Fast and Easy Potato Lentil Stew

We spent the weekend in Phoenix with J.R.'s sister and her family.  What does this mean?  Well I'll tell you what it means: An empty fridge upon our return.  So when I finally remembered that food is an essential part of functioning around 1 o'clock in the afternoon yesterday, the choices were slim.  And what do you do when choices are slim and you have just finished reading the "Hunger Games" books?  You make a stew.  So I scavenged through the cupboards and found lentils, potatoes, and vegetable stock.  Eureka!

Ingredients:

1 T. oil (I used grape seed oil this time)

1 yellow onion diced small

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 medium potatoes, peeled and medium diced (about 1 centimeter cubed)

4 c. low-sodium vegetable broth

2 cans of lentils, or 3 cups cooked lentils (drained and rinsed)

salt and pepper to taste

So this is really easy: You heat the oil over med-high heat in a pot.  Then add in the onion and potatoes.  Once the onion is softened and translucent, add in the garlic and cook until fragrant.  Pour in the vegetable stock making sure to scrape up any yummy brown bits and reduce heat to med-low.  Let the soup simmer until the potatoes are softened to about potato salad consistency.  Add the lentils in a couple minutes before the potatoes are done just to heat through.  That's it folks.  It is fast, filling, good, good for you, and a great way to stretch a buck.  I ate mine with some delicious toast we had left over from the previous week's whole wheat multigrain bread recipe.

Monkey Style Vegan Brownies

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Lately, I have been focussing on trying to reduce sugar and other processed sweeteners from my diet.  This has led me to revamp my original vegan brownie recipe to get rid of the sugar and bring in the bananas :)  I made these last night for dessert and they turned out great, so I decided to share.

Ingredients:
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/3 c. cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ancho chili powder (to amp up the chocolate flavor)
3/4 c. ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 c. unsweetened apple sauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips

Serving size is one 2x4 inch brownie

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.  Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Add in all of the we ingredients and whisk until incorporated.  Once incorporated, stir in the chocolate chips.  Pour the batter into the baking dish and smooth into an even layer.    Bake for 15-18 minutes until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the baking dish.

Once the brownies are done baking, place them on a wire rack and tent loosely with foil.  The trick here is to keep them as moist as possible.  Let the brownies cool for 15-20 mins before eating.  Make sure to store these in the refrigerator since they have banana in them.  I like to put my brownies in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to warm them up before eating.  These brownies are moist and fudgy with the perfect level of sweetness and the slightest hint of banana.  Makes 8 huge brownies.

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J.R. and I were both busy in the kitchen tonight and didn't realize that our cats (mainly Champ) had found a roll of toilet paper and proceeded to do their best to destroy it.

J.R. presenting the evidence, you can also see bits of
toilet paper all over the living room floor
in the background.

Champ's mug shot with exhibit A.  He is also not supposed to be on the table and he knows it.  So this is his, "oh crap, I'm caught!" face.

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Not So Bad For You, But Super Tasty, Vegan Brownies

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I went through a phase a couple months ago where I was making these vegan brownies from the Peas and Thank You cookbook just about every single day.  Yes, they were that good, and yes, they are low-fat enough where I could make them a lot.  I hadn't made them in a while, so I decided to make them tonight :)

Now let me set your expectations.  These are not going to be super ooey gooey brownies.  If you find a recipe that produces that kind of brownie with no oil or sugar, please let me know.  These brownies are going to be kind of fluffly, but there are a couple tricks I use to make sure they are super moist, uber chocolatey, a still pretty fudgy.

The original recipe calls for sugar, but I can't really have sugar, so I use agave nectar.  I have also been amazed by how far sugar free chocolate has come.  I didn't use sugar free chocolate in this recipe because my nephew ate my last bar, but using sugar free chocolate would also be super good and would decrease the calories by a good amount as well.

So here is the recipe:

3/4 c. whole wheat pastry or white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. unsweetened applesauce (I recommend making your own, it is very easy.)
3/8 c. agave nectar
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips (or sugar free chocolate chopped)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 8x8 inch baking dish with cooking spray.  In a large mixing bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together (except chocolate chips).  Add in all of the wet ingredients and stir until well combined.  Add in the chocolate chips and stir until well incorporated.

Pour the ingredients into the baking dish and back for 18-20 mins until the edges start to pull away from the pan.

Now here is the trick to keeping the brownies moist.  Pull the brownies out of the oven and onto a cooling rack.  Cover brownies with aluminum foil, this traps in the moisture as they cool down.  Let the brownies cool to room temperature then slice into 2x4 inch brownies.

You can substitute 1 c. of mashed bananas for the applesauce to make banana brownies which are also very tasty.

Quick Tip: If they make it to the next day, I heat my brownie in the microwave for 10 seconds to melt the chocolate chips before devouring :)

So yeah, they get a c- score on nutrition. But they are a dessert :) and 3.1 grams of dietary fiber is not too shabby. Especially since you can't even tell that they are made from whole wheat flour. These are the nutrition facts for using regular chocolate. I wonder what they would look like with the sugar-free chocolate. hmmmmm......

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Going Vegan and Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Am I converting to Veganism?  Absolutely not!  While I deeply respect other's decisions to do so, I do not personally have the will power to give up steak for good.  But, I think it is a good idea for both my health and the planet to incorporate at least a couple non-meat meals in my diet per week.  So I bought a vegan cookbook from Costco that looked pretty interesting and started going at it.

I brought some vegan blueberry muffins to a crafting activity yesterday and they seemed to be well-liked (I know I liked them) so I feel I should share.  What is great about these muffins is that they are not overly sweet or oily.  Which means they don't give me heartburn.  So if you like yourself a super sweet, oily muffin, you have come to the wrong place my friend:

Muffins:
1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour (I use white whole wheat flour from trader joe's, it's cheaper)
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
2/3 c. soy milk (plain)
1 t. vanilla extract
1/3 c. orange juice (I used no sugar added grape juice)
1/3 c. canola oil (while I sued canola oil, I feel this could be replaced with unsweetened apple sauce, so I am going to try that)
1/2 c. sugar (I am not supposed to have sugar, so I use agave syrup making sure to account for the sweetness difference)
1 c. fresh blueberries

Streusel Topping:
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. sugar
2 T. Whole Wheat Flour
2 T. vegan margarine (I am going to try to omit this on my next tray by using agave syrup instead of sugar and then no lipid)
2 T. old-fashioned oats
1 t. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, spray muffin tins or line with muffin cups and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients except for blueberries, and stir until just barely combined. Fold in blueberries just before filling the muffin tins.

In a small bowl, combine all of the streusel ingredients and with a fork until everything is mixed and crumbly.

Spoon the batter into muffin tins until they are 2/3 full, top with 1 teaspoon of streusel.

Bake for about 20 mins, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you follow the original recipe, the muffins are 173 calories each.  Not sure about my frankensteined version, but it is probably pretty close to the same.

The original recipe can also be found on the peas and thank you blog.  This woman is a genius, I recommend reading her blog and buying her cookbook.