Category: Home Eats

I’ve been working from home since the pandemic started and I love working from home. But one thing I miss about work… is the cooked to order café! They had the BEST breakfast burritos!

I’ve been doing well and making better choices since I’ve been home. I’ve avoided the dreaded Covid 15 and actually lost some weight. But one of the things I’ve paid more attention to since I’ve been home is how food made me feel. I’ve noticed that some foods make me feel icky… so I made some changes.

This breakfast burrito has no real recipe – beacuse which ones do?. So, I’ll share my ingredients and thoughts about the vegan egg, by Just Egg, the new Chao Mexican style vegan shreds from Field Roast and the Morning Star breakfast patty.

So, the Just Egg… It only comes in a 12 oz container. I shook it up and gave it a pour…measuring about 1.5 of the serving size. The consistency is kinda like melted ice cream meets Elmer’s glue? Ummm…yeah… so… Anyway,  I added mine to sautéed veggies and sausage substitute so I can’t say what it would do on its own… but I immediately began to stir it. After a few turns it started to brown and firm up. I cannot say that I tasted anything eggy as I consumed my burrito, but with no saturated fat and no cholesterol I will definitely use it again. I’d say from this experience, it is a win!

The Morning Star sausage is always a winner in my book. It’s flavorful, very reminiscent of a breakfast sausage patty, has a 30 second heat up, and can be crumbled/chopped for versatility. I sometimes have one with my breakfast porridge or just alone with a coffee in the morning. In this case, it was a perfect addition to a burrito! They have a maple one too but I stick with the orginal because I prefer the flavor and it is more versatile.

Now, I just recently found out that Field Roast released some new options of Chao. I really like the original slices. I like the flavor and it melts well. I purchased the shredded original too on my most recent grocery haul but I was most looking forward to trying the Mexican Style. Upon opening the package, there is a noticeable jalapeño smell, which I welcomed. The cheese wasn’t spicy, but it does have a assertive jalapeño flavor. I instantly knew that it would be a favorite. It melted well and wasn’t hard to work with. This will be a great addition to anything that has a Santa Fe vibe for sure!

Even though burritos don’t technically have a recipe…at least to me… mine included:
Green pepper
Sweet onions
Minced garlic
Morning Star breakfast patty
Chao Mexican style shreds
Salsa
Avocado
Just Egg-egg substitute
Salt and pepper

So all in all, this was a true winner! And yes… the meat eaters will love a burrito like this! So if you are vegetarian, flexitarian, plant-based, transitioning or just going meatless a few days a month… this breakfast is sure to please!

ENJOY!

I don’t normally eat pasta…but I had a taste for it so I made this recipe up and it turned out pretty good so I decided to share it.

It is a brightly flavored light dish that can be a side dish or an entree.

INGREDIENTS:

8 oz of dried whole wheat rotini pasta (half of a standard box)

1 15oz can of chickpeas

1 15oz can of medium or large olives

10 -15 Cherry tomatoes

1 cucumber

2 small avocados

1 shallot

1/2 cup of chopped fresh parsley

3 tablespoons of finely chopped chives

1 1/2 to 2 large lemons

1/2 medium to large lime

4 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and cracked pepper to taste

Cashews to garnish

DIRECTIONS:
– Prepare pasta per package instructions. Salt the water and add a splash of oil in the water for added flavor and to keep from sticking. Drain and rinse in cold water. Put into a large mixing bowl and drizzle half of the olive oil on the noodles to keep them from sticking.

While pasta is cooking, prep other ingredients as follows:

– Drain and rinse chickpeas and add to large mixing bowl

– Drain and slice olives and add to mixing bowl. ( I LOVE black olives so I tend to be heavy handed with these. You can use a half of a can depending on your preference.)

– Slice cherry tomatoes in half and add to mixing bowl. (If you prefer, you can slice Roma tomatoes, heirlooms, yellow, green or the whole stoplight…or any other tomato of your choice)

– Use a vegetable peeler or knife and peel the cucumber. Slice the lengthwise and remove the seeds. Then slice the half into quarters (lengthwise) and cut into small pieces. Add to mixing bowl.

