Lightened Up Protein Power Goddess Bowl

Source (pics, too): Oh She Glows

That vegan lady strikes again.

As I am officially off of my 6 month eating plan (CAN I GET A AMEN?!), it's time to add some freaking VARIETY back into my diet!! Without blowing it, that is. I don't want to waste all of that hard work, so I got to hunting down some healthy salady foody type thing to keep my eating hole satisfied and intrigued.

I was going to prep a bunch of stuff yesterday for the week, my visit with my irresistibly adorable nephew when predictably late.

I STILL COOKED, DAMN IT.

Starting to cook when it's already past your bedtime is really super fun, you guys.

But not being prepared leads to snackers anon meetings.

Yield: 6 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked green lentils (yield 2 & 3/4 cups cooked)
• 1 cup uncooked speltberries (yield 2 cups cooked) OR grain of choice, like brown rice (I used quinoa)
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil, for sautéing
• 1/2 red onion (~1 & 1/3 cups), chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 3 cups spinach or kale, roughly chopped (I used Lacinato kale) (I used regular ol kale)
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
• 1 batch of Lightened Up Tahini-Lemon Dressing (recipe below)
• Kosher salt & black pepper, to taste
• Lemon Wedges & lemon zest, to garnish

Directions:

1. Cook lentils and speltberries (or grain of choice) according to package directions. I did this the night before to save time. Drain and set aside. (To be honest, both lentils and quinoa take a while to cook and I was way tired and impatient and noticed that they have similar cooking times. You see where I'm going with this. I cooked them together. AND IT WORKED.)

2. Prepare the Lightened Up tahini-Lemon dressing in food processor (see below for recipe).

3. In a large skillet over low-medium heat, add your olive oil and sauté the chopped onion and minced garlic for a few minutes, being careful not to burn. Now add in the chopped red pepper and tomato and sauté for another 7-8 minutes.

4. Stir in the chopped kale or spinach and sauté for another few minutes, just until tender. Stir in the full batch of tahini-Lemon dressing, the cooked & drained grains and lentils, and simmer on low for another few minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the minced parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with lemon wedges and zest. Makes 6 cups.

Lightened Up Tahini-Lemon Dressing

Adapted from Tahini-Lemon Dressing.

Yield: Just under 1 cup of dressing

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Tahini (it's by the pb in the store, JUST SO YOU KNOW)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
• 1/4 cup Nutritional yeast or a bit more, to taste (I have no idea what that is and am too lazy to look it up. I found it in the bulk section at Whole Foods and am trusting that it won't kill me)
• 2-4 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil, to taste
• 1 tsp kosher salt + freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
• 3 tbsp water, or as needed

Directions:

1. In a food processor, add all ingredients and process until smooth. Makes just under 1 cup.

My notes:

Tahini smells weird and is not, in fact, the yogurt sauce that I thought it was. The chick is vegan, Summer, DUH it's not yogurt. It's just like peanut butter, but with sesame seeds instead of peanuts. Weird, right? It separates like a MOFO. Like, rock hard solid crap on the bottom and a ton of oil stuff on the top. Yum?

Also, I was all "omg hey! I totally have some green lentils!!!" and tossed some in with the brown-ish lentils that I had bought. Wrong. SPLIT PEAS ARE NOT LENTILS. I have no explanation. I amaze myself sometimes.

Being tired and cranky and smelling weird things when I made this made me a wee bit hesitant to try it today. But, I did! And it's pretty tasty (although not on my favorites list, to be honest)! And REALLY healthy.

Quinoa with Green Olives and Red Onions

This is from, shocking, the Isabel's Cantina cookbook (link to the right). I gave that cookbook to 4 different people for Christmas. Should have given it to everyone! Love it.

Ingredients
(Serves 4 to 6)
1 cup quinoa
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
5 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 med red onion
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper (omg never go grocery shopping on Sunday night. Bare shelves! Couldnt find red, so I used yellow. Seems to have worked out pretty well).
3/4 cup green olives, halved and pitted (blech. Do not like, so I left them out)
3 tablespoons lemon juice (1 to 2 lemons, I used 1)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Place the quinoa in a medium sauce pan and cover with 2 cups cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce the heat so that the mixture simmers. Cover and cook until the water has been absorbed and the quinoa is tender, 10 to 15 mins. Remove from the heat, stir in the salt and pepper, and set aside.

Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until soft and translucent, about 4 mins, then add the bell pepper. Continue cooking until the bell pepper has softened, about 3 mins. Add the aolives, stirring well to combine, and cook for 1 more min.

Stir the sauteed vegetables into the quinoa. Add the lemon juice, the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, the cumin, and cilantro. Toss well to combine. Serve the quinoa warm, at room temperature, or cold. The quinoa can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Pretty simple! I love the cumin and lemon flavors. Quinoa is uber healthy, so dish up!

Mostly Green Curry Chicken

This is a Rachael Ray recipe from her 365: No Repeats book. Rachael Ray is annoying as all hell and she's full of crap if she thinks ANYONE can make these recipes in 30 mins. Not happenin. However, there are a kagillion (365) recipes in this book and most are easy enough. This particular recipe doesn't even HAVE curry in it, which I find odd, but whatevs...

1 1/5 cups chicken stock/broth
1 13.5 can of coconut milk
1 cup jasmine rice (I used quinoa instead. Little healthier)
3 Tbl veggie/canola oil
4 6-8 oz chicken breast halfs, but into bite size pieces
salt and pepper
1 green bell pepper (plus other color bells, if you so desire)
1 med yellow onion, thinly sliced
3 lg garlic cloves
1 sm jalapeno pepper (eff that. this whitie left this out)
3 in piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 cups broccoli florets
zest and juice of one lime
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaved, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
hot sauces, such as tobasco (nah)

In a sauce pot, combine 1 cup of the chicken stock, 4 oz (1/4 cup) of the coconut milk, and the jasmine rice (or quinoa). Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 to 18 mins (or until all the liquid is absorbed). Turn the heat off and keep the rice covered until ready to serve.

While the coconut jasmine rice is cooking, preheat a large nonstick skillet over high heat with about 2 Tbl of veggie oil. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add the chicken pieces, spreading them evenly across the pan, and brown the chicken on all sides, about 3-4 mins. Remove the browned chicken to a plate and reserve. Add the last Tbl of veggie oil to the pan. Add the green bell peppers, onions, garlic, jalapenos, ginger, and broccoli florets. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3-4 mins, or until the veggies start to wilt. To the skillet add the remaining coconut milk, and 1/2 cup chicken stock. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 4-5 mins. Add the chicken back to the skillet, and return it to a simmer for about 2 more mins. Add the lime juice, lime zest, cilantro, scallions, parsley, and frozen peas. Stir to thoroughly combine. Simmer a minute more to heat the peas., taste, and adjust the seasoning. Add more salt or some hot sauce, if you like heat. Serve over coconut rice (or quinoa).

Ok, that's totally not my pic beeeecause my camera jumped ship and can't be found at this exact moment. But it pretty much looked the same. The coconut quinoa turned out a lot better than I expected and the chicken and veggies were pretty good, too. I probably could have use a LITTLE hot sauce or something to spice it up a bit, but I was pleased with the result.

Apple Cinnamon Quinoa

The love of my life, quinoa, is not a savory only ingredient! I think I remember my brother Justin mentioning that it could be cooked up and eaten just like oatmeal/hot cereal. Huh...I'm game! So I poked around the interwebs and pulled from a few sources to make this:

2c. rinsed quinoa
4c water
1 peeled, diced apple (just peel with a potato peeler, and type of apple is up to you. I usually use Granny Smith)
2 teas cinnamon
handfull of raisins

Combine the water and quinoa, bring to a boil then cover and simmer. When water level meets quinoa level (ie: it's about half way done), throw in the apples and raisins so that they cook and soften and sweeten up the quinoa. I like my raisins all plump and juicy, but if you want them more chewy then just add them in right before you eat it. When the water is all absorbed, mixed in the cinnamon and voila! Simple as that. Just like any hot cereal, feel free to add a little brown sugar/syrup/whatever and milk if you want. It's really up to you. I like a ton of apple, so I usually throw in a bit extra of that, too.

