Black Bean-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Cold-weather comfort food at its best! This cozy meal came together quickly, and despite being all out of cheese(gasp!), received a whopping five stars from both my boyfriend and myself.

I had a 6:30 yoga class to get to, so I wrapped medium size sweet potatoes in heavy aluminum foil and left them in the oven on 300F for about 1 hr and 45 min. The potatoes were amazing--every time I actually bake them in the oven versus the microwave, we can taste a significant difference. I also made the seasoned black beans ahead of time and briefly brought them back up to temperature on the stove when I got home.

Black Bean-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

- 3-4 sweet potatoes, rinsed & scrubbed
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil
- small onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon Harissa spice blend (found these at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, but the original recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon cumin)
- 15 oz can of black beans, rinsed well & drained
- 3-4 Tablespoons salsa
- 3-4 Tablespoons sour cream
- shredded Mexican-Style cheese (I was all out of cheese, but my dinner still tasted amazing!)
- optional - fresh cilantro for garnish

Use your own preferred method of baking or microwaving the sweet potatoes until fork tender.

While they are baking: heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add onions & garlic and cook until onions are translucent. Add spices and cook additional 2 minutes or so, stirring well the entire time to prevent burning. Stir in the black beans, and cook until hot. Remove from heat & cover to keep warm until potatoes are ready.

Slice sweet potatoes down the center, and gently scoop & slightly mash the inside of each half, leaving the skins intact in their "boat like" shape. Place about 1/2 Tablespoon worth each of sour cream and salsa on each potato half, and top with a big scoop of seasoned black beans. Sprinkle with shredded cheese & garnish with fresh cilantro.

Pairs well with a glass of red wine!

This recipe was inspired by: organize yourself skinny

Summer Buckwheat Porridge - A work in progress

It seemed so weird to me when I first came across a recipe for a raw buckwheat porridge on one of my favorite blogs! Then slightly different versions appeared on two more of the blogs I often read. So I figured I had to give it a try. My first attempt came out way too runny, as it's supposed to be more like a parfait-style breakfast. I'm wishing I halved the batch, because now I have to finish the rest of it somehow. The too-runny texture is kind of throwing me off, it would definitely be better with less liquid. The taste is great however, falling just short of cookie batter!

This is one of those breakfast that requires getting started the night before. You have to soak the raw buckwheat overnight in water with a tiny bit of lemon juice or vinegar. I checked out three different recipes before I made my own. Here are the inspirations:

http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2014/07/raspberry-ripple-buckwheat-porridge/

http://ohsheglows.com/2011/07/11/raw-buckwheat-breakfast-porridge/

http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/raw-buckwheat-walnut-porridge/

This isn't a perfected recipe, more of a documentation of what I did and my reflections on it!

I soaked (separately) 1 cup of raw buckwheat and 1 cup of walnuts overnight in water, adding just a squeeze of lemon juice in the buckwheat water. This morning I drained and rinsed the buckwheat and walnuts in a colander with small holes. I blended them in a standard blender with a heaping tablespoon of honey, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, and 1 sliced ripe banana. For the liquid I used half milk-half water to cover the ingredients in the blender. Since it came out soupy, I served it in bowls with heaps of fresh blueberries and blackberries from the farmers market.

Each spoonful of the porridge with the juicy tart berries was quite heavenly, but without them this would have been difficult for me to get down. I feel it must be mentioned that I put a bowl of down in front of my boyfriend, and he just plowed right in and finished before I did. I was impressed, he's usually a good sport about eating the "strange" things I give him.

So this would have been much better with less liquid, and maybe using a food processor would have been a better way to blend? There is a lot of potential here!

