all together until all the ingredients are well combined.
5. Shape mixture into patties, about an inch thick. It should make 3 or 4.
6. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes (or until brown), turning once. 

7. Serve alone or on a bun with your favorite toppings.

To make the fries, just peel and cut a large sweet potato into fry-shaped pieces.  Toss with olive oil, sea salt, chili powder, and a little cayenne pepper.  Bake at 425 for 30-40 minutes, stirring once.

Only one more Monday to go until summer!  Let the countdown begin!

Gettin' Freekeh

So the fun grocery find of the week is....

Freekeh!

Jay and I saw a special all about this roasted grain on the Dr. Oz show a few months ago, but we have had the hardest time finding it!  Our local Whole Foods didn't even carry any.  I had pretty much given up, when I accidentally spotted these pre-packaged bags at Sprouts over the weekend (and they were on sale!).  I grabbed two different flavors to work into our dinners for the week.

So, what is Freekeh you may ask?  It's just a young green wheat that has been toasted and cracked.  It works great as a replacement for brown rice or quinoa in almost any recipe.

But why would you want to eat it?  Well, among other reasons, Freekeh has up to three times the amount of fiber and protein as brown rice, plus fewer calories than quinoa and white rice.  Sounds like a no-brainer to me!

Freekeh is prepared in a similar manner to other grains.  Simply use one part Freekeh to 2 1/2 parts of water or broth—bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer for about 20-25 minutes, or until tender.

Last night, I used our tamari flavored Freekeh to make this roasted sweet potato stew from freekeh-foods.com.

I loved the nutty flavor and slightly chewy texture of the grain.  The dish turned out freek-in' amazing.  ( < Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)

If you're lucky enough to find Freekeh at your local grocery store, you should definitely give it a try!

Adventures in Eating

A plant-based diet does not have to equal bland or boring.  Whenever I feel a food rut coming on, I look up a new recipe or pick up some interesting ingredients at the store and figure out how to work them into a meal.  I also love going to the farmers market and trying new foods that look appealing - fresh, in-season veggies are the best tasting kinds!

This week, a few new items sparked my interest in the produce department.  Here's what I found:

Okinawa Sweet Potatoes
Jay and I are very intrigued by unusually colored foods.  (To clarify, I am referring to natural colors - Fruit Loops don't count!)  It's normal to find yellow tomatoes, purple potatoes, white eggplants, and black rice, to name a few, in our kitchen.  We can't resist trying things that are out of the ordinary, and veggies packed full of color always seem so much more flavorful, nutrient-rich, and fun!

At our most recent trip to Sprouts, we came across a new type of sweet potato that we had never seen before.  This is an unusual occurrence, because, when it comes to sweet potatoes, we are quite experienced.  These small, lumpy Okinawa potatoes were imported from Japan and had light brown skin with an unusual dark purple flesh.  

The Okinawa potatoes were extra sweet, even for sweet potatoes.  In fact, I read that the people of Okinawa and Hawaii often serve them boiled and cut into chunks at the end of a meal - for dessert!  I chose to bake mine in the oven and then top with some coconut oil and sea salt.  They were a great compliment to our spicy sauteed kale and beer-battered tempeh bites (more on that recipe to come!). 

Jicama

My mom and I recently tried out a new plant-based Mexican restaurant in town, and we ordered jicama wraps as an appetizer.  The crispy root vegetable (similar to a turnip) was thinly sliced and used to wrap up fresh tomato, avocado, and sprouts.  It was topped with a delicious mango salsa.  

I loved the wraps so much that, when I saw jicama on sale at the grocery store, I immediately snagged one to make at home.  

Jimaca is nice and crunchy when eaten raw, and it makes a great addition to all sorts of salads and slaws.

I almost used our jicama as a salad topper, but then I came across some various recipes online for baked jicama fries.  I had no idea what jicama would taste like cooked, but I was eager to find out!

I used a vegetable peeler to remove the skin and then cut the jicama into french-fry shaped pieces.

The fries were then tossed with some olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt, cayenne pepper, and chili powder.

I couldn't resist snacking on a few of the raw fries, and they were delicious!  They would have made a great crunchy side dish or appetizer right then and there.

