Lentil Tacos

I love tacos.  Unfortunately, vegetarians often don't get to experience the wonderfulness of tacos when eating out at a restaurant because they always ruin the tacos by adding meat.  Silly restaurants.  But really, there are so many awesome vegetarian spins on tacos- black bean, ground soymeat, lentil, etc - that are healthier (and tastier, in my humble opinion) than the original.  A staple meal in my house is lentil tacos, which take the deliciousness of normal tacos and amp it up with some roasted red pepper and sweet potatoes.  Eat it as a taco.  Eat it as a taco salad.  Eat it cold, wrapped in a piece of lettuce, standing in your kitchen because you realized you were hungry and the food you were actually cooking for dinner wasn't ready yet.  Or you can be more civilized than I am.

While the tacos aren't super labor-intensive, they do take a bit of time mostly because you have to give the red pepper and sweet potatoes time to roast in an oven.  And then ideally you want to give the pepper time to cool before taking the skin off, or you'll end up scalding your fingers trying to remove the skin.  I usually end up following the burned finger method because I have no patience for cooling food, but.... do as I say, not as I do?  Let the pepper cool.  I'm just trying to protect you.

I'm now going to ramble on about lentils for a minute.  If you have better things to do than read a lentil rant, please skip this paragraph.  Still reading?  Ok.  There's lots of different types of lentils out there, and often they're also interchangeable with split peas.  Some lentils hold their shape when cooked (like yellow, red, and black), while others get mushy (brown and green). Both have their merits, but for this recipe I prefer "meatier" lentils, aka the non mushy ones.  My favorite is split black lentils, which look black and white, because they have a firmer texture. Mushy tacos just do not sound appealing, though if you're careful to cook the lentils al dente then any kind should be passable. 

Veggies pre-roasting.

Post-roasting.  Also, for anyone who's not sure what a roasted pepper should look like.... ta-da!  It should be blackened in spots with wrinkly skin, and deflated/mushy-ish.  Not the most attractive thing, but deceptively delicious.

Cooking the lentils

Ingredients:

2 medium red peppers

2 sweet potatoes

1 medium onion

1 1/4 cup lentils- black, yellow, red.... See my lentil rant for suggestions. 

3 cups veggie broth

1 packet taco seasoning

Sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Lettuce

Tomato

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Flour tortillas

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350.  Coat the red peppers in olive oil, poke a couple holes in them with forks (it's never happened, but I always worry about exploding peppers), and pop them in the oven.  Peel and dice the sweet potatoes, toss them with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and pop them in the oven too.  Cook until they're softened and browned- between 30-50 minutes, depending on your oven. Just make sure to poke and turn them once in a while. 
2. Finely chop the onion and throw it in a medium pot over medium heat with some olive oil. Cook until the onions are translucent, then add in the taco seasoning and lentils. Stir for a minute until the seasoning is fragrant, then add in 2 cups of veggie broth. 
3. Turn the heat to medium low so that the lentils are simmering. Cover, stirring once in a while, until the lentils are cooked. Depending on how thirsty the lentils are, you may need to add in more broth during the cooking process. 
4. Don't forget to check on the pepper and sweet potato in the oven! Turn them so all sides get browned. 
5. Prep the other toppings while everything is cooking: chop the tomato, grate the cheese, chop the lettuce. 
6. When the pepper is done, let it cool and then peel the skin and remove the seeds from the inside. Chop it into pieces. 
7. Once everything is done, build your taco/ taco salad/ whatever. You can also put salsa or sour cream on top, but the flavorful roasted veggies do a pretty solid job on their own. 
8. Enjoy! Cold or hot, I always find these tacos delicious and totally craveable. 

Soyrizo Mac n' Sweet Potato

I made this dish with my sister last week when we got Soyrizo (soy Chorizo) and wanted to experiment with it, and have been craving to make it again ever since.  It's a bit complicated- there will definitely be dishes to do after this one- since there's a few different components to it, but I promise it's really delicious.  Make this on one of those days when you're really motivated to cook and in the mood for something awesome.  Oh, and did I mention that it's pretty good for you?

