Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

Next time there will be a bigger scoop of guacamole. I had  Chipotle's sofritas  once, in an airport at like 8:30am when I'd already been traveling for a few hours. I liked it. I would eat it routinely except that our Chipotle is a block away from  Mucho Gusto , which is similar except way better (and local) and has among my favorite tofu in town. But when I saw the  spicy sofritas veggie bowls  on my favorite food blog,  Pinch of Yum , I was excited to try it. One day, I'll follow the original recipe exactly and make my own sauce. In the meantime, I cheat and buy a chipotle salsa at the store and use that as my sauce. I almost didn't add any beans because they didn't seem to belong, but I'm so glad I did. They really break up the texture of the tofu and add more depth to the dish. The Recipe (serves 4): 1 block extra-firm tofu small jar chipotle salsa (or make the sauce in the Pinch of Yum recipe ) 1/4 c water 15 oz can bla...

THE PIT OF ETERNAL STENCH! Or, refried beans. In my long-overdue discovery of the crock-pot, I decided to try making one of my favorites - refried beans. Why not make them healthier, cheaper, and probably more delicious than the usual canned type?  These are really delicious and easy to make, and I love the versatility to make them spicier or more garlicky or doctor them up in any number of other ways.  And the house smelled incredible while they were cooking. I like these over rice (preferably yummy Mexican-flavored rice), with cheddar and shredded lettuce and avocado on top. The Recipe: 1 lb dry pinto beans, rinsed 8 oz canned green chilies (I like the mild ones in this) 1 onion, peeled and halved 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tb salt 1 tb black pepper 1/4 tsp cumin 8 c water Dump everything into the slow-cooker. Cook on high for 8-9 hours, until beans are mushy. Remove the onion halves. Ladle off the water floating on the top (I k...

Garrrrlicccccc. This is SO EASY. And it tastes really good. And yeah, there's some butter in it, but overall it's a pretty healthy meal. I found  this recipe  on Pinterest while searching for ways to use up lemons, because I had a few leftover. We've had it twice already this week, and I foresee making it many more times. The Recipe: 2 tilapia fillets (or more; there is enough sauce for at least 4 fillets) 2 tb butter 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 small lemon salt and pepper rice and veggies for serving (I like jasmine rice with lemon zest, and greens sauteed in the pan that had the sauce) Melt butter in a pan (recommended tip: use a big enough pan for your veggies, so you can sautee them in the remnants of the sauce while the fish bakes) Add garlic and sautee for 1 minute, being careful not to burn the garlic Add the juice of the lemon and turn off the heat Place tilapia filets in a shallow baking dish that has been prepared with cooking spray. Sprinkle ...

At a quick glance, the cucumbers with carrots look like fried eggs. Having bought miso for this  roasted vegetables recipe , the hunt is on for more miso recipes. So far so good. I'm not really sure why miso has never been a staple ingredient in my fridge before. This salad is delicious. And best yet, it tastes even better the next day, so it can be made ahead of time or made in large quantities. I worked from  this Snixy Kitchen recipe , which doesn't put the salad over rice, but we ate it over brown rice to make it a more substantial dinner. It's good both ways. I adjusted the proportions of ingredients a tiny bit from the original recipe. The Recipe: 2 large english cucumbers, sliced thin 12 oz frozen shelled edamame, boiled 2 carrots, sliced thin 1 tb toasted sesame seeds 1 sheet nori, cut into thin strips 2 1/2 tb white miso 1 1/2 tb hot water 2 tb rice vinegar 1 tb ginger root, grated 1 tb sesame oil 2 tsp lemon juice 1 tsp soy sauce Whisk ...

This makes me want to sing. It's possible that I should just delete my blog postings and make this URL redirect to  Pinch of Yum , because a good portion of the things I cook now are from that site. And almost all of them have become favorites.  I'm at the point now where I'm trying recipes from  Pinch of Yum  that don't initially sound that good to me, because I trust Lindsay that I will love it. She has yet to let me down. In this case, I'm not big on stew, or coconut milk, or anything with chunks of potatoes. But I was lured in by how healthy, cheap, and easy it looked to make. And guess what? It was delicious. Bonus: SO MANY LEFTOVERS. I'm more excited about going back to work now that these are waiting for me. My only change to the original is that while she uses 3 cups of vegetable broth and 1 cup of water, I used 4 cups of vegetable broth, because that's the amount in a box and I hate having ingredients left over. And I added th...