Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos... yet another. :)

I changed up the original recipe a bit.  It makes a lot.  Ben and I ate this for 5 days straight, but it was so good we didn't mind.  :)  

INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2-3/4 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cans black beans, drained 
a little water to thin out the beans if needed
1 tablespoon chili powder (or to taste) 
2 teaspoons ground cumin (or to taste)

4 teaspoons prepared mustard (dijon was good)
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 large sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed (I chopped and boiled mine)
corn tortillas (because I served them as tacos with melted cheese, but you could use flour tortillas and make burritos if you like)
shredded cheddar cheese
taco condiments: cilantro, guac, avocado, salsa, sour cream, tomatoes

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oil in a medium skillet, and saute onion and garlic until soft.  Stir in the chili powder, cumin and cook a minute or two.  Stir in beans, and mash (leaving some whole). Gradually stir in water, if needed, and heat until warm. Remove from heat and add mustard, cayenne pepper and soy sauce.
   
2. Mix the bean mixture with the mashed sweet potato (the original recipe leaves them separate, but this worked great).  
   
3. Melt cheese on tortillas on stove, fill with mixture and serve with your favorite toppings.
   
   

Twice Baked Butternut Squash

Simple and delicious... if you like butternut squash and blue cheese that is.

Twice Baked Butternut Squash (with quinoa
and gorgonzola)
Author: Erin Alderson Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 75 mins Total time: 1 hour 35 mins

Ingredients
1 large butternut squash 1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium shallots
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese, plus extra for topping 
pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 ̊. Slice butternut squash in half and scoop out seeds. Place each half cut side down in a 9x13 pan and pour 1/2" of water in the bottom. Place in oven and bake until tender, about 45­60 minutes. Once done, remove and set aside.
   
2. Rinse quinoa and set aside. In a medium pan heat olive oil over medium low heat. Dice shallots, add to oil, and saute until shallots are fragrant. Stir in quinoa and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer at let cook until water is absorbed, 12­15 minutes.
   
3. While quinoa cooks, scoop out butternut squash, leaving a 1/4"­1/2" on the sides and bottom. Drain water from pan and return butternut squash to the pan, cut side up.
   
4. Mash butternut squash and stir in gorgonzola cheese. Once quinoa is done, add it to the butternut squash. Taste and add salt if need be.
   
5. Scoop filling evenly into butternut squash halves. Sprinkle with gorgonzola cheese and return to oven. Let bake for 10­15 minutes or until cheese has melted and the tops begin to brown. Remove from oven, cut eat half in half, and serve.
   
6. Evenly spread filling back into butternut squash
   

Notes
​The butternut squash can be roasted the day before cutting out a good majority of the time it takes to make this!​ 

Sweet Potato Quinoa Chili

If you use vegetable stock, you can make this a vegan chili. I only had chicken stock on hand. I cannot fully express how satisfying this is! Even Brandon thought so. Oh, and don't worry about the kids liking it. Miles ate 2 bowls for dinner, 2 days in a row. On the second day he saw me getting it out of the fridge and said "Is that chili, Mama?" and went right to the table.


1, 29 oz. can black beans (or 2, 15 oz cans), rinsed & drained
1, 6 oz. can tomato paste
32 oz. vegetable (or chicken) stock
1 onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced (or to taste, it's not garlicky per se)
1 TB chili powder
1 TB cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 TB olive oil
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
1 C dry quinoa (I used white)
salt & pepper to taste
avocado (didn't have, but I'm sure it takes the chili to the next level)

Heat olive oil in a pot over medium low. Add onions and cook until they start to brown. Add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes. Add tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and oregano and cook for about 2 minutes (stir constantly). Add beans, stock, potatoes, salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add quinoa. Cook for 20-30 minutes (check along the way) until potatoes and quinoa are cooked, and it's thickened to your liking. Serve with avocado.

Mine definitely took around 30 minutes, and I put the lid on the pot for about 5 minutes to get the potatoes working.

Fast Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts seriously might be my new favorite vegetable.  These are delicious!

Water to cover plus an inch more, well salted (allow 1/2 tablespoon table salt for 4 cups of water)
1 pound fresh Brussels sprouts, trimmed and gnarly outer leaves removed, Xs cut into the cores with the tip of a knife

1 tablespoon butter,
1 clove garlic, finely chopped (I might have used 2... I like garlic)
Juice of half a lemon (about 1 tablespoon) (lime worked well too)
Salt & pepper to taste

Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop the sprouts in, cover and let cook for 3 to 5 minutes until mostly cooked. Drain. (If cooking ahead, drop the sprouts into ice water for a brief moment to stop the cooking and drain again.) Cut the sprouts in half lengthwise.

In a large skillet, heat the butter and garlic until shimmery on MEDIUM heat and let cook for about 3 minutes until the garlic flavor is infused into the butter (don't let the butter or garlic burn). Remove the garlic clove and discard and increase the heat to MEDIUM HIGH. Add the Brussels sprouts and stir to coat with fat. Cook the sprouts, turning only every so often for you want the flat edges to darken, taking on almost a little 'burn' and that won't happen when stirring often. (It takes patience to not stir often but you can do it!) When the edges are browned to the desired level, sprinkle with lemon juice. Season with additional salt (if needed) and pepper (if needed). Savor and enjoy!