– Cut avocados into medium cubes and add to mixing bowl (add more if you’d like)

– Dice shallots and add to mixing bowl

– Finely chop parsley and chives and add to bowl.

– Juice the lemons and set aside

– Juice the lime and set aside

-Combine all chopped veggies and chickpeas with pasta and pour the remaining olive oil and half of the lemon juice and then mix gently.

Taste…add salt and pepper and gently mix again. Slowly add half of the lime juice and gently mix. Taste it. Continue to add lemon, lime, salt and pepper until desired flavor. I used it all but you may have a different palette when it comes to acidic flavors.

I grated some cashews on top…if you eat cheese or cheese substitute-go right on ahead. But if you don’t and you’re not allergic to nuts…give it a try.

I omitted the garlic this time eventhough I love it. You can add a clove of minced garlic or a few sprinkles of garlic powder for added deliciousness.

This pasta salad is vinegar free, mayo free, vegetarian, vegan and Daniel Fast-friendly.

Bon Appetit!

I was looking for a hearty, veggie packed robust veggie chili and I just couldn’t find one… SO I made something up. It turned out really well so I decided to share it.

I used dark and light kidneys bean and red beans. You can use whatever beans you like. I was going to add black beans but decided to save them for a black and white chili.

INGREDIENTS:
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 jalapeno
1 sweet onion (may use any onion you prefer)
4 cloves of garlic
1 15.6 oz. can red beans
1 15.6 oz. can light red kidney beans
1 15.6 oz. can dark red kidney beans
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons of cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
Pinch of coriander
Pinch of thyme
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
(May add a pinch or so of cayenne for added spice)
1 1/2 cup of water (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
-In your slow cooker add the whole tomatoes (tomatoes may be cut in halves or quarters prior to cooking or you can just use diced or another can of crushed if you don’t like chucks of tomato. I like to let them cook and fall apart naturally) also add crushed tomatoes.
-Put beans in colander/strainer and strain off the preservatives and rinse thoroughly.

Add to tomatoes

-Turn cooker to high and put the lid on.

-Dice all peppers and put in a bowl (set aside)

-Dice onions
-Heat olive oil in pan (medium heat)
-Saute onions until some color is on them and then add the peppers
-Gently salt and pepper the veggies
-Cook the peppers until slightly tender then crush the garlic and add to veggies. Stir
-Cook for about 1-2 minutes (do not let the garlic burn>>yuck!)
-add the veggies to the slow cooker
-add all of the seasoning and stir
-optional: I added the water to help it cook down. The water will evaporate off as it cools leaving a hearty robust chili
-Salt and pepper to taste

(As with ANY soup you’ll want to avoid a lot of salt until the soup has cooked and be patient with adding salt. Once it is over salted…youl will either need to add a whole skinned potato to try to absorb it or well… half it and start adding more ingredients…which leads to a BIG OL’ pot of soup.)

Cook on high until you see the ingredients playing well together and having fun… about 3-4 hours…then turn to low and cook an hour or so longer until the color darkens a bit.

May be enjoyed alone or with brown rice or polenta (made with water, almond milk, soy milk, coconut milk or veggie stock). If you eat cheese, cheese it up. If you like it with chips…get crunchy with it.

Eat some now…freeze some for later 😊

Not sure how many servings this is…or the nutritional info… 🤷🏽‍♀️

Makes: A lot
Nutritional value: Good for you

The chili alone is vegan, vegetarian and Daniel Fast-friendly.

Bon Appetit!

I recently made my first batch of hummus and I have had several people ask me about what the ingredients were…so here it is.

I did some research on recipes…some said to take that soft skin covering off, some said leave it on. Some recipes said to cook them and some just were straight out of the can. So I decided to try one version and then the next time I make it to try something different and see what changes. In this recipe, you will be cooking your chickpeas.

Ok, ok… so this is what I did for my first batch.

Ingredients:

• 1 (15.6 oz) can of chickpeas

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 cup tahini

• 2-3 tbsp olive oil

• 3-4 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

• 2-3 cloves garlic

• 2-4 tbsp ice cold water

• 1-1 1/2 tsp cumin

• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt

Directions:

1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. (If you are vegan, this liquid may be something that you can save as it has been substituted for making merengue in several recipes. If not, just discard it.

