Chef A.j.'s Sweet Potato Nachos

Sorry about this photograph! My camera's battery died and my husband took this photo with his phone (thanks R!). What a buzz kill!

This is the third of three recipes that Chef A.j. mentioned I should give a try. For the toppings, I used whatever I happened to have in the kitchen (heavy on the romaine lettuce) and I was extremely pleased with the results. I could easily see this dish becoming a staple in my everyday kitchen because of it's ease and the response I got from my daughter and husband. I highly recommend giving Chef A.j.'s Sweet Potato Nachos recipe a try.

Now I can't wait for Chef A.j. to give me another assignment and tell me the next 3 recipes to make from her cookbook Unprocessed. Everything I have made from this book so far has been superb. What a way to go!

Chef A.j.'s Sweet Potato Nachos

Printable Recipe
1 sweet potato per person (If you use organic sweet potatoes there is no need to peel.)
plus any or all of the following:
Non-fat refried beans
shredded lettuce
corn
chopped tomato
cilantro
chopped onion
olives
jalapeno peppers
or anything you would normally enjoy on your nachos

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut sweet potato in uniform slices, approximately 1/4" thick. Place slices on Silpat or nonstick baking sheet (I lined cookie sheets with aluminum foil and lightly sprayed it with PAM). Sprinkle with smoked paprika. Bake for 20 minutes, flip over and bake for another 10-15 minutes until done. These are the "chip" part of your nachos.

Place several sweet potato chips on a plate and fully load them with the remainder of the ingredients. Chef A.j. recommends creating a nacho bar and letting your family or your guests build their own nachos.

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Souper Easy Smokey Bean and Kale Soup

Sometimes it really feels that life conspires towards us. Take this example: Last night I was presenting a speech on overcoming emotional eating at Whole Foods during their Engine 2 28-day Challenge. A participant approached the leader of the challenge as I was standing next to her. She showed her a recipe for a very simple soup that she said was amazing. It was comprised of one can of refried beans, 1 can of beans, 1 jar of salsa, some oil and, I think, sour cream. She was so excited because she could see that all you had to do was eliminate the oil and sour cream and it would be a perfectly E2 soup.

After the evening was over and I was shopping in the store I remembered that Gena from http://www.choosingraw.com/ had been talking about a product called "Liquid Smoke" on her blog that day and raving about a smoky hummus that she had made with the liquid smoke. My mind started to put two and two together . . . a smokey refried bean soup with . . . can you guess? KALE!

Like I said, sometimes life just conspires towards us. This soup is incredible. The Liquid Smoke was only $1.99! But better yet, this soup couldn't be easier. I think a child could make it!

Healthy Girl's Smokey Bean and Kale Soup
serves 6-8 people

Printable Recipe

1 jar of your favorite salsa
2 cans beans-black or pinto-drained and rinsed
2 cans fat free refried beans-black or pinto
1/2 bag frozen corn-I like Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn
1 box low sodium vegetable broth (4 cups)
1 bunch lacinato kale, sliced into ribbons and washed
1/4 tsp or more Liquid Smoke
a few tortilla chips, optional

Place salsa, beans, refried beans, frozen corn, and vegetable broth in soup pot over medium heat. Stir and bring to a simmer.

Add kale, stir and lower heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes. Taste. Add 1/4 tsp liquid smoke. Taste and add more Liquid Smoke to your taste.

Great with a few crunched up tortilla chips sprinkled over the top! O-M-Goodness!

Serve with a giant salad for a souper filling dinner. Okay, enough with the "souper" now.

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How I Got Started and Healthy Convenience Food, Part II

Good morning! I received a great question by way of Facebook this morning and I thought I would share it and my response with everyone here on the blogosphere.

"hey wendy,
i am in the middle of eat to live and jon and i are starting it tomorrow. i have been avidly reading your blog and luuuurve it!!! i had a question. did you start with dr. f's 6 week plan? how much did you lose in those initial 6 weeks? did you start with a diff. diet? do you mind answering my terribly nosy questions? thanks."

I actually started the old fashioned way . . . with my umpteenth trip to Weight Watchers. It was at a Weight Watchers meeting that a fellow member mentioned a website called Peer Trainer. The PeerTrainer site was instrumental in the transformation of the way that I eat. There is a lot going on at that website that I won't go into here, but that is where a lot of people were talking about Dr. Fuhrman and Eat to Live. Now a days, you can just walk into any Whole Foods Market and discover him, but this was before all of that.