Sweet Potato Quinoa Burgers

These are REALLY REALLY good! Like SUPER good. Like the three of us ate all 10 patties/burgers in 2 days good.

From The Naked Kitchen


1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed
3 C cubed sweet potatoes, peeled (about 3 regular sized potatoes)
3/4 C sweet corn, frozen or fresh (thawed if frozen, fresh grilled corn would be excellent in this dish)
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 C cooked quinoa
1 TB olive oil
heaping 1/3 C garbanzo bean flour (you can use whatever flour, I used all purpose)
2 TB roasted sunflower seeds
1/4 tsp sea salt
fresh black pepper to taste
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne (optional)
1 tbsp hot sauce (optional)

Oven at 375º

Cook the sweet potatoes, but try not to over-cook them! You don't want them too mushy. Smash them, but leave it a little lumpy.

Add half the black beans to a bowl and smash them. Add the rest of the ingredients (incl. rest of the beans). Stir until combined.

Form mixture into 10 balls, smash them into 1/2" thick patties.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil and place patties on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, flip half-way through time.

(I made ours in a skillet just pan-frying them so it was much quicker. If you pan-fry, cook for about 5 minutes on each side.)

Asian Slaw

(Recipe courtesy Dave Lieberman, from the Food Network)

Note: I served this with Asian BBQ chicken and coconut rice and it was delicious and so EASY! It would also be outstanding on salmon tacos (maybe with a ginger pineapple glaze or something).

Ingredients

1 bunch (6 large) scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced (greens and whites)

2 (16-ounce) bags coleslaw mix or 1 (16-ounce) bag each of shredded green and shredded red cabbage (I used bagged regular slaw, mixed it with julienned carrots, but you could also just mix your own with regular cabbage and napa cabbage)

½ cup cilantro, chopped (this is my own addition)

1 small red onion, thinly sliced (I used just two slices of red onion, rather than a full red onion... between this and the green onion it was plenty oniony)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger (from about a 1-inch piece)

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar (added more like 3-4 Tbl to add more sweetness)

2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil

2 teaspoons sesame seeds, optional (left these out)

1 teaspoon salt

20 grinds black pepper

Directions

Rough up the scallion slices a little with your fingers so all the little layers of the scallion whites separate. Toss the coleslaw mix or both kinds of cabbage, the red onion and scallions together in a large bowl until everything is thoroughly mixed. You can make the slaw up to this point up to a day in advance as long as you keep it refrigerated. Before serving, simply bring the slaw back to room temperature, make the dressing and toss.

Stir the remaining ingredients together in a small bowl until blended, then pour over the vegetables. Serve within 1 hour of dressing or the cabbage will get wilty and sad. (I ate this for round two the next day, and while it was a little wilty, it was still super delicious.)

Coconut Rice

(From OurBestBites.com)

Note: I served this with Asian BBQ chicken and Asian slaw and it was terrific! Make this meal soon!

2 c. white or Jasmine rice (I used Jasmine)

1 can coconut milk (I used lite coconut milk and it was great)

2 c. water

1 tsp. Kosher salt

Splash of white vinegar (optional, but it helps with the texture) (use it)

2-3 tsp. white sugar (I might have used a little more than this... who counts)

Handful of chopped green onions, plus chopped green onion tops for garnish (we're using the whole animal here...)

Black pepper to taste

Combine rice, coconut milk, water, salt, vinegar, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil Turn heat to low and cover for 20 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Allow to stand 5 minutes. Add green onions, black pepper (if desired), and additional salt if necessary. Serve with any Asian or tropical-inspired food.

(I also think this rice would be good if you stirred in shredded coconut or crushed pineapple or something after cooking. Btw, that's also when I stirred in the green onion.)

herb stuffed mushrooms

If you're looking for the stuffed mushroom recipe. This. Is. It.

24-36 mushrooms (small to medium)
6+ T butter
1 sm onion, chopped fine
~1/4 tsp garlic powder
4 oz cream cheese, softened
4 T grated Parmesan cheese
2 T fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1 C herb-seasoned croutons, chopped into crumbs
4 T pesto

Clean mushrooms. Remove stems & chop finely (in the food processor is great).  Keep ~1 C of chopped stems.

Melt 2+ T butter in a saute pan. Roll mushroom caps in butter (top and bottom) and place top side down in a baking dish.

Heat remaining butter (4+ T) in same saute pan. Add chopped mushroom stems, onion and garlic powder - cook until tender.

Over low heat, stir in cream cheese until combined. Add Parmesan cheese, parsely, croutons & pesto. Mix thoroughly.

Spoon mixture into mushroom caps OR put it in a large ziploc back, cut off a corner and squeeze it in like frosting (much easier to control).

Bake @ 350 until heated through and mushrooms are browned. 15+ minutes (check them).

This filling is so good you'll want to eat it off the spoon. You can also make it ahead of time and keep the filled mushrooms covered in the fridge until cooking.

I eyeball the croutons and save some to sprinkle on the top before baking.