Quinoa. Again.

This is kind of a cop-out, since I've pretty much made this before but, since I haven't cooked anything in approximately forever, I'm writing about it anyways. Deal. It is, however, the first time that I've used ground meat with quinoa, so it's sorta newish! It's my 'crap I wanna make dinner but don't want to put ANY effort into figuring out what to make or actually making it' meal.

Quinoa:
1 part quinoa to 2 parts chicken stock (it's been a little squishy lately, so maybe a smidge less than 2 parts). I used almost 2 cups of dry quinoa, which might have been a little too much for the amount of meat and veggies that I had.

While that's simmering, covered, I started the meat and veggies.

-splash of water
-1lb (I think. 1 package, anyways) of ground pork (because it was the cheapest and well, ground meat is ground meat to me. My palette is sophisticated like that)
-a sprinkle of Fagundes (sp?)meat seasoning (that stuff is the SHIZ! Especially rubbed on a steak. Drool...I'll put it on pretty much anything)

Saute the meat up over med-ish heat until it's not pink and transfer it onto a plate/bowl with a slatted spoon to drain the liquid. Try not to continuously pick at it and end up eating half of it off the plate because ground meat with seasoning tastes like a dream come true. Oops.

Leaving a little of the liquid behind, toss in your veggies and cook those suckers up over med-high heat until soft-ish. This time I had green beans, mixed potatoes (which I bought at the farmer's market. I love the purple ones. Because they're pretty.), and yellow squash. Oh-I put the potatoes in first for a few minutes because they take longer to cook than the other veggies. I'm a dumbass and sprinkled more seasoning on the veggies, because I'm obsessed with it. Let me tell you something- chicken stock (or any stock)+salty seasoning on meat AND veggies=OMG I NEED WATER. Way too much salty. Oops. It was still super tasty though, and made enough for probably about 4-6 people. (read: I'll be eating leftovers every meal for a week)

Side note: I go to the farmer's market every Sunday to load up on produce, but didn't have any veggies other than the potatoes on hand because I went all apple and orange crazy at the market last week. I went to Whole Foods, the only place with decent organic veggies, prepared to get raped by their outrageous prices (I've paid $4 there on accident for ONE red pepper before. Wtf.). For once, they weren't bad though! I try to stick to the farmer's market because I like knowing that it's fresh and local, but Whole Foods is a decent fall-back. Sometimes.

Lemon Carrots and Rutabaga

We get a bag of fresh organic veggie's every week, farmer's market style. We get to chose what we want, and I usually try to branch out and try new things. Having NO clue what the hell a rutabaga was (I would've guess it was a car), I ordered it. Usually when I get new things, I hop on AllRecipes and do an ingredient search to find a way to cook them. I found this recipe and went for it:

Ingredients:

-4 med carrots, cut into 3in julienne strips (eff off with you fancy schmancy talk, allrecipes! Basically, cut into chunky strips. I think.)
-2 cups rutabaga, peeled and cut into 3 inch julienne strips (I think I used 3 or 4 rutabagas, the size of med potatoes)
-1/2 cup water
-2 Tbl butter
-1 Tbl brown sugar
-1 Tbl lemon juice
-1/2 teas grated lemon peel
-1/4 teas dill weed (I was pretty sure that dill weed was an insult, not an herb, so I left it out. The herbs in our pantry consist of cinnamon, salt, pepper, and...uhhh...that's about it)

Directions
1. In a large saucepan, combine the carrots, rutabaga and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cover and cook for 13-15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the remaining ingredients; cook, uncovered, over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until butter is melted.

2. Drain vegetables; add butter mixture. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until vegetables are glazed, stirring occasionally.

Pretty easy! Rutabaga tastes a little sweet, a little tangy, a little rad. I served it with quinoa made with chicken broth. Anytime I have veggies and don't know what to serve them with, with I pretty much always throw them on some quinoa. Super good for you! Plus it turns it from a side dish into a full meal.

Nicole found a couple 'thorns' in hers, tough sharp pieces. She might just be delusional, because I never got any, and I have no idea what part they're from, but just a heads up.