WFBE.

So...I am officially posting this recipe one week late. Before you go and say "UGH, worst food blogger ever!" let me explain. (Get the acronym in the title now?).

I guess I don't have an explanation, except that being an engineer who writes all day long (seriously...it's a thing) makes me want to come home and NOT write. That is actually the reason you haven't heard from me. But I'll get over it soon. And hopefully you'll get a chance to make today's recipe and forgive me for being so M.I.A. 

In the realm of workouts, I caved and decided I needed to go to a gym. I spent that past couple of months on the fence about joining a gym, because I thought I had motivation to do my own thing. Apparently I don't, because I was incredibly inconsistent. I went to boot camp yesterday for the first time in...over two months. Today, I am having some issues walking. (Can you say squats to the MAX?) Best feeling ever.

Remember how last week I found that quinoa polenta? I couldn't wait to use it. I've never had regular polenta before, and actually didn't really know what it was. (It's boiled cornmeal). The easiest thing to do if you don't know how to use something is to bake it...because really, you can't go wrong with baking stuff.

Layered Quinoa Polenta Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 package quinoa polenta (or regular polenta)
• 1 can refried black beans*
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 hatch pepper (or any large moderately spicy pepper)
• shredded cheese of choice
• salt/pepper

*You could easily make your own re-fried black beans if you don't prefer the canned version!

First things first, chop up the vegetables, and cook them in a large skillet with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Season with salt, pepper, and some garlic powder (optional). 

Mix the refried beans and frozen corn and set this aside.

Slice the quinoa polenta into medium-thick slices. Evenly pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil onto a large baking dish and place the polenta slices on the dish.

Spread the black bean mixture on top of the slices, then top with the vegetable mixture.

Top with a light layer of shredded cheese, and bake for about 30 minutes at 350F. 

Slice and serve. 

And maybe top with your favorite spicy salsa for an extra kick, or maybe a dollop of greek yogurt!

Perfect make-ahead meal. I ate this every day last week for dinner and it did not get old at all. I am so behind on life that I still haven't planned this week's dinner (gasp). Any ideas? I'm thinking about somehow incorporating those kelp noodles I found...that'll be an adventure.

Foodie finds. Part II.

I seriously thought I updated yesterday, and then saw that my last post was TUESDAY. Time flies when you're having fun?

But really, I don't know what has been happening. It's not like I even do all that much. Take for example today. It has rained ALL day, and I stayed inside for most of the day, except when I had to make a quick run to the grocery store. I almost bought an umbrella but it was so overpriced that I decided against it. My hair took the hit when I went back outside without an umbrella. Ouch.

Yesterday I spontaneously went to a natural foods store and picked up all kinds of things. I was had such a field day at that store, it was ridiculous. This is what my cart looked like:

[I've seriously missed my SunButter. Also, the rice nog was DELICIOUS. Also, on the top right corner of the car is a big bag of vegan marshmallows. Win.]

The lady at the checkout counter thought I was organizing the items in my cart so it would be easier for her. Until she saw me pull out my camera. Awkward.

Before we move on, I have some purchase highlights to share with you:

I was super curious about this. If you are, you won't have to wait long, because this week's meal in a day featured this quinoa polenta :). 

I've ALWAYS wanted to try kelp noodles! 

Okay, please brace yourself for the next two pictures. I went into the chocolate section of the store and freaked out when I saw this:

For someone who can't eat Reese's (allergic to peanuts/peanut butter), this was such an exciting find. When I thought life couldn't get better, I found these right next to the almond butter cups:

O.M.G. This is what I'm talkin' about. 

I obviously bought both. Obviously. I preferred the sun cups over the almond butter cups solely because they had a richer flavor. But both were awesome and I should have bought more than one of each!!

I even found some fantastic items/sales at the regular grocery store. 

15 limes for one dollar? OKAY!

3 avocados for one dollar? Yes please! 

What's one to do with limes + avocados? Make guacamole, obviously. Large batch of guac in my fridge--check!

I also found this super interesting salsa:

The best part about this salsa is that it's made of all natural ingredients and no added sugar/unnecessary ingredients. Oh, and it's SUPER spicy! Super spicy = super addictive (hence why half of the bottle was empty before I took a picture).

Time to go make a batch of hummus for the week! 

Chili cook off.

I discovered something recently, and I'm never going back to canned beans AGAIN! Let me explain.

Last week, on a whim, I bought a bag of uncooked black beans for 84 cents. (When things cost less than a dollar, I am very likely to buy them. No matter what they are).

I was hesitant to make the beans because I've never cooked beans before. But I made my weekday meal plan and decided to make chili this week.

Out came the bag of black beans. If you've never cooked beans before, this is what I did in three easy steps:

1. Rinse and then soak 2 cups of dried beans in 6 cups of water overnight, preferably in a stove top-safe pot.
2. Cook the beans on the stove (bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for about 40 minutes until beans are soft and water has been absorbed).

