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Beluga Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew

10 May

Beluga-Lentil-Sweet-Potato-1

I would buy the Green Kitchen app just for this recipe. It was mind-blowing. I didn’t have cardamom which made me a little nervous that the meal would be lacking flavor. To make up for the missing cardamom, I decided to add cinnamon and nutmeg. The result was so good that I may never try it with the cardamom.

This was a really hearty meal. I could definitely see this recipe becoming a fall/winter favorite. Despite being so hearty, it was still really light and didn’t leave me feeling really full.

Beluga-Lentil-Sweet-Potato-2

Keep your eyes out for my review of the app on Monday!

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Spaghetti Squash with Pesto and Beluga Lentils

9 May

Spaghetti-Squash-Pesto-1

via Green Kitchen app

This meal was the first time that I’ve had spaghetti squash and it definitely won’t be the last. It is a great alternative to pasta which can be so heavy. Michael didn’t love the squash but he said that it wasn’t horrible because of the pesto. I decided that I would use my pesto instead of the parsley pesto that the original recipe called for.

Spaghetti-Squash-Pesto-1

The one part of the meal that was surprisingly good were the lentils. I had never had beluga lentils before but they are really good. They are a bit firmer and a little stronger in flavor than other lentils. However, I felt they added a nice flavor and texture to what could have been an otherwise boring meal.

Spaghetti-Squash-Pesto-3

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Green Lentil & Yellow Beet Salad

7 May

Green-Lentil-Yellow-Beet-Salad-1

I’m still here! Blogging and cooking have taken a back seat since we came home from Colorado. A combination of life and illnesses left me with zero motivation to do much of anything. But that’s all changing now! I felt awful after eating comfort food and take-out, so I decided that we’re spring cleaning ourselves around here.

Feeling uninspired, I decided to try different recipes from the Green Kitchen app all week. Last night we had this Green Lentil & Yellow Beet Salad. It was OK. Definitely not the most delicious meal I’ve eaten but it was really healthy and I didn’t feel like there was a 50 pound weight in my stomach. Once my motivation returns I’ll figure out a way to make a much more delicious version.

Unfortunately I can’t post the ingredients and directions, but my plan is to give you my opinion on the app and whether of not I felt it was worth the money. See, there is a method to my madness!

Green-Lentil-Yellow-Beet-Salad-2

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Creamy Farro with Mushrooms and Broccolette

4 Apr

Creamy-Farro-top

My first thought when I read this recipe in Whole Living was oh, this is gonna be good! And, it did not disappoint.

I changed it up a little and added broccolette instead of spinach. I’ve made it with the spinach before and it’s great, I just had a big bag of broccolette that I needed to use. I roasted the broccolette along with the mushrooms, but I recommend lowering the temperature to 350o. I also substituted vegetable broth for chicken broth and added some cubed tempeh.

You can find the original recipe on Whole Living

Creamy-Farro-Side

As always,enjoy!

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Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter Sauce

29 Mar

Tagliarelle-with-Truffle-Butter

Trust me, you want to eat this. This is the easiest dish that I have ever made and it will blow your mind. We had this for our Valentine’s Day dinner and we both inhaled it. I found the truffle butter at Whole Foods but only in a 4 oz. container. Since I had no other use for the extra ounce, I decided to use the whole container. Other than that, I didn’t change a thing about this recipe. It’s absolutely perfect!

You can find the recipe here Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter

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Three Bean Chili and Vegan Cornbread

8 Mar

Three-Bean-Chili

It’s been pretty cold here in Chicago and nothing makes me feel warm and happy like a bowl of chili and warm cornbread.

Just a warning, I like my food a bit on the spicy side. If you don’t, you can reduce the amount of chipotles and jalapeño you put into the chili. The adobo sauce itself isn’t terribly spicy and neither is chili powder. That’s what helps give it the smokey flavor.

For the Chili:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup dry black beans
1/2 cup dry pinto beans
1/2 cup dry white beans
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
2 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp chipotle chilis in adobo sauce, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
Shredded cheddar cheese or nutritional yeast as a topping

Directions:

  1. Heat the oil in a heavy stock pot over medium heat
  2. Add the onion, bell peppers and jalapeño to the oil and saute until the onions are clear. Once the onions are clear, add the garlic
  3. When the garlic is fragrant, sprinkle the chili powder and cumin and stir
  4. Add the tomatoes, vegetable broth and chipotle chilis with some of the adobo sauce
  5. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes
  6. Season with salt and pepper

Cornbread

For the Cornbread:
Ingredients:
11/4 cups garbanzo bean flour (you can substitute any flour you like)
1 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sucanat
4 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 cup milk of choice (I used Homemade Almond Milk)
1 tsp vinegar
2 tbsp ground flax
2 tbsp water
1 cup frozen corn, thawed

Directions:

  1. In a medium bowl, combine the flax and water to make a paste
  2. Add the milk, vinegar and sucanat to the flax mixture, and stir well
  3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal and baking soda
  4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the center and combine well
  5. Add in the corn and coconut oil and mix well
  6. Pour the batter into a greased 8×8 baking dish and bake until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean
  7. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before slicing

As always, enjoy!

Chili-with-Cornbread

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Vegetable Bolognese

7 Mar

Vegetable-Bolognese-Cooked

Pasta definitely tops the list of my favorite foods. Add in some cheese and it’s even better. However, being the healthy person that I am, I knew that I needed to throw in something to balance the pasta and cheese. Enter vegetables!