What makes this dish so magical is the combination of ingredients- A sweet potato mac n' cheese topped with caramelized onion soyrizo, roasted red pepper, and coarsely mashed avocado (sounds fancy, huh?).  With that said, however, the sweet potato mac n' cheese was really good on it's own, and could definitely be paired with other things as well.  Get those creative juices flowing!  (Ew. Creative juices sounds gross.  But you know what I mean.)

By the way, the sauce is based off of this recipe but we doubled everything and omitted some stuff.  But just in case you don't trust me and want a different source.  Go there.

Who knew sweet potatoes could be so saucy?

Mac n' Sweet Potato Ingredients:

1 lb small shell pasta, or other adorably small pasta shape of your choice
2 Tbs Smart Balance
2 Tbs Flour
1/2 cup plain soymilk or soy creamer
1 cup cooked, pureed sweet potato
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, or other sharp cheese
1/2 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper
reserved pasta cooking water

Mac n' Sweet Potato Directions:

1. Boil some water and cook the pasta.  If you can't figure out how to do this on your own, then you probably won't make it through the rest of the recipe.  So I won't elaborate on the pasta cooking.
2. Melt the Smart Balance in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add in the flour and whisk, whisk, whisk for about 2 minutes until the flour is cooked.  
3. Add the soymilk and pureed sweet potato.  Keep whisking! We want this to be a smooth sauce, no chunkiness allowed.
4. Add about 5 Tbsp of pasta water, and then whisk in the grated cheese.
5. Add the nutmeg, then salt and pepper to taste.
6. The sauce will still be pretty thick.  If you want it thinner, add in more soymilk or pasta water until it reaches the desired consistency.
7. Combine sauce and pasta (which I'm sure you cooked perfectly).

Thick, creamy sauces are the best.  Especially when covering mini pasta.
Mini things are just better.

Meanwhile.....

I don't want to hear anyone badmouthing my Soyrizo.
Because if you tasted this you would change your mind.

Everything Else Ingredients:

1 Red Pepper

1 Avocado

2 Onions (I used 1 Vidalia onion and 1 normal onion, but whatever you have is fine)

6 oz Soyrizo (or half of the 12 oz package. Since half of 12 is 6.  College win.)

1 Tbs Smart Balance

1 Tbs Olive Oil

Salt and Peper

Everything Else Directions:

1. Roast the pepper- rub some olive oil on it and pop it into an oven at 350 degrees.  Let it roast until it's blackened.  
2. Slice the onion.  
3. Melt 1 Tbs Smart Balance with 1 Tbs Olive Oil in a medium pan over medium heat.
4. Add the onion to the pan, sprinkle on some salt, and stir for about 2 minutes.  Cover and cook for another 5 or so minutes, stirring every once in a while.
5. Turn down the heat to low and let the onions continue to cook for the next 10sih minutes, still stirring and keeping the pan covered.
6. Check your pepper! Turn it over, poke it a bit, maybe sing it a song.  If it's done, take it out and let it cool before peeling off the skin and slicing it into little pieces.  If it's not done, then let it keep roasting.  Duh.
7. Crumble the Soyrizo into the pan with the onions.  Turn the heat up to medium/high and cook until the Soyrizo is browned.  Make sure to stir frequently!  The Soyrizo had a tendency to want to stick to the pan, so just keep it moving and keep scraping the bottom of the pan so nothing gets stuck.  You can add in a little extra olive oil if you need it.
8. Slice and gently mash the avocado- you still want some chunks for a bit of texture.  If it's a really good avocado then just let that flavor shine through, otherwise you can add in some salt/pepper/garlic powder/ whatever to liven it up a bit.  I understand, flavor-lacking avocados do happen sometimes.  
9. Hopefully everything is done at this point.  Put some mac n' sweet potato in a bowl, top with the caramelized onion/ soyrizo mixture, and the top that with some roasted red pepper and the avocado.  Try not to gobble it down too fast and fall into a food coma like I did.

Try it.  You won't be disappointed.

Frozen Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bites

My blog officially has over 1000 hits! *Cue fanfare*  I am completely aware that at least half of the views came from my mom, but I still thought this moment was worth mentioning.

