Quinoa with Black Beans

Quinoa with Black Beans

4 points per 1 cup serving

OMG I can't believe I haven't included this recipe yet?? Wha.....? I make this a lot and it is really good. I made it tonight for my in-laws and they liked it as well.

I "Hollified" this recipe quite a bit from http://www.allrecipes.com/. Here's how I made it tonight.

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion diced
• 1 medium carrot shredded (sometimes I add this, sometimes not)
• 1.5 cups uncooked quinoa
• 3 cups water
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder (sometimes I add fresh diced garlic - about 2-4 cloves - instead)
• About 3 cups cooked black beans (about 2 cans)
• 1/2 large can of diced or crushed tomatoes (about 1 15oz can)

Directions

• Heat olive oil in non-stick skillet
• Saute onion and carrot until soft
• Add water and bring to a boil
• Add quinoa, chili powder, cumin and garlic powder and stir through
• Bring water back to a boil, and reduce heat to low
• Cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally
• Add black beans and diced tomatoes, stir through
• Cook until heated through completely
  

This is a larger batch than I normally make. I typically will make this with just one cup of uncooked quinoa. Sometimes I use one can of black beans, sometimes two. It just depends on what I have in the pantry. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts this week, I made a pound of dry beans earlier this week, so I just used 3 cups of those beans, which is equal to about 2 regular cans of beans.

As I was typing this, I realized that I didn't top the quinoa with avocado tonight! That is the whole reason I made quinoa because I had several avocados that need to be used. Darn!! Anyway, it is really good with avocado.

Also, Jeff likes to make a wrap out of his. He puts a big scoop onto a large tortilla, adds cheese and salsa and wraps it up. Yum.

This larger batch made 7 cups total. I figure 1 cup is good (generous) serving size. Check out the Nutrition Facts below. Not bad!! Though, I am disappointed in the protein rating that NutritionData.com provided for this recipe. I always have heard that quinoa is a complete protein by itself, yet even with the beans, ND.com rated this only a 50. 100 or more is considered to be a complete protein. Hmmmm??? I'll have to research.

Black Bean Salad - a quick lunch

Black Bean Salad

6 points

I made a big pot of black beans and a green salad last night. I was craving something cool and crisp after working out at a spin class (my first one ever... it kicked my buttox), so I whipped up this delish lunch with my leftovers:





Ingredients:

• About 2 cups of green salad (mine consisted of green leaf lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes)


• 1/4 cup black beans


• About .5 oz shredded cheddar cheese


• 1/4 avocado


• About 1 Tablespoon ranch dressing

Directions:

• Place salad in a bowl and top with beans, cheese, avocado and dressing. Add S&P to taste.

If I had lemon juice, I would have added that. Also, I really wanted to add salsa to the top, but I'm out of that too. (Can you tell I need to go grocery shopping?)

Here is the nutritional info. It looks a little scary, but it is only 6 Weight Watchers points. Plus, the NutritionData.com website indicated that it has a protein score of 112... which is great because anything over 100 is a complete/high quality protein. I'm always looking for complete protein meals! Yay!

So, being a complete protein hopefully this will stick with me through the afternoon. It might even get me through my 4pm crash.

Notice my new name?

I thought "Holly's Food Blog" sounded.... well... blah.

So, now, I'm "Delicious/Nutritious: Healthy vegetarian recipes." The Delicious/Nutritious part comes from a song I made up a long time ago, when Robin was eating purees. I'd sing as I was trying to get her to eat something:

It's so delicious, and very nutritious! It's so very very nutritious for you!!

The song has sort of a march feel to it.

Anyway, since then, I always say something is "Delicious/Nutritious". And I found out this past weekend that my older sister, Amy, says the same thing. Weird.

Satisfying afternoon snack: Wasa bread, cream cheese, avocado and more

Yummy!!

I needed a quick, filling afternoon snack, so I spread some cream cheese (full fat, ugh, since my closest grocery store doesn't have low fat organic cream cheese) onto a Wasa bread. Then, I mashed 1/4 of an avocado on top, added two slices of tomato. Hit it with a squeeze or two of lemon juice, sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper and you have a creamy, crunchy, tangy absolutely yummy afternoon treat!


The only problem with this is, you eat it way too fast. And you want more. But, take a gander at the Nutrition Facts (courtesy of my new internet BFF, http://www.nutritiondata.com/) and you'll see why I stopped at just one.

Super cool new e-tool!! NutritionData.com

I discovered a really cool website for building recipes and getting nutritional information. I think you can track what you eat as well. Anyway, it is really awesome. It has a slight learning curve, but lookee what I can now put on my blog posts!!

I built a recipe on the website for a snack I had this afternoon (I'll blog about that in a minute) and this is the Nutrition Facts box that popped up. It also has tons of other nutritional information.

So, look around and have fun! Oh, and best of all, it is free. My kind of website. ;)

Kale and Bean Soup

Kale and Bean Soup

I found a recipe for Bean Soup with Kale on http://www.allrecipes.com/ and "Hollified" it. A lot.

Ingredients:

• EVOO
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 bunch of kale, chopped with long stalks removed all the way through the end of the leaf)
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 - 15oz cans kidney beans (drained)
• 1/2 big can of diced tomatoes (about 1.5 cups)
• 2 - 3 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2 - 3 tsp dry thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 medium potato - diced
• 4 large carrots - sliced

Directions:

• Spray large pot with EVOO and heat.
• Saute garlic and onion until soft.
• Add kale and saute until wilted (see photo below).
• 
• Add broth. At this point, I used my immersion blender to chop the kale even smaller (see photo below).
  
• Add carrots, potato, Italian seasoning, thyme, canned tomatoes, and salt & pepper.
• Simmer about 15 minutes or until carrots and potatoes are getting soft.
• Add beans and simmer until heated through.

Sauerkraut: I do believe it was a success!!

After a couple of weeks of fermenting, I noticed that there was in fact "scum" on the surface of my brine. I had previously thought that certainly, not MY sauerkraut would develop scum!!

According to Sandor Ellix Katz (aka, "Sandorkraut"), creator of the Wild Fermentation website (www.wildfermentation.com) and the author of Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods (Chelsea Green, 2003):

Sometimes mold appears on the surface. Many books refer to this mold as “scum,” but I prefer to think of it as a bloom. Skim what you can off of the surface; it will break up and you will probably not be able to remove all of it. Don’t worry about this. It’s just a surface phenomenon, a result of contact with the air. The kraut itself is under the anaerobic protection of the brine.

OK, so if "Sandorkraut" thinks it is OK, then allright, I'll give the scum a chance. (Sounds like a lesser-known John Lennon B-side song "Give Scum a Chance").

So, I left the sauerkraut alone. I didn't taste it every day or two like Sandorkraut said to do. I was a bit afraid of the scum and afraid of my experiment being a failure!

But, alas, I decided tonight to check it out. I pulled off the cover and all of the scum pulled up with it! None remained on the kraut.

I tasted it.

Oh my.

I've never had real fresh sauerkraut. And it is delicious! I think it is a success!

I put it all in a gallon ziploc bag (for lack of a better storage container) and put it in the fridge. Now, we need some vegetarian brats to make a yummy kraut and sausage sandwich!

I'll have pics later!