Red Quinoa Salad

Or according to Greg; Joakim Noah

This is one of the a few dishes I'll feature soon that were made or prepped all on one day with my lovely cousin Emily. We try to, as often as it makes sense, plan, grocery shop, and cook for the week on Fridays. We love it. There are are a ton of benefits to this strategy.

1. You save money even on your lazy cooking days(it's easier then take out to just pull out something out you've already made!)

2.You find new recipes which you may love that are healthy because you're being more intentional.

3. We get to do it all together! Which if you know Emily and I, it's a guaranteed blast. Dropping dried beans all over the floor was never so much fun!

Directions; Cook quinoa according to directions. Roast cut up and oil brushed sweet potato in over for 30ish minutes at 350(that way you can use olive oil). Gently steam chopped swiss chard(rainbow is my favorite). For best results soak and steam chick peas, otherwise just add canned ones. Add all this stuff together with a good drizzle of olive oil and a bunch of paprika. Just about any other fresh green herb chopped up and mixed in will probably be welcome. I paired this one with spinach on the side but I prefer arugula, nice and peppery.

Little bit about the nutrition; Quinoa is an excellent source of protein as it contains all the amino acids. We finally tried red quinoa and we liked it. It is a little more nutrient dense than white quinoa, in every way, as far as the nutrition label is concerned, and it tasted a little better.

Easy Black Bean Soup

This morning/afternoon was a little cool so I figured it was a good chance to get warm dish in.

This one is really easy. There is a huge short cut when you can just buy the black bean soup already made from Trader Joe's. That's the easy start. I only complicate it a little after that by cutting up avocado bits, chopped onion, and rice. I seasoned with hawt sauce. I wish I had cilantro and tom at the time. It would make it's way in there too.

For more carbs I quartered 2 corn tortillas and fried them in a little oil for half homemade chips.

Some soups get me upset because some just don't seem like enough food but the rice and tort made it quite filling. I bet you could eat this soup cold too if you didn't need the warm up...

Pasta

The Pup and I just finished a jog on a really hot day and what do I want? Pasta and marinara sauce.

Truth is; I could eat it in a house, with a mouse, or a fox, in a box, or here or there. I would eat pasta anywhere. I love pasta.

Aside from this dish being a warm one on a warm day it's a good post-run dish.
There are lots of whole food carbs and with the added on hand dried basil, thyme, sage, and parsley it's a good source of iron, vitamins, and other healing nutrients. I used TJs whole wheat pasta which took some time to get used to but now I prefer. Same goes for the cheese. I don't eat cheese on my pasta and at first that made me sad, but again, now I don't even miss it. Because the grain is whole it retains tons of protien at 8 grams/serving, and believe me you, I can eat more then one serving and I can more pasta then you!

Green Bean Lentil and Mashed Potatos

For this guy I tossed some dry lentils in water(1/2 inch above the lentils) with sliced up (1/4inch maybe) potatoes, some garlic, turmeric in a pot and covered it. I just check to see when the potatoes are almost easily forkable in the center and then add green beans. I sliced the GBs in halves the log way and this helped to make the texture to my liking. This cooks for like another 5 mins on high heat. When the potatoes are done I scooped out the potatoes and mashed them with garlic and butter(I use earth balance).

Mashed potatoes I can't seem to really get right. Not sure why. These ones were alright. I trust that just about anybody else could do a better job so trust your instincts or another recipe for this part. They also look a little freaky because some green bean got in there. Space Potatoes.

When everything was about finished I added a little bit more(about a tablespoon in all) of turmeric and added about a tsp of spicy brown mustard to lentils and beans. The original recipe suggests mustard seeds, but guess what, I didn't have any. Not a big deal.

So while everything was cooked in the same pot I didn't season everything the same. I'm learning to keep at least one thing on your plate a little less seasoned to kind of cleanse your palette as you eat. Potatoes didn't get the same mustard and only a little turmeric.

Tempeh Tacos

recipe idea from jenah

Tempeh take 2; This is the recipe with tempeh that first got me a little excited about this protien. The tempeh is dressed up enough that I think the average person(not just non-meat eaters) could enjoy.

Start with taco seasoning from Trader Joes,follow the packets directions, but replace beef with tempeh. If you want to make a whole lbs of tempeh buy two packets, otherwise cut the taco mix, onion, and tomato sauce in half. Tempeh can be eaten right out of the packet(I don't suggest it) so really all you need to do is warm and brown a bit. The only thing I change is instead of a 1/2 can of tomato sauce I use 1/3. It's a bit too tommy otherwise for me.

The rest of it is TJs organic corn taco shells(it's seriously cool to get your corn products organic), chopped spinach, onion, tom, and cilantro. Like with other tacos there are a ton of toppings options. Go nuts!