Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

Jess says this picture is upside down. Tilt your head if you wish. GUEST POST! This is the husband's specialty recipe. He says: I grew up in Brazil and my mom used to make this. It's the staple food of Brazil. It started as a food that the slaves would cook, using the cheapest parts of the cow, and then it became kind of a national dish.  It's very tasty. The Recipe: 4 15-oz cans black beans, including the liquid your choice of meat (I like sausage and pork, but traditionally there's beef) 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 onion, chopped 2 bay leaves salt and pepper, to taste 2 c rice, cooked creole seasoning (we use Chachere's) - not traditional, but we like it 1 bunch kale or spinach, sauteed 1 orange, sliced Put beans, meat, garlic, onion, bay leaves, salt, and pepper in crock pot. Cook for as long as possible to let the juices sink into the meat. Add water if necessary to make it like a stew. Serve over rice with kale/spinach, orange sli...

Must. Resist. Picking through to eat all of the mango immediately. Mission eat-more-protein took a step forward today... I found a way that I really like chicken! Turns out if I shred it and mix it with a bunch of crunchy things, tossed in a delicious sauce, it's pretty good. I pretty much followed  this recipe , making a few substitutions for convenience/availability and then adding the rice cake crumbles on top, because apparently cabbage and carrots and peanuts weren't crunchy enough for me. Big pile of crunchy things. The dressing is excellent. I will be using it again, not just on this salad. In fact, there's some leftover in the fridge, so I will be using it again soon. Maybe as a stir-fry sauce? The Recipe: 2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded 1/2 head white cabbage, shredded 15 baby carrots, quartered length-wise 1/2 c green onions, chopped (I used red onion today, but green would be better) 1 mango, sliced into slivers 1/2 c peanuts, choppe...

With your protein of choice. In an attempt to eat more protein, I'm trying to get myself to like chicken again. So I made this with ground chicken, but I'm thinking it would be great with tempeh. And I'm sure it would be good with beef, if you're into that sort of thing. I pieced this together from several recipes on the internet, and settled on this version because it was easy and didn't require many ingredients. This works well for a tired weekday dinner. Aside from my uncertainty about eating chicken, this was delicious. I'll be making it again with tempeh soon. The Recipe (serves 2):  1/2 head green leaf lettuce, leaves separated 1/2 lb ground chicken, tempeh, or other protein 1 tb canola oil 1 red onion, chopped 5 cloves garlic, chopped 1 tb fresh ginger, grated 2 tb hoisin sauce 1 tb soy sauce 2 tb rice wine vinegar 1 tb chili-garlic paste 2 ribs celery, minced 4 green onions, sliced 1 tsp sesame oil Saute onion in canola oil fo...

Just pretend that I'd had the patience to cook it longer, and those lentils were broken down a bit more. The leftovers were delicious. The perpetual mission: Take healthy things and make them even healthier. The inspiration: a craving for urad dal, and massive quantities of kale and spinach in the garden. The result: somewhere between urad dal and saag. If this is an actual defined dish in India with a name of its own, someone let me know. Until then, "green urad dal" it is. I used the food processor to get the vegetables really small, so it would all meld into one mushy mix of deliciousness. I love the way the spinach and kale practically melt into the lentils.  Mmm, melting vegetables. The Recipe: 1.5 cups urad dal 1 onion, minced 1 tomato, chopped finely (or pureed in the food processor) 1 potato, chopped finely 1 bunch kale and/or spinach, finely chopped (food processor recommended) 2 tb fresh ginger, grated 1 tb olive oil 1 tsp c...

Like a bagel with cream cheese, only way better. Here's a brunch idea, especially if you can get your hands on some really good potatoes. I got a fancy assortment of yellow, red, and purple potatoes at the farmer's market. Who's shocked that I seized an opportunity to buy purple vegetables? Shredded, plus carrots and sauteed leeks. I really liked this with lox for brunch, but it would also be good with hot-smoked salmon or just regular cooked salmon for dinner. The Recipe: 9 small potatoes, shredded 1 carrot, shredded 1 leek, sliced and soaked 2 tb flour 1 egg, beaten salt and pepper, to taste 1/4 c sour cream 1 tb fresh dill, chopped 1/4 lb lox, sliced Saute leeks over medium heat about 7 minutes, until softened. Season with salt and pepper. Mix shredded, potatoes, carrot, sauteed leeks, flour, egg, and additional salt and pepper. Let sit in refrigerator at least 30 minutes. Squeeze liquid out of potato mixture, then for...