Fresh Blueberry Pie

I hate wasting precious fresh fruit on cooked pies! The no-spray strawberries and blueberries come out for such a limited time at the farmers markets I work at. I found a recipe yesterday for an open-faced fresh blueberry pie with reduced sugar. In order to feel less guilty when I eat most of this pie over the course of the next 24 hours, I made the pastry crust with a 2/3rd coconut oil to 1/3rd butter ratio, and substituted spelt for half of the flour. I also forgo the homemade whipped cream which would of course be awesome, but I'd rather sacrifice my whipped and iced creams in order to have cream in my morning coffee. Actually, I think it's better to keep it simple and just enjoy the fresh berries and coconut crust than to have too many flavors going on. I made a streusal last week with my market blueberries, but they were lost in the richness of it! I think using frozen organic fruit is fine if you are going to be cooking it.

I'm not going to post a coconut crust recipe, because it's definitely not perfected yet. I had trouble with the frozen coconut oil forming large chunks, so next time I will try grating it first. Maybe the spelt flour contributed to the difficulty? Not sure yet. I did however notice that the crust did not bubble or shrink at all during blind baking.

I must also mention how much I absolutely LOVE my stoneware pie dish from Pampered Chef. I conditioned it first with lots of coconut oil, and it releases the crust amazingly every time. And so far the coconut oil has not begun to brown or darken the stoneware as it "seasons." The butter seasoning on my stoneware cookie sheet gives my baked goods a certain taste that I'm not always fond of, and the cooking times really vary with it. For your enjoyment:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Open-Faced-Fresh-Blueberry-Pie-101866

Avocado & Kale Smoothie

What to do with a ripe avocado on short notice? Avocados are yummy, versatile and satiating but I find they have a very small window of ripeness in my kitchen.  I took an unexpected day off of work, so I was able to haul out my juicer. I juiced a pink grapefruit and a tangerine then added the avocado and kale to blend it all up in my knockoff magic bullet (which works just great, by the way). It was a little tart, so maybe next time I would only use half a grapefruit and two tangerines.

Avocado & Kale Smoothie

-juice of 1 pink grapefruit
-juice of 1 tangerine
-1 Tablespoon lemon juice
-half an avocado, roughly cubed
-approx 1/2 cup packed kale leaves

Blend and enjoy! Add 1/4 cup of water if too thick.

Roasted Squash Soup

Last night I made the Gold Rush Soup with Chickpea Croutons from www.mynewroots.org, and of course it came out fabulous! It's a soup made by roasting butternut squash, garlic cloves and onions in the oven and blending them with hot broth. A little time-consuming to prepare with all of the peeling and chopping--and lucky me--Johnny helped out and peeled all the garlic! I have no patience for that type of itty-bitty peeling work, but he did an awesome job. The vegetables roast quickly at 400F, just be super super careful with the blending part, because I almost burned myself with hot soup exploding through the lid of my blender.

My personal alterations: I tossed in dried Herbs de Provence and Thyme before roasting the vegetables, due to lack of fresh. I used the Better Than Bouillon (the No-Chicken variety) for my broth, which I brought to a simmer with water, turned off the heat and stirred in the dried turmeric. Personally I found the turmeric make the soup a little bitter upon the first spoonful, but after that all I could taste was yummy. Guess I'm still a turmeric newbie. I also recommend making the Chickpea Croutons the day before to cut down on after-work prep time.

Tonight's dinner, and our single meat dish for the week, will be my Grandma Sophie's favorite: Sausage Corn Chowder. I have already defrosted my sausage in the fridge, and my goal tonight will be to make this chowder without the use of creamed corn! For a long-term goal I'm trying to get away from using canned products. Hard to do in the winter.

Pumpkin Lentil Soup

I'm having a productive evening: I served Pumpkin Lentil Soup from the freezer for dinner, made more Ham & Veggie "Pot Pie" from my previous post, chocolate chip cookies from scratch, and put rice and beans in to soak overnight. Oh yes, and an absolute mountain of dishes! Technically I still haven't finished those.