So I got a copy of Eat to Live and read it. I was going to Weight Watchers and counting points and recording what I ate and losing weight at a nice rate. But my experience with the Weight Watchers program in the past has always been that I lose the weight, end up feeling extremely deprived and out of control, then I go off the diet because I just can't stand it anymore, and gain all of the weight back plus more. Pretty typical (the statistics on this are horrifying).

At about the same time that I picked up a copy of Eat to Live I was also introduced to a book called Volumetrics. The authors of both of these books ascribe to the same philosophy that in order to lose weight and keep it off in the long run you must consume a large volume of healthy, low calorie food. It's pretty simple actually. Fill your plate with lots and lots of vegetables, fruits, beans and real whole grains, a little bit of nuts, seeds and avocado and let nature do the rest. Low fat dairy, low fat animal protein and oils may be consumed sparingly, if at all. The rest of the food that's out there--all of the processed garbage that fills every supermarket shelf--just leave it there. It doesn't belong in the human body.

Pretty big shift from how I had been eating, even how I had been eating on Weight Watchers. But I was intrigued by all of this because I absolutely knew where following the Weight Watchers plan had ended me in the past. Not that I don't think that Weight Watchers has many amazing things to offer, it's just far from perfect.

So I started incorporating the principles of Eat to Live and Volumetrics while counting Weight Watchers points and I lost all of the weight that I needed to relatively quickly and without much fuss. It took me about a year and I lost 50 pounds. That's about one pound per week. To expect more than that is to set yourself up for failure. A long term solution to this problem is what I know we are all after. Not a quick fix that will never withstand the test of time. Now you and your husband may lose a lot of weight at first following the Eat to Live plan--consider it a bonus, but that was not my experience. It was all a rather uneventful slow and steady loss.

About a year into this, I reached my "goal" weight with Weight Watchers. I was thinner than I had been since I was 15 years old. This new low didn't last but a moment. I had trouble continuing to count points, something that I struggle with to this day. I wish I could get back to that place of religiously tracking what I eat, but I haven't been able to. What I have not struggled with FOR A SECOND is continuing to eat a no-added-fat, vegan diet that is high in vegetables, fruit and beans. It is this that is the lasting change with food that I have been searching for my entire life. My new relationship with food is unrecognizable to my old one. I am a new person. I'm not nearly as thin as I was six months ago, but I am a healthy and happy version of myself, free of food addiction and hating my body. I feel confident and strong, finally!

Here's an easy idea for dinner (served with a salad) or lunch for school or work: whole wheat pasta + black beans + corn + your favorite salsa. That's it!

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Vegan Bean, Corn and Broccoli Enchilada Casserole

This summer I have developed a confidence in the kitchen that I never had before. I am finally starting to develop my own recipes.

So this morning when I was flipping through my arsenal of healthy cookbooks looking for something to make for dinner, but not finding anything that seemed easy enough and satisfying enough, I happened upon an enchilada recipe. But instead of transcribing a list of ingredients from the cookbook onto my grocery list, I just started pulling out cans and jars from my cupboard.  Cilantro and broccoli were the only two things that I needed from the grocery store.

Healthy Girl's Kitchen Vegan Bean, Corn and Broccoli Enchilada Casserole
Serves 8, 4 Weight Watchers Points per serving

1 large head broccoli, washed and cut into florets (this would also be great with a big bag of frozen spinach, defrosted or any other combination of steamed veggies--the more the merrier!)
1 can fat free refried beans
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1 jar of your favorite salsa, in this case I used Trader Joe's Pineapple Salsa
1 bunch cilantro, washed and chopped
1 package (6 count) Food for Life Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Tortillas
1 jar or can of your favorite enchilada sauce

Fill the bottom of a large pot with two inches of water. Place a steamer basket into pot and put broccoli florets into the steamer. Let water come to a boil and steam broccoli until soft but not mushy. Remove pot from heat and let sit.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine next 5 ingredients and stir to combine. When broccoli is cool enough to handle, rough chop it and add it to the bean and corn mixture.

Spray a 9x13" casserole dish with cooking spray. Place two tortillas at into the casserole, letting the edges go up the sides of the dish a little. Place half of the bean, corn and broccoli mixture on to the tortillas and spread the mixture evenly.  Layer two more tortillas and the rest of the bean, corn and broccoli mixture. Place the last two tortillas on top. Finally, pour the entire can of enchilada sauce over the top and spread it out.

My husband said this was "excellent," my 10 year old daughter loved it, and I agreed with them both!

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