Raibow-Carrots

When I was at the grocery store this weekend these beauties jumped out at me and I knew that they would be perfect in this bolognese. It’s kind of sad that you can’t see their beautiful color but they sure tasted good.

IMG_9391

Just a quick note, I doubled the recipe so that I could freeze half for later.

Ingredients:
Inspired by Giada De Laurentiis
2 red bell peppers, chopped
8 oz cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 bunch rainbow carrots
1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tsp fresh thyme
3 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 can tomato paste
16 oz. mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup parmesan
1/8 cup fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed
1/2 pound whole wheat pasta
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Cook pasta according to package and preheat oven to 350o
  2. Give the bell peppers, carrots and onion a rough chop and transfer to a food processor, along with the garlic and pulse until you have a mixture of finely grated and chunks of vegetables
  3. Heat the olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, transfer vegetable mixture to the pan and add the thyme and oregano
  4. Cook vegetables until golden brown and stir in tomato paste
  5. Once tomato paste is combined, add vegetable broth and reduce for about 20 minutes
  6. Remove the pan from heat and stir in mascarpone and parmesan cheese
  7. Stir until both cheeses are combined
  8. Toss the pasta with the sauce and cubed mozzarella cheese. Spoon into individual ramekins or baking dish
  9. Bake until cheese is melted

As always, enjoy!

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Very Cherry Berry Smoothie

6 Mar

Very-Cherry-Berry-Smoothie

Would you believe me if I told you that this smoothie was a green smoothie? Well, it is! That’s right, lots of kale went into the making of my all-time favorite smoothie. This shake is super fast since the Very Cherry Berry Mix comes frozen from Trader Joe’s. The main difference in my smoothie recipes is the fruit combination. My main goal is to get my greens and protein but sometimes I just want a different flavor. Although, this one never gets old 🙂

Ingredients
makes 2 servings
1 cup Trader Joe’s Very Cherry Berry Mix
1/2 cup fresh or frozen mango
1 banana
4 cups kale
1/2 cup silken tofu
13/4 cup steeped green tea
2 tbsp chia seeds
2 packets stevia
4 ice cubes (optional)

Directions

  1. Place all the ingredients, except the steeped green tea and chia seeds, into a blender
  2. Steep the green tea for 2-3 minutes and remove the tea bag
  3. Sprinkle the chia seeds into the green tea and let steep for 10 minutes
  4. Add the ice to the warm green tea and chia seeds to help cool down the temperature
  5. Pour the tea and seed mixture into the blender and blend

As always, enjoy!

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Vegan Blueberry Pancakes

5 Mar

Pancakes-Cooked

Who doesn’t love pancakes, especially for dinner! The other night I decided to change things up and make “brinner” as Michael likes to call it. He also said that these were the best pancakes he has ever had. Another bonus is that they re-heat really well. Just throw them back on the griddle or into a skillet and you’re good to go!

Just a note, I used King Arthur flour which is higher in protein than other whole wheat flours. As a result, the flour soaks up a lot of moisture so I need to use more almond milk. If you use all-purpose flour or another type of flour, you may need to decrease the amount of milk.

Pancake-Batter

Pancakes-Cooking

Ingredients:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
21/2 cups milk of choice (I used homemade almond milk)
2 tbsp ground flax
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp melted coconut oil
1/2 cup blueberries

Directions:
Makes approximately 12 pancakes

  1. Combine the flour and the baking powder in a large bowl
  2. In a small bowl, mix the ground flax and water together to make a paste (vegan bakers use this mixture as an egg substitute). Add the maple syrup, vanilla and coconut oil to the flax and mix together
  3. Add the flax mixture and milk to the flour and stir until just combined. Be sure not to over mix, you don’t want the batter to get thick
  4. Stir in blueberries to the batter
  5. Heat oil on a griddle or skillet over medium heat
  6. Add about a 1/4 cup of batter to the pan or griddle. The edges of the batter will begin to bubble when the pancake is ready to be flipped over

As always, enjoy!

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Homemade Vanilla Almond Milk

4 Mar

Almond-Complete

I was always curious about the hype surrounding almond milk, but was hesitant to try the store-bought milks because they contain fillers and other junk that I prefer to avoid. As is usually the case, I was left with no choice but to try to make my own. After tasting the outcome, I can see why everyone is up in arms about almond milk. It’s rich, sweet, nutty and just all around delicious. Not to mention really fun to make!

I researched how to make your own nut milk and I found that the nut to milk ratio was pretty much always the same. I did try different combinations of sweeteners and I found that stevia was much too strong and you can’t really achieve a smooth texture with sucanat. Maple syrup alone wasn’t sweet enough, so I added dates.

A few other things I learned are that you should use vanilla extract that doesn’t contain alcohol. If your extract contains alcohol it will give your milk a distinct alcohol aftertaste that isn’t very pleasant. This is because you’re not cooking out the alcohol. I was able to find vanilla extract without alcohol at Trader Joe’s. Another thing I found helpful was to heat the dates in the microwave for 10 seconds which made them nice and soft.

You will need to stir the milk before use.

Ingredients:
1 cup almonds, soaked for a minimum of 6 hours
4 cups filtered water
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 dates, softened

Directions:

  1. Drain soaked almonds and discard soaking water
  2. Combine almonds and water in a blender and blend until well combined
  3. Strain the almond water mixture in a cheese cloth or nut bag. Squeeze all the liquid out of the cloth or bag so you will be left with a clay like ball of almonds
  4. Return the strained liquid back to the blender and add in the dates, vanilla and maple syrup. Blend until the dates are well combined into the liquid.

Almond-Straining

Almond-Squeezing

As always, enjoy!

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