I'm going to go back in time to November when I was obsessed with this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens for Pumpkin Lentil Soup. Recipe can be found here: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/pumpkin-soup-with-lentils/

This soup is very easy to make and quick-cooking (because the red lentils cook quicker than other varieties!). But I do recommend finely chopping the onions! Enjoy

Mid-East Lentils & Rice

Thought for sure I was coming down with a cold this weekend--but thanks to Dr Schultz Superfoods I was able to fight it off! This morning I have unfortunately been awake since 4:00AM, why, oh why? I if we don't turn the heat down by 5 degrees before we go to bed, it turns on through the night and makes a continuous loud banging noise in our bedroom and I assume this is what woke me up so early. Using this opportunity to be productive this morning, I have planned my dinner menu and for once I am able to properly pre-soak my rice. This past weekend we participated in the Hartford Area Roller Derby's Roller Polar Run, see picture above! I already spent all my "fun" money for the week on the post-run pub crawl, a trip to Trader Joe's and two lovely orchids from the Flower & Garden show.

I found green lentils and brown Basmati rice at Trader Joe's, as well as an organic superfruit jam. I even discovered Australian-grown chia seeds! We don't live near a Trader Joe's, so I try to stop by whenever I am in the area. They have some great things, but I often find they are out of stock on the things I like every other trip, so I try to stock up on my favorites when I find them.

I have one onion left, so tonight's dinner will be Mid-East Lentils & Rice from the Bloodroot cookbook. This dish has a really wonderful olive oil flavor--even my dad enjoys it! I will be cutting this recipe in half and subbing green lentils and forbidden black rice. I'm also pre-soaking the rice, as I have been reading about the benefits of doing so. We'll see how it turns out! Below is the original recipe without pre-soaked rice or substitutions.

Mid East Lentils & Rice a la Bloodroot

Ingredients:
2 Cups French lentils
1 Cup long grain white rice
2 large Spanish onion, thinly sliced
1 Cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Rinse and pick through lentils; bring to boil with 3 1/2 cups of water. Reduce heat and simmer about 15 min. Add rice and 1 cup of water*, simmer 15 minutes more. In a separate frying pan, saute the onions in the olive oil until golden brown; add to lentils and rice. Add salt and spices, and cook until lentils are tender!

*use less water with pre-soaked rice!

Walnut & Date Breakfast Oatmeal

Nostalgia & Dry Nose:

Reading back through some of my posts from 2010 this morning, and what a trip it was. Not sure if I feel better or worse. But I really regret my greediness in not posting the recipe for scented salt beads that I had found in the vintage Workbasket magazines from the 1950's, because I can't find where I put them at my parents house. My goal is to post as many recipes as possible because it's easier for me to sign on here and search my blog than it is to go through my pile of printed recipes and scraps of paper that are stuffed on top of my cookbook collection. So right now I am sniffing a cup of hot water because the room I am in is very dry. I feel rather blah this morning; I stayed up way too late last night, and went to bed with wet hair in February. Not that I wanted to, but I did it to be a good friend! I carpooled with my buddy Mark to derby practice, but practice ran super-late AND then he wanted to go for a drink with the former president of the league who was visiting from California. So I really didn't want to go out afterwards, but I knew how much it would mean to Mark, so I sucked it up and went along with it. I still had to go home and shower, then read for 20 minutes to put my brain to sleep, so I am fairly confident that I fell asleep before 3:00AM. Need to take my vitamins today! I took 3/4 of a serving of my Dr Schultz Superfoods with my Oatmeal this morning, and drank black tea instead of coffee. The only sweeteners I used were a bit of local honey in my tea and I chopped 2 Medjool Dates for my oatmeal. A nice variation, but I miss the tartness of cherries.

Walnut & Date Breakfast Oatmeal

-1 C water
-dash of sea salt
-1/2 C Rolled Oats
-2 Medjool Dates, pitted and chopped
-1 heaping T finely chopped walnuts
-Milk for topping, optional

Put the dates and walnuts into the water & salt, bring to a boil and cook your oatmeal as usual! As far as oatmeal goes I personally like my dried fruits to plump and my walnuts to soften a bit. The sweetness from the dates was distributed throughout the oatmeal and eliminated the need for anything else sweet to top it! I usually use little drizzle of maple syrup, but with the dates there was no need. Good for winter breakfasts!