I still wanted to know what the cooked fries would taste like, so I restrained myself from eating them all and popped the rest into the oven for about 30 minutes at 400, stirring once.

The cooked fries tasted very similar to the raw version, just hotter (duh) and slightly more "fry-like."  I was glad that they didn't lose their crunch.  The fries were the perfect side dish with our tempeh lentil sloppy joes.

You can learn more about jicama and how to use it here. 

Have you tried any unusual foods lately?  I'd love to hear about it!

Black Bean Sweet Potato Quinoa Chili

The weather may be heating up, but I can't give up my soups and chilis just yet! I just love the convenience of throwing a bunch of ingredients into a single pot for a quick, tasty, and nutrition-packed meal.

Last night, I combined veggies with some black beans, quinoa, and spices. Of course, I also added in my all time favorite chili ingredient: roasted chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.  It turned into one heck of a delicious vegan meal!

Black Bean Sweet Potato Chili
Total time: 35 minutes
Hands on time: 10 minutes
Servings: 4

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 medium sized sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 2 medium carrots, sliced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 (15 oz.) can black beans (or roughly 1.5 cups fresh cooked)
• 1 (15 oz.) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• 1.5 cups vegetable broth
• 3/4 cups dry quinoa, rinsed
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne (or to taste)

Saute garlic, onion, sweet potato, carrots, and bell pepper in olive oil until onions are soft (about 5 minutes).

Add spices and remaining ingredients.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low. Simmer covered for 20-25 minutes, until vegetables and quinoa are cooked.

Top with garnishes of your choice - avocado, cheese (we used Daiya non-dairy), green onions, etc.

I love how thick and filling this soup turned out.  Even through the cold weather is on its way out, this recipe is here to stay!

Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Curry

After days of teasing us, the weather finally came through and dumped some snow over OKC on Thursday morning.  

We got a decent snow last Sunday, but it all melted before school on Monday.  Then, the "big" storm (that the weathermen had hyped up for days and days and days) was supposed to come in Tuesday morning, so we were all shocked and saddened when we woke up to nothing more than a little drizzle and had to go to work. 

 Luckily, we got a third little snow storm on Thursday, and, seeing as the temperatures were in the single digits, it finally stuck around.  We are now enjoying our second snow day in a row, making for a four-day weekend!  I was beginning to think it would never happen!!

Since I obsessively check the weather (I really may have a problem), I was overjoyed to find an app that combines weather with my favorite thing - puppies.  If you love dogs, you must download the Weather Puppy app immediately!  

I've had a chance to do quite a bit of cooking over the last couple days, and I wanted to share a tasty new Indian-inspired meal that I recently created. 

As I've mentioned before, aside from the staples I keep on a list, my go-to grocery shopping method is to wait until I get to the store to see what looks good and what is on sale.  I worry about what I'm going to do with it all later.  After all, when it comes to vegetables, you can always roast them and throw them all together in a "big bowl."  It's hard to go wrong.

I had a lot of sweet potatoes on my hands this week and was craving some kind of curry, so I used what I already had in the pantry/fridge to create this sweet potato and red lentil dish.  It was roughly inspired by an African peanut soup that I love in my Peas and Thank You cookbook.

This dish turned out amazing, and the fact that it is full of some of the world's healthiest spices and veggies is a major bonus.  It came together in about 30 minutes and made more than enough for Jay and me plus lunch the next day.

Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Curry

2 cups cooked brown rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
Dash of garam masala (optional)
1/2 cup water

15-oz can light coconut milk, shaken
15-oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 large sweet potato, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup red lentils

1 large handful fresh spinach
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional toppings: chopped peanuts, cilantro, green onion, Sriracha, etc.

In a heavy saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat. After the pan has heated up for a few minutes, add the onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook for about 5 minutes until everything is softened. Add the spices and cook for another 30 seconds.

Add the water, coconut milk, diced tomatoes. lentils, and sweet potato to the pan. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until lentils and sweet potato are tender. Add the spinach and stir until it has all wilted, about 2 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper.  Serve over brown rice and garnish as desired.

Have a great weekend!