Mama Pea's Spicy African Peanut Stew and a Fabulous Dr. Fuhrman No Oil Salad Dressing

Today I want to talk about something really simple. Great food. I've got reviews of two delicious plant-strong recipes for you.

First up is a recipe by Sarah Matheny from her blog Peas and Thank You. There I was, chillaxin' on my couch this weekend, perusing the internet, when I stumbled upon this recipe. The planets all aligned and I saw that not only were the ingredients right up my flavor alley, but I had EVERY one of them in my pantry. How is that for awesome! You can get the recipe here for Spicy African Peanut Stew.

Here it is before undergoing crock pot magic. Red lentils, canned chickpeas, carrots, coconut milk, vegetable broth, peanut butter, diced tomatoes, Indian spices, garlic, ginger--of course I doubled the batch!

Try serving this stew over a big bed of fresh spinach leaves, some steaming hot brown rice, then topped with the stew. Incredible!

This morning I was itching to try a new salad dressing without oil and guess what showed up in my e-mail inbox? Today's recipe of the day from Dr. Fuhrman's member center just happened to be for a salad dressing and the ingredients seemed appealing to me. I was right, this one's a real keeper. But if you are not a fan of raw garlic, you might want to leave that out!

Leftover Spicy African Peanut Stew served with a salad dressed with Almond Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Dr. Fuhrman's Almond Balsamic Vinaigrette

Serves: 6

Printable Version

1/2 cup water
1/3 cup roasted garlic rice vinegar (I used plain rice vinegar)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup raw almonds or 1/8 cup raw almond butter
1/4 cup raisins
4 cloves garlic, pressed (I used 3)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Blend all ingredients in a food processor or high powered blender.

Did you catch Addicted to Food last night on OWN? What did you think?

Read more

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.

Read more

Coconut Curry Kale, Chick Pea and Sweet Potato Stoup



I have officially become my mother.

But don't get mad, Mom. That's not an insult.

I saw a totally healthy recipe here on Mama Pea's blog and I made it EVEN healthier. Mom would be so proud. And thank you to Mama Pea, as this is a pretty genius recipe! My husband said, "This is the best soup you have ever made, it's incredible, it's perfect, it's so delicious. Holy cow. This is sick. This is so good. This is the best soup ever. Holy Shit. How could you ever make anything this good again?"

Nuf said.

Coconut Curry Kale, Chick Pea and Sweet Potato Stoup
adapted from a recipe by Mama Pea over at Peas and Thank You

Printable Recipe
2 cups chopped onion
2 large stalks celery, rough chopped
1 medium head bok choy, rough chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp sweet curry powder
1 tsp hot curry powder (optional if you like heat)
4 cups vegetable broth (1 standard box)
1 14 oz. can light coconut milk
1 14 oz. can diced organic fire-roasted tomatoes (i.e. Muir Glen, Trader Joe's, Hunts all now have this)
2 14 oz. cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp arrowroot powder
1 large sweet potato, diced medium
1 head organic kale, de-stemmed and chopped into pieces
1/4 tsp salt and pepper to taste (or to taste)

Place all ingredients, onion through chick peas, into a crock pot set to 6 hours. At the 4 1/2 hour, add the sweet potato. At 5 hours, remove a ladle full of the broth and pour into a small bowl. Dissolve the 1 Tbsp of arrowroot powder into the broth and return broth to crock pot. Then add the kale. After 6 hours, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

P.S. It seems that more and more doctors are catching on to the plant-strong way of eating as a method of disease prevention. Read about two of them here.

Read more

Easy No Oil Vegan Butternut Squash and Kale Soup

So Easy Your 5 Year Old Can Make It!

Easy Vegan Butternut Squash and Kale Soup
serves 8 (small/1+ cup) or 4 (large/2+ cup)

5 small or 2 large yellow onions, peeled and chopped
2 32 ounce boxes vegetable broth
1 butternut squash
1/2 bunch kale-washed, stems removed and chopped
salt
pepper
dash of Cayenne pepper

Place dutch oven or other soup type pot over medium heat. Pour in vegetable broth to coat bottom of pot. When broth is bubbling, place chopped onions in pot and stir. Cook onions over low-medium heat, stirring frequently. Watch that they do not burn. They can cook slowly over low heat for up to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, poke holes in the butternut squash and place it on a paper towel in the microwave. Heat on high for 2 minutes to soften it and make it easier to cut. Remove squash from microwave--be careful, it's hot--and peel it with a vegetable peeler. Cut in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Cut squash into medium sized chunks.

When onions are really soft, add butternut squash to pot and pour in enough vegetable broth to cover everything. This amount will vary depending on how large your squash was. You cannot mess this up!

Simmer over low heat for 25 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender. Add chopped kale and simmer for 10 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper and a dash of Cayenne pepper if you like heat (be careful!).

Read more

Vegan Spinach Zucchini Soup and Puffed Corn Calorie Controversy

This is Baby Kitty. We got her last summer at the North Union Farmer's Market.  She's a wild and lovable lap kitten. Don't worry, we washed the soup pot before making this:

Healthy Girl's Best Friend Soup

In my opinion, there is just no easier way to lose weight than by adding low calorie, high nutrient, soups to your daily diet. Here's the recipe for one of my favorites.  2 cups=1 Weight Watcher point

1 large onion, peeled and diced

6 cups vegetable broth

6 regular sized zucchini, diced large

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp seasoning blend of your choice

8 ounces frozen spinach

1 box frozen winter/butternut squash

1 cup unsweetened almond milk 

Heat soup pot on medium. Pour in a few tablespoons of vegetable broth. When the broth is bubbling, add onions and saute them until translucent. Adjust temperature on pot to prevent onions from burning.

Add the remaining vegetable broth and all of the zucchini  to the pot. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 Tbsp seasoning blend of your choice.  Bring soup to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat to low and simmer until zucchini are cooked through and soft.  Add frozen spinach and stir. Using a hand/immersion blender, puree soup.

Add frozen butternut squash and stir until squash is defrosted. Add almond milk and stir. Taste soup and adjust seasoning if necessary.

A bowl of vegan yumminess!

Ever wonder if the calorie count on a particular package is correct? Yesterday I ran into Holly, one of my Pilates buddies, at the Farmer's Market. She and her friend were excited about a product that was being sold by one of the Amish vendors. It was a pretty sizable package of Honey Puffed Corn and the label said that 1 bag is 25 calories. Imagine my excitement as I tasted some and it was crunchy, lightly sweet and really delicious.

Then I got to thinking, can this big bag of deliciousness really be only 25 calories? I hunted down the vendor and started asking questions, but all I got was a "Yes, it's 25 calories." I asked how that could be, if the other packages of puffed spelt and other puffed stuff had a lot more calories for the same volume.

So I went an little further in my exploration and found unsweetened puffed corn in the supermarket. Imagine my surprise when I saw the nutritional label. One cup is 60 calories! But the bag of Honey Puffed Corn from the Amish vendor had about 4 cups in it and it is sweetened, so how could it be only 25 calories? It's likely that the label is incorrect and the package probably contains over 240 calories of puffed corn.  

That's a serious calorie difference. Too bad, I though I had found the most perfect TV watching munchie food!

Read more