(I used Bush’s chickpeas. I love chickpeas and I always have some and I use all brands. I didn’t take pictures of everything as I was making it so this is another can that was in the pantry. It is the Walmart brand. Use what ever you like…if you eat organic then get those.)

2. Place rinsed chickpeas in a pot with the baking soda, cover with water and boil for 20- 30 minutes until the chickpeas look bloated. The baking soda is supposed to soften the skin so you dont have to peel each one. Also, cooking the chickpeas is supposed to make for a smoother creamier texture. Once they are finished cooking, strain them and rinse them with cold water.

3. In your food processor (or blender) combine 3 tablespoons of lemon, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the garlic. (Make sure to peel the garlic) blend together to chop the garlic. Let rest for 5-10 minutes to let the flavors marry.

4. Add the tahini (make sure you stir the well before adding) to the lemon juice and garlic and process. Scrape down the mixture from the sides if necessary. (I picked this up at Whole Foods but you should be able to find it just about anywhere).

5. While the food processor is running, add the cold water to make the tahini pale and creamy. Add a little more if your tahini is super thick.

6. Add the cumin and chickpeas. I am heavy handed with spices so you may want to start with 1/2 tsp of cumin first and add more later if you would like. But I love it, so I added a little more. Start processing the mixture.

7. While the mixture is processing, carfully add the 2 tbsp of olive oil in the top of the food processor or blender.

Taste it… you can add a bit more lemon juice for extra zing, more salt if desired, more cumin or if it is still not creamy enough, add a little more water. And process again.

Scrape it out and into a serving bowl if you are making it for a party, top with a drizzle of olive oil, paprika, or fresh herbs and serve. OR put it into a storage container and top it later.

I sprinkled a little paprika on mine.

It stays good in the refrigerator for one week…if it last that long.

Hummus can be eaten with pita chips, tortilla chips, carrot sticks, sliced cucumbers, used as a spread on sandwiches or in wraps…the list goes on and on.

Hummus is vegan and Daniel fast friendly.

BON APPETIT!

So, you’re not eating meat…or cheese (or any dairy), or bread, or sugar, or a bunch of processed foods…and your wondering what in the world you should eat. Well, it doesn’t have to be boring that’s for sure!

Time for a little fasta (fake pasta). I’m not sure if that will catch on…but who really cares. ha!

Anyway, I thought why not some of those fun zoodles I’ve been seeing everywhere and some robust chunky sauce.

I used the veggetti/spiralizer to make my noodles but really there are a bunch of different techniques you can use.

Red Sauce
-1 sweet onion (any onion is fine, I like sweet onions so that’s what I used)
-1 green pepper
-8oz of sliced fresh mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
-3 cloves of garlic
-1 tbsp dried oregano
-1 tbsp dried basil
-1 tbsp dried parsley
-1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1- 28 oz can diced tomatoes

-Dice and saute all veggies (minus garlic) in olive oil until slightly tender on medium heat.
-Crush and add garlic toward the end (be careful not to burn the garlic…yuck!)
-Cook for a few minutes-stiring
-Add oregano, parsley, basil and salt and pepper (don’t add too much salt….there’s no coming back from that)
-Add tomatoes
-Stir and cover
Simmer for what seems like forever…like an hour…really longer. (I was hungry so it got an hour)

Fasta (fake pasta)
-Make zoodles… or use premade from the fresh section (Zucchini…in case you are new to the zoodle scene)
-Saute zoodles in olive oil over medium heat to desired texture (I like mine with a little bite)

Add sauce…and assemble fasta (fake pasta) .

Finish with grated cashews (or not, lol)

Ta-da!

Honestly this was surprisingly good for a “throne together ” idea meal.

And in case you’re wondering…it is vegan and Daniel Fast friendly!

Bon Appetit!

I want to start off by saying that these tacos rocked my Sunday!