Mmm, tacos and sunshine. Having already prepped guacamole and cabbage slaw for  yesterday's burritos , it seemed like a good idea to get out into the sun and grill some shrimp for tacos today. The Recipe (serves 2): 1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined 2 tb olive oil 2 tb lime juice 1 tsp salt 1 tsp chili powder 6 corn tortillas 1/2 c guacamole (avocado, lime, salt, and red onion) 1/2 c slaw (cabbage, carrots, cilantro, green onion, garlic, honey, lime juice, and salt) Combine olive oil, lime juice, salt, and chili powder. Pour into bowl with shrimp and marinate for 30-60 minutes. Thread shrimp onto skewers. Grill shrimp skewers approximately 3 minutes per side. At the same time, grill the tortillas for about 1 minute per side. Top each grilled tortilla with guacamole, shrimp, and slaw. The Verdict: Overall grade: B Overall reason: Good (how could it not be?), but not mind-blowing. Time to prepare: 20 minutes, plus marinating time Husband quote: ...

I like my salsa on the side for dipping, but normal people could simplify and just put it inside. Of the many specials I've had at  Laughing Planet  over the many years (12 years since I started eating at the one in Bloomington), the Calexico has been my favorite. I've only seen it once. It had a long list of ingredients, which I wrote down and saved so I could try to make it at home, and here's my first attempt. I set out knowing that I wouldn't be able to replicate Laughing Planet's deliciousness, because I've never been able to do it even with simpler ventures like spinach / black bean burritos. I think the secret is the way they heat the burritos after wrapping them in foil. Whatever magic they do while you're waiting for your order, it melds the flavors and elevates the burritos to something I can't make at home. My best approximation has been to bake them in the foil for 20-30 minutes, but they come out a bit more crisp. Do they steam th...

If I put it in a pita and took that photo, I'd want one every single time I looked back at it. This is safer. I frequently get falafel cravings but I rarely let myself buy a big bready pita sandwich of fried stuff, so I'm trying to find a way to fulfill the craving at home. This falafel came out great - it tastes just like falafel even though I baked it. Craving fulfilled. It didn't get very crispy this time, but I'll bake it at a higher temperature next time and I bet it'll be even better. I don't think I've found my favorite dressing yet. I had an open jar of tahini handy, so I mixed that with yogurt, lemon juice, honey, and a bit of salt. I knew Jess would like it because it was sweet. He did, and I thought it was pretty good, but I was wanting something brighter. I think next time I'll go with a yogurt/cucumber/dill/lemon thing. The Recipe: 15oz can chickpeas, rinsed 1 onion 2 cloves garlic 1/4 bunch parsley 2 tb flour 1 ...

My impatient chocolate glazing does not do justice to the deliciousness of these things. Ok, I got seriously excited when I tasted these. They are way better than I expected them to be. I'd had  the recipe  saved for a while and almost decided not to try them, but I was curious. I now cannot imagine moving forward without these in my life. I will be making them again. They're mostly chickpeas. They're as low-guilt as I think you can get with a dessert recipe that tastes this good. They're super easy. And they actually, I kid you not, taste like cookie dough. Check out  the original recipe  to see how pretty they would be if you took the time to freeze them, coat them completely in chocolate, and freeze them again. I whipped these up in 10 minutes total by drizzling some chocolate on top of the dough balls that I'd just formed, and then I just stuck them into the freezer for a few minutes to solidify the chocolate. But if you have that thing they call ...

GRILLED PINEAPPLE. My favorite thing from the grill. We are relatively new to having a barbecue, so we've been running through the basics. So far, we've done (in this order): burgers and veggie burgers with grilled potatoes, bananas with chocolate chips wedged into them, sausage and portobello mushrooms with asparagus, grilled pizza, and now, shrimp skewers. With PINEAPPLE. Have I mentioned that I love grilled pineapple? I worked vaguely from this  Betty Crocker recipe . It's easy and turned out great. We scarfed these things down. Alllllllmost ready... I ditched the marinade as soon as the skewers hit the grill, and still these were plenty flavorful. Next time, though, I think I'll cook it down in a pot to make a sauce that we can put over rice and/or use as a final glaze on the skewers. The Recipe: 1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined 8oz can of pineapple chunks (reserve the juice) 1 red bell pepper, sliced 1/4 red onion, sliced ...