Ham & Veggie "Pot Pie"

This is a recipe that I was not very confident about during assembly! I thought that sweet potatoes would clash with ham, and that it would just be one of those inevitable "blah" thrown together dishes. But at first bite, oh it was heaven. A comforting pot pie flavor, minus the high-calorie pie! The ham and Mexican-style cheese give the dish it's flavor--all it needs is fresh ground pepper. You can more or less use any vegetables on hand in the fridge--I used leftover asparagus from our Valentine's Day dinner, but since it's a quick cooking vegetable there's no need to boil it with the others. Using dehydrated onion eliminates the need to saute it first.

Ham & Veggie "Pot Pie"

Ingredients:
2 C cubed sweet potatoes (peeled)
2-3 celery stalks, sliced
2-3 carrots, peeled & sliced
2 C fully cooked ham, cut into bite sized cubes
5 stalks asparagus, sliced
1/2 T dehydrated onion flakes
1/4 C unsalted butter
3 T flour
1 C milk (2% worked well for me)
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 C shredded Mexican style cheese blend
1/2 sleeve of smashed Saltine crackers

Directions:
Place sweet potatoes, celery, carrots & dehydrated onion into large cooking pot and cover with cold water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or so until tender. Meanwhile cube the ham, slice the asparagus, prepare your baking dish, then start the sauce. Drain the cooked vegetables, but reserve 2/3 Cup of the broth. Whisk the flour, pepper and milk in a medium sauce pan, add the butter and heat over medium, stirring often. When it just about begins to boil stir in the shredded cheese and reserved vegetable broth. Whisk until smooth and remove from heat. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine the vegetables, ham, asparagus and sauce in the large pot or a large mixing bowl, and toss gently until everything is well coated. Spread mixture into a 13x9" glass baking pan and top with Saltine crumbs. Bake until the center is bubbly, about 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

Snow!

Large snowstorm here in CT. Has delayed my trip to Cali by a day and a half, which I am not happy about! I am so looking forward to blood oranges and other Californian delights. The weather looks like it will not be nearly as warm as it was last year when we were there. :( I actually love the snow, not driving in it, but I still get excited when I wake up to see everything coated in white. The whole rescheduled flight/airport-trip debacle has left me snowed in at my parents house.

If you look closely you can see one of my ceramic wind-bells hanging from a Shepard's hook on the deck railing. One of my most successful projects! One of these days I will have to churn out some more.

Ginger Ice Cubes

Ginger Ice Cubes - Remedy or On the Rocks?
What to do when you are feeling queasy, have eaten something questionable, or have been exposed to friends/significant others who later came down with a bug? I've been saved more times than I can count by drinking a super strong ginger infusion! The only trouble is that you may not always have fresh ginger root on hand at all times, plus it takes about 45 minutes or more to make. So I like to freeze my ginger infusion in ice cube trays and then store them in a zip-lock bag in the freezer. The only trouble is, a certain someone was nipping into my supply--apparently these are also good for Scotch on the Rocks!

Ginger Ice Cubes

Peel and slice one large ginger root; place in 2-qt sauce pan and fill with cold water. Bring to a rolling boil and reduce heat and simmer for about 45 min to hour until the water is reduced by about half. Cool, strain and pour into ice cube trays. Freeze and store in a zip lock bag, or use those nifty ice cube trays that have lids!

This will be super-strong! So whenever you feel like you need a little ginger just put one cube in a tea cup with enough water just to cover it, microwave until hot.

In the summer John likes to use my ginger ice cubes for Scotch on the Rocks, it's probably good but I have not yet come to enjoy scotch.

Forbidden Breakfast Rice Pudding

Found this recipe yesterday on the My New Roots.org blog, I knew I had a package of Boxed Goodes Forbidden Black Grains at home and so I had to try it out immediately. I redeemed all the soda cans I was saving from the cafe at work so I could buy the coconut milk on my way home yesterday. Redeeming cans is usually a sticky experience at best, and often not worth the gas it takes you to drive there, but during a snow storm after you get sent home from work early, it's really not that bad! I made this last night, so I only soaked my rice for about 1 hour, and I think I overcooked it a little--so be sure you keep an eye on it. The original recipe states serves 3-4, but with the coffee and all the pineapple I was way too overfull after breakfast this morning. I'll divide into 5 portions next time.