Actually it was two easy steps. By the way, this made over 6 cups of cooked beans.

I've made a couple of chili recipes in the past (check the recipes page for those!), so I'll give you a quick run-through of this one. I added the following to this gigantic pot of beans:

• 16oz tomato sauce (equivalent of two small cans)
• 1 can diced tomatoes with added green chilies
• 3 finely chopped cloves of garlic
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 1 cup frozen corn
• ~1/2 teaspoon paprika
• salt + pepper

Star of the show (which was also the star of the sauce show from last week's quinoa patties):

Finished product after mixing all ingredients together and heating for just a few minutes:

So how do you eat chili without getting utterly bored of beans? Get creative!!

The first day, I ate my chili alongside a quesadilla and some green salsa.

(Bonus points for whole wheat tortilla!)

The second day, I ate the chili atop a bed of brown rice. With some cheese on top!

(Late dinner = dark picture).

Third day, chili atop a baked potato!

Topped with a dollop of greek yogurt.

Warning: when you start eating this, the once aesthetically pleasing meal turns out quite messy. 

Can you tell I had way too much fun with this baked potato photoshoot?

Enough with the pictures. I have enough chili to last me the next three weeks. See you then! (Just kidding).

Something about this meal gave me enough energy to choreograph a new Zumba dance to a popular new song (any guesses?). Video to come soon!

Pulpy.

Warning: this post is going to be WEIRD. Don't say I didn't warn you.

After juicing up a storm this past week, I ended up with quite the vegetable pulp collection. Mostly carrot because I bought 5lbs of carrots. I didn't even realize how many carrots 5lbs was when I bought the bag.

I've been brainstorming ways to use the pulp. (Believe it or not, I didn't use up very much of it in my quinoa patties). I really wanted to make something resembling carrot cake with the carrot pulp. So I started out with my oatmeal. Of course.

My usual overnight oats combination with the addition of a few hefty spoonfuls of carrot pulp and some cinnamon, topped with almond butter and a drizzle of maple syrup. This was seriously WAY too filling. I hardly ever feel that full after breakfast but this was just ridiculous. That's what I get for eating what was the "meat" of something like three carrots. Goodness gracious.

I was planning on making the carrot cake until I was given the suggestion to make carrot halwa. If you aren't familiar, it's an Indian sweet. I LOVE Indian desserts. They are sweeter and richer than any other dessert...what's there not to love? So I looked up recipes and decided to make a Tulika-fied version: easy and not involving 100 grams of sugar.

Tulika-fied carrot halwa = 2 packed cups carrot pulp (or finely grated carrot) + 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk + cinnamon (optional).  Mix everything together on the stove top over medium-low heat.

[Side note: I found marshmallow creme at the store for a dollar. So I bought it. Marshmallow creme is vegetarian. Marshmallows are not].

I wanted some kind of frosting for my "carrot halwa"...you know, to make it more carrot cake-like. (Can you tell I'm a huge carrot cake fan?). Enter MARSHMALLOW CREME!

Cream cheese frosting would work well, too. I also tried some with melted dark chocolate on top. <-- Big fan.

Enough about the sweets. Let's talk salty. And crunchy.

I've seen lots of recipes for juice pulp crackers. I attempted to come up with my own. It worked. Good thing it worked, otherwise I would have had to say goodbye to my juice pulp.

I mixed together the juice pulp with 2 teaspoons olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then transferred the mixture onto a foil-lined baking sheet and flattened it with my hands.

The baking time is the reason I'm not making this into a formal recipe. I put this into the oven at 325F for 30 minutes or so, but the edges were beginning to burn and the center was still moist. My goal was to get these as dehydrated as possible so they would resemble actual crackers!

So I cut these into squares, reduced the temperature to 200F, and put them back in the oven for a longer time (another hour or so). I checked periodically and finally took them out of the oven when they felt dry.

The biggest problem I had was prying the crackers off the foil! Next time I'll remember to generously grease the foil. However, taste and texture-wise, these were exactly what I was looking for! Flavorful, salty, and crunchy. I think the garlic powder made a huge difference to the flavor.

They held together pretty well! I even tested this out by dipping them in the remains of my homemade hummus...

Oohh yeah. I'm taking these to work for a snack, along with a batch of kale chips I also made today. My co-workers are going to be so confused if they ever see what I'm eating.

P.S. I went grocery shopping today, looked for some more canned pumpkin, and they were all out. Can you believe it?! So disappointing. Anyone else have this problem recently?

KeenWah.

You're probably wondering what I've been eating for dinner all week. Remember that week in a day thing I've been doing? I didn't get around to posting it until...today.

Let's ignore the fact that it's THURSDAY. Maybe now that I'm posting it at the end of the week, you'll get a chance to make this on Sunday. Maybe I secretly waited this long because I was trying to be helpful.

You're welcome.

I guess I should also give you the back story on this recipe. I had a vision. The vision didn't play out as I had envisioned. Despite that small detail, I thought it was still quite the success! Lots of you tell me you're afraid of cooking because "what if it doesn't come out right?!". My answer: you can always fix it.

