Peanut/Rice Bowl

I successfully made a dinner that Craig said was "to die for". Here it is:

Peanut/Rice Bowl (serves two)

1 1/2 c. cooked rice
1 c. peas
2 carrots julienned
2 scrambled eggs
1/4 c. peanut sauce (recipe below)
peanuts
scallions

Pile all ingredients into a bowl.

Recipe for peanut sauce.

1/2 tsp oil
1 clove minced garlic
2 tsp fresh ginger (or a couple of dashes dried)
1/2 tsp chili paste (I just used 1/2 tsp chili powder
½ c. lowfat coconut milk
3 tbsp unsweetened peanut butter
1 ½ tsp sugar (if I didn’t have unsweetened peanut butter, I’d probably omit the sugar)
1 ½ tsp soy sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
juice of 1/2 lime
sriracha

1. warm oil in small saucepan over medium-low heat

2. sauté garlic and ginger 3 minutes

3. add chili then coconut milk. Bring to a boil.

4. add peanut butter and mix well. Then add sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and fish sauce. Simmer 5 minutes.

5. squeeze in lime then add sriracha to taste.

Sweet Potato Chili

This is so good. I put in a little less of the spicy ingredients for my girls' sakes but it was still scrumpteous (sp). You wouldn't normally think about sweet potatoes in chili but it is really really good. I got it off of crockpot365.blogspot.com.

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and in 2-inch chunks
1 yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (15-ounce) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed (or 2/3 cup dried beans, soaked overnight and boiled briskly for 10 minutes)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 (14.5-ounce) can tomatoes (whatever's on sale, mine had oregano and roasted garlic)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (if you don't have kosher, put in a little more than 1/4 t)
1 cup water
1/2 cup orange juice (not pictured. If you don't have any in the house, use water)

The Directions.

Use a 5-6 quart slow cooker. This is enough food to feed a family of 4 regular-sized, or 6 smallish people. Peel and chunk the sweet potato and add to the pot. Add diced onion. Follow with the red bell pepper, can of tomatoes, the beans, garlic, and seasonings. Pour in OJ and water. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until the onion is translucent and the sweet potato is fork-tender (if you want the sweet potato to get really squishy and disappear when stirred, cook longer).

Hippie Chow

I stole this super yummy recipe from this blog which I love.


I didn’t make it for kids, but my husband eats like a 6 year old and he loved it.

This recipe is really flexible, so I’ll tell you what I used last night and you can do your own thing.

HIPPIE CHOW

2c. water (or a rice cooker and whatever it requires)

1c. quinoa

Olive oil

3 smallish beets

2 carrots

1 regular brown potato

3 cloves garlic

1/8th of an onion

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash



1. Cook the quinoa. You can just put it in a rice cooker and cook it exactly the same way you would rice. If you don’t have a rice cooker, bring 2c. water to boil in a saucepan, add quinoa, bring back to a boil, cover, turn temp to medium-low and cook for 15-20 mins.

2. Heat oven to 400. Chop beets, carrots, and potatoes. Toss with olive oil and roast on cookie sheet until tender. (I threw some SeasonAll on as well since I was being lazy.) When they get close to being done, go to step 3.

3. Saute garlic & onion in olive oil. Meanwhile, chop zucchini and squash. Add zucchini and squash to onion/garlic and cook until tender (or just a couple minutes if you like them crunchy). Season w/ salt and pepper.

4. Throw some of everything in a bowl and top with a poached egg.

You can also put ketchup or hot sauce on it, but it tastes really good and doesn’t need extra flavoring; plus I hate ketchup.

Addictive Sweet Potato and Bean Burritos

These sound unusual, but meatless main dishes can be very fulfilling and at our house we all love sweet potatoes or yams or whatever you call them. This recipe came from allrecipes and for some reason we always use black beans instead of kidney and I added the spices to the onion and garlic and sauteed a little bit before I added the beans to bring out the flavors, but the rest was basically the same. For our little family, I usually do half the recipe. And you may be tempted to skip the baking step for the sake of time, but don't do it. They are so much better baked.

photo from allrecipes.com

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups cooked black beans (original recipe says kidney, but black is so good)
2 cups water
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 teaspoons prepared mustard
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
3 tablespoons soy sauce
4 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (baking them the slow way in the oven really makes them sweet and yummy)
12 whole wheat tortillas (these are the best whole wheat ones I've made)
1 cup shredded cheese (use whatever kind you have)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Heat oil in a medium skillet, and saute onion and garlic until soft. Stir in beans, and mash. Gradually stir in water, and heat until warm. Remove from heat, and stir in the chili powder, cumin, mustard, cayenne pepper and soy sauce.
3. Divide bean mixture and mashed sweet potatoes evenly between the warm flour tortillas. Top with cheese. Fold up tortillas burrito style, and place on a baking sheet.
4. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven, and serve.