Forbidden Breakfast Rice Pudding


Ingredients:

1 cup / 200g black rice, soaked overnight (if possible)

1 can full-fat coconut milk (reserve a couple tablespoons for garnish, if desired)

½ cup water with soaked rice, 1 ½ cups water with un-soaked rice

¼ tsp. fine grain sea salt

½ vanilla bean (optional)

1 Tbsp. maple syrup (I used about 1/4 cup)

1/3 cup coconut flakes, lightly toasted


Tropical fruits for topping! (I used warmed pineapple)



Directions: Bring the rice, water, coconut milk, salt and vanilla bean to a boil, stir once and reduce heat and simmer until rice is tender. Cooking time could be anywhere from 20-40 minutes, and pre-soaked rice takes significantly less time! Remove from heat, fish out vanilla bean* and stir in the maple syrup. Top with toasted coconut and your favorite tropical fruits.



*Note: I rinsed the vanilla bean gently and dried it out on the stoneware cookie sheet as I slowly toasted coconut at 300F. You can still get more use out of it! I scraped some of the tiny beans into my hot chocolate mix for the afternoon.



And P.S. canned mango sucks. Oh, impulsive me, I went out on a limb and now John and I have to eat it all so it doesn't go to waste.

Hello again! & Maple Coffee Cake

Inspired by my cowoker Camille, I have decided to start up my food-blogging again! This blog was created more for my own theraputic uses than for other people to read, infact I don't share it with my friends or family. I was actually surprised to see that people had actually viewed it! I hope that someone out there tried one of my recipes and enjoyed it. I apologise for any posts that were never followed up on, ex: the doughtnut debacle! I had a malfunction with the coconut oil, then I dropped a big rock on my foot while gardening in flip-flops. Yes that was a bad idea. But the donuts rose and smelled incredible. I ended up baking them, and using them for breakfast sandwiches. I think there may be still some in my freezer.

A little back-story to the recipe: I spent a weekend in Sebastian, Florida after Christmas, and my grandfather's girlfriend Rhoda served us this decadent Maple Coffee Cake. I ended up taking pictures of all her favorite recicpes with my digital camera. Unfortunatly for me, Rhoda is one of those cooks who "just knows how to do things" so her recipe only included the ingredients, and I had trouble remembering how she told me to shape the dough. I ended up making a large spiral and baking it in a tube pan. Then I noticed up in the right-hand corner of the image: (makes 2). I made one super-gigantic coffee cake, but in this case it was good because it was a gift for my Aunt & Uncle who's house we crashed at last night after the roller derby awards party. I have now reached an age where I need to spend the night if the drive home is more than 40 minutes away. John and I did get to try some for breakfast this morning, it was very caramely gooey at the bottom and the cake itself had great texture.

Maple Coffee Cake

1 packet of yeast (I used 2> teaspoons)
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup scalded milk (yes, it really needs to be scalded!)
3+1/4-1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup warm water
1+1/2 t salt
3 T sugar

Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 T flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t maple flavoring (I omitted this)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used slivered almonds)

Place in bread machine at dough setting. Punch down well on floured surface.

Now, Rhoda's directions stated merely "roll out to 8x12inches"; which I did, and then spread the filling as evenly as possible over the dough, rolled it up and wet the edges to seal it in a ring. With sharp kitchen scissors I snipped the dough perpendicularly to expose the layers. Teh I let it rise for a good hour, and baked it in a greased and floured tube pan for somewhere between 45min-1hr at 325F. But Rhoda's incomplete directions said only: yeilds 2; bake at 350F 25-30min. I will let you decide what to do! If you want to get fancy, check out a bread machine cookbook for ideas how to shape similar breakfast/dessert breads.

This is amazing with coffee on a January morning in CT, even if you have your uncle's howling beagle named Lexi serenading you while you eat!