Exhibit A.

Crispy Quinoa "Patties" with Chunky Tomato Sauce

Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup juice pulp*
• 1/4 cup egg whites (or 2-3 eggs)
• 1/2 chopped green chili
• 2 regular sized cans diced tomatoes*
• ~8 mushrooms
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper, oregano

*If you don't have juice pulp, you could use a combination of grated carrots, finely chopped spinach or bell pepper, and parsley.

*I used cans of diced tomatoes with green chilis. This was SPICY. In the best way possible, of course.

Cook the quinoa (1 cup quinoa + two cups water, boil, cook, and let cool). I added a pinch of salt and 1/2 chopped green chili after it had cooled. Set this aside.

(If you want to multi-task, do the following while the quinoa is cooking...)

Saute the chopped mushrooms and garlic in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Add the diced tomatoes to the mushrooms, then season with some salt, pepper, and oregano.

Sauce = done. Easy.

Make sure the quinoa has cooled completely, and then stir in the egg whites and juice pulp. 

Heat up a skillet with some vegetable oil, form the quinoa mixture into patties, and place on the skillet.

Here's where it got a little tricky.

Flip the patties once cooked on the first side.

So...some of the patties didn't make it out alive. In fact, most of them didn't. They didn't stay together in patty form like I expected them to.

I made the best of a bad situation by doing this:

I ended up cooking it like this, and just flipping portions of this flat...thing. I kind of preferred this, because the quinoa became nice and crispy in some portions! Chewy quinoa with a hint of crispiness. Nice.

*Note: the reason I had to re-cook the quinoa was because egg whites were involved.*

Serve quinoa "patties" with the tomato/mushroom sauce.

Wait! Don't forget the cheese!

Mmm. Much better.

I actually have been eating this with some yogurt on the side because it is THAT spicy. I don't mind sweating while eating my dinner. (Unlike during breakfast. I don't know why, don't question these things).

Hey there, punkin.

It's no secret that I enjoy making lists just for the sake of crossing stuff off the lists. Funnily enough, if I keep track of my to-do list in my head, it's less likely that I'll get it done. But when I write it down, I end up completing it just because I know I get to cross each task off.

Weird...I know. But it works! So this weekend, I made a workout list for the week.

I recently forgot about BodyRock and I'm sad that I did, because if you ask me, it is the most convenient way to workout. Each workout is 20 minutes or less but they really work you hard. (This is the one I did on Sunday). While I do BodyRock I just blast some fast-paced or super hardcore music on Pandora and 20 minutes later I'm drenched in sweat. Not a bad deal!

As for yoga, I've been following random youtube videos or doing just my own thing for the past few weeks. But last week, I bought a Groupon for some classes at a yoga studio. I love Groupon.

So...I promised you a themed post. Just promise me one thing...

Don't think of me as a cliche blogger!! Now that I've said that, you've probably guessed what ingredient this themed post is focused on.

PUMPKIN! (Even though you probably guessed from the title. Whatev).

I couldn't help it. Pumpkin recipes were popping up all over the place, and I wanted to join in on the fun. So I bought a large can of pureed pumpkin.

There are lots of ways to use pumpkin, but I really wanted to perfect a bowl of overnight pumpkin oats. (It's still too hot for hot oats and I hate sweating when I'm eating breakfast).

Oh and if you can't tell, most of the following pictures were taken when it was still dark outside. Yeah. I wake up at the crack of dawn. Actually, I wake up before the crack of dawn.

Pumpkin oats bowl #1:

The overnight bowl included pureed pumpkin, 1/2 cup oats, about 1 cup milk almond milk, and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice. In the morning, I made some banana soft serve and scooped it on top of the oats. I like to call this pumpkin pie a la mode!

Pumpkin oats bowl #2:

The overnight preparation was the same as #1 with the addition of 1 tablespoon chia seeds. Also, instead of the pumpkin pie spice I used cinnamon. In the morning, I topped this bowl with almond butter. I was obviously trying to get some protein in this particular morning. Obviously.

Pumpkin oats bowl #3:

Same as #2, but this time I topped it with almond butter and plain yogurt. AND WE FOUND A WINNER!

I don't know why but I've suddenly become a fan of this pumpkin + yogurt combination. Ever since bowl #3, I've been eating overnight pumpkin oats topped with just plain yogurt. Every. Day. (Until I run out of pumpkin). I'll probably get sick of it soon.

Oh and then this weekend I made pumpkin french toast, just to switch things up a little. A girl needs some change in life.

How do you make pumpkin french toast, you ask? It's easier than you think. I mixed pumpkin puree with egg whites and a splash of milk, dipped the bread in that mixture, and heat it on the skillet until slightly crispy. And then topped the french toast with almond butter and maple syrup. Another winner!!

I just realized that I've been consuming a lot of orange lately.

Carrot juice. I will never get sick of my juicer!!