These banana bites are the perfect little treat for hot summer days.  The bananas take on an almost ice-creamy texture, and of course everyone knows that chocolate, peanut butter, and banana are an awesome combination.  They're also a great way to use up bananas which have been neglected for a tad too long.

You can really make these in any quantity.  I'm listing the ingredients as I used them, but of course change the amounts to fit whatever you have on hand.  Also, I chose to drizzle chocolate on top instead of dipping them in chocolate- I think it allows the subtle banana flavor to come through a bit more- but you could also freeze these after topping them with peanut butter, and then dip them in chocolate.

I added powdered sugar to my peanut butter to add some sweetness and make the peanut butter easier to work with.  However if you're one of those rare breeds of people who tries to cut down on sugar, feel free to use just peanut butter on top of the bananas.

Start with some naked banana chunks.

Give those bananas some peanut butter hats!

It doesn't have to be pretty.  Messy chocolate still tastes good.  In fact, I think it tastes better.
Clean chocolate eaters don't know what they're missing.  

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs peanut butter
1 1/2 Tbs powdered sugar

1 cup chocolate chips

"Bonjour.  Do you like my beret?"

Directions:

1. Cut the bananas into bite-sized chunks.  Don't use the very ends- you want both sides to be flat.  I recommend eating the banana-chunk-rejects.  Place the bananas on a wax paper-lined baking sheet.
2. Mix 1/4 cup peanut butter with the powdered sugar.  It should form a kind of soft dough.
3. Make the dough into little disks and place them on top of the bananas.  Like little banana berets.
4. Melt the chocolate with the remaining 1 Tbs peanut butter.  I use the microwave method, but do whatever makes you happy.
5. Drizzle or dip the bananas with the chocolate mixture.
6. Place in the freezer on the tray until frozen, then you can transfer them to a tupperware to store them.

Easy and delicious.  Two of my favorite qualities in food.

Better-for-you Stovetop Gratin

I love potatoes au gratin.  Well, really I love anything that has lots of gooey cheese covering it.  However the traditional gratin is full of cheese and cream which, while delicious, is quite unhealthy and feels really heavy when you eat it.  This gratin recipe uses mostly veggie broth, onion, and garlic for flavor in place of the cream and some of the cheese, which makes it better for you (still can't call this one health food).  Also, it's all done in a pan, so there's none of this oven nonsense.  You know, how like when it's hot and then you turn on the oven and it makes the whole kitchen hot and then you don't even want to eat whatever just came out of said oven.  None of that here.

Start with onion, potato, and garlic in a large pan.

Pour veggie broth over all of it. 

Once the potatoes have cooked a bit, add in the zucchini.

Mix in the cheese and let the sauce thicken a little. 

Note that this recipe makes one, maybe two, servings- depending on how hungry you are.  It's easy enough to double, so if you want to make it for more people, do that.  Thanks for understanding.

Ingredients:
1 medium potato
1 small onion
1 smallish/mediumish zucchini (I like green, but use whatever floats your boat)
1 cup veggie broth
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup grated (reduced fat) cheddar cheese, or other sharp cheese
Olive oil

Mmm.  Savory, cheesy deliciousness.

Directions:

1. Thinly slice the potato, onion, and zucchini.
2. Drizzle some olive oil into a large pan over medium heat.  Add in the onion, potato, and garlic, then cover in veggie broth.  Make sure all the veggies are at least mostly submerged in the broth. 
3. Cover and let cook for about 5 minutes, until the potatoes are getting tender.
4. Add in the zucchini, mixing them into the potato/onion mixture.  Re-cover and cook for another few minutes, until the zucchini are tender and almost translucent. 
5. Remove the cover  and continue cooking and stirring the veggies.  When almost all of the broth has cooked off, with maybe 3 or 4 tablespoons of liquid left in the pan (just eyeball it), sprinkle in the grated cheese.  Note: this will look weird, and possibly a little gross, at first.  Just keep mixing it in.  Life will get better.
6. Continue to mix in the cheese until it has combined with the broth.  Cook until the sauce thickens to your desired consistency.
7. That's it!  Enjoy your not-as-guilty-gratin!