I had a taste for some eggs which is weird because I don’t usually eat eggs. But not only did I want eggs, I wanted them with some ‘ranchero-type’ sauce. Yes, breakfast tacos!  I already had some pico de gallo, avocado, tomatillo sauce and black olives. So, I went to the store in pursuit of eggs, cotija cheese and corn tortillas. As I strolled he aisles I spotted some chorizo and just like that my tacos transformed into these beauties.

I usually get the block of cotija cheese and crumble it in the food processor but they only had it pre crumbled. Unlike Queso Fresco, Cotija cheese is a salty, sharp, robust cheese. It  does not melt, but instead is crumbly and dry. 

I’ve never touched chorizo (other than eating it, lol)…so this was definitely a blind run. I will say this particular chorizo is not a solid sausage like a polish sausage it was more like a seasoned loose meat. I just opened the package and put it into a pan and browned it similar to  how you would cook ground beef.  it melted down and created a pool of red grease. You may want to wear an apron or a shirt you are not particularly fond of just in case you get popped with red grease.Once the sausage was cooked, I drained the grease off. It was also seasoned very well, so I tasted it to make sure I didn’t over season any other component. It also had enough salt for anything paired with it…so I omitted the salt in the other elements.

You will need:

• Eggs
• Tomatillo sauce (salsa or salsa verde)
• Chorizo
• Pico de gallo
• Avacado
• Cotija cheese
• cilantro
• black olives (garnish)
• Tortillas, ‘street taco’ size (or regular size if preferred)

Instructions

1. Cook chorizo and drain excess grease (put into a container with a lid)
2. Scramble 2 eggs in a non-stick pan
3. Put eggs in a bowl and add about 2 tbsps of tomatillo sauce on the eggs and coat eggs evenly
4. Slice avocado into 1/2 inch pieces (small enough for a small taco)
5. Prepare your cliantro
6. Heat tortillas (I used a flat top, but you can heat on the stove, or in the microwave-following package instructions)
7. Assemble tacos (eggs, chorizo, pico de gallo, avocado, cotija cheese, cilantro, olive)

ENJOY!

 

You ever see something amazing on Instagram and think, “Ohhh, that looks so good! I’m going to make something like that”..without even trying the original recipe in the first place? Yeah, me too! Haha!

So I saw this amazing chipotle shrimp and strawberry salad by Maggie Jeninga @mfreshkitchen and decided that I wanted to make something similar. So here is my go with my own little spin on it (but I will totally have to try her recipe now that this experiment is out of my system). Hmm, I’m going to call this…

“Southwestern Shrimp Mango Madness”.

This salad has Romaine lettuce, black beans, corn, pico de gallo, mango, avocado, black olives and shrimp. Sadly there is no “recipe”. I just added about how much lettuce I wanted (based on hunger) to a bowl. Then, I rinsed both black beans and sweet corn and set them aside. You can make your own pico, but if you are in a rush or simply don’t feel like making anything just buy some pre-made. I cut up a half of a small avocado, sliced a few olives, and added some mango. About 3 tablespoons of each topping.

Then, I drizzled the shrimp with some olive oil and added some “homemade” taco seasoning.

Taco Seasoning
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon oregano
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container.

Yield: 48 servings (serving size: ¼ teaspoon)

The George Foreman grill made a comeback today for this very special occasion. I couldn’t tell you the last time I used that thing. I have a love for kitchen appliances and somehow it has been overlooked for a while. Anywho, I added a little dash of salt and pepper and squeezed some lime on it and Voila!

Southwestern Shrimp Mango Madness.

You can use any meat you would like. I am so sometimey with meat. Most of the time veggies are enough unless I really have a taste for meat. Experiment with the veggies you like, and fruit, that you like. You can even add rice or quinoa of you prefer. I really like these in the summer. They are full of goodies and are a light option especially on hot days. I won’t generally add a dressing for something like this. The pico, mango, & avocado end up vibing with the squeeze of lime and provide a fresh bite for me. If that is not your thing, just add a dressing of your choosing. I WILL say this is a very low sodium dish the way it is prepared.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll be sure to try the chipotle shrimp and strawberry salad by Maggie Jeninga and share the deats.

Be inspired. Eat a salad.