Creamy Rosemary Potato and Kale Soup

Have you ever heard of a different way of preparing an old favorite and wondered "why in the hell didn't anyone tell me this before?"

My favorite partner in nerdery at work just BLEW.my.mind.

She suggested I roast my potatoes and other root vegetables in the oven before throwing them in to a recipe like soup or mashers.

Huh.  Never thunk of that.

We've been growing fresh herbs on our back patio in a container garden, so fresh rosemary, oregano, and basil is just  begging to garnish a dish.  So, I picked a crapton of rosemary (hence the name) and got started.

Creamy Rosemary Potato and Kale Soup

6 medium Red Potatoes
1/4 cup Rosemary
1/4 cup minced Garlic
3T fresh ground Black Pepper
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 massive bundle of Organic Kale
1 container unsweetened Almond Milk
1 1/2 cup Water
1/8 cup Cornstarch
Salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 400F.

The first matter of business is to infuse the olive oil with herby goodness.  I put all of the garlic, rosemary, and black pepper in a large mixing bowl then poured the olive oil on top.  After stirring violently with a fork, I let it sit to the side while I chopped up potatoes!

I cubed the potatoes into happy little morsels then tossed in the wonderfully herby oil.  I evenly spread them out on a cookie sheet and baked for 25 minutes at 400F.  It filled our home with such amazing aromas.  It was hard to not gobble these little taters up...

Now, I have to admit.  I have never, ever attempted to cook with cornstarch before.  I was raised to make cream sauce with butter and flour, like a proper young West Michigan lady should.  So this was treading new waters for me.  *EEEEK!*

I dutifully mixed 1/8 cup cornstarch in 1/4 cup cold almond milk while the remainder of the milk warmed on the stove with the water.  When the mixture came to a boil, I stirred in my cornstarch concoction and continued to stir slowly until it returned to a boil.

When my soup base reached a creamy, happy texture, I added my chopped kale and roasted potatoes and let simmer for 15 minutes.

After all that simmerin' I decided to toss in another 1/8 cup garlic and way more sea salt.  It could have done without, but I'm a garlic freak.  Here is the end result:

Hearty and delicious!

I wish I could say it was love at first bite, however, my palate still hasn't adapted to veganhood :-).  After a couple of bites though, I was totally into the texture and flavor.  I am going to go ahead and call this evening's dish a win!

Tabbouleh Time!

Vegetarian dishes from the Middle East are so flavorful and refreshing.  I love tasting a dish that is so healthy,  you can feel the goodness with every bite.  Tabbouleh is one of my favorites because of the unique marriage of flavors that occurs.  Each bite is an adventure in flavor!

Allergen Buster:  If you're feeding anyone with a gluten intolerance, substitute the bulgur with quinoa.  I promise it will turn out just as amazing!

Come to think of it, I could have used a healthy protein punch that only quinoa can offer... perhaps I should conjure up some kind of quinoa salad later... hrmmmmmm... I don't know why that thought made me burst into maniacal laughter.  Let's just roll with it...For now I bring you the magic of TABBOULEH!!!!!

Recipe inspired by the directions on the back of Bob's Red Mill Bulgur.

1 1/2 cups Bulgur
1 1/2 cups Water
1/4 cup Mint
1/4 cup Dill
2 cups Parsley
2 Green Onions
1/2 medium Red Onion
2 medium Tomatoes, seeded
1/2 Lemon
1T fresh ground Black Pepper
1T Sea Salt
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar

Boil 1.5 cups water, pour on 1.5 cups bulgur.  Let sit for 1 hour.

Pulse all of the veg/herbs in food processor until properly chopped up (or, if you're not as lazy as I am, use a good old fashioned knife).  Squeeze the lemon juice all over the mixture, add salt/pepper, red wine vinegar, and olive oil.  Stir, cover, refrigerate.  Let it hang out until the bulgur is done chillin'.  This will give all of the wonderful flavors time to intermingle.  Mix in the bulgur, refrigerate for another 15 minutes.

Lazy Food Friday: Cream of Buckwheat

Behold, the power of BUCKWHEAT!!!!

Growing up in our household meant eating a lot of collard greens, corn bread, and proper down-south buttery gut-attack GRITS!  I came across this box of Cream of Buckwheat at our area Sprouts market and thought it sounded like an interesting thing to try.  It's definitely more nutrient dense than your average hominy grits and is really fun to say.  BUCKwheat.  *squee*

Preparation is easy:  Boil 1.25 cup water.  Throw in .25 cup BUCKwheat.  Reduce to low heat, allow to simmer (stirring often) for 10 minutes.  Put in a pat of Earth Balance, salt, pepper, CHOWDOWN!!!!

Perfect for a lazy food Friday!  It's simple to prepare, tasty, and even friendly to our gluten intolerant friends out there.  I give this two eager thumbs up!

The Epic Morning Power Smoothie!

Hi, I'm Chia and I'm a smoothieholic.

Hi Chia...

Driving in to work this morning, the world's coolest partner in carpooling admitted that she requires at least 2 hours after waking until she even *felt* hungry.  This makes me insanely jealous, because I feel like I was born hungry.

It took me a long time before I found the perfect foundation to a well-nourished day:  The Power Smoothie!  There are several variations to this recipe that I indulge in, but this is by far my favorite.

Here's what y'all need:

- 1 medium (2-3" diameter) organic beet

- 2 large (7-8" long) organic carrots

- Metric crapton (about 2 proper handfuls) organic baby spinach

- 1 frozen banana

- 1 serving of your favorite protein shake.  My personal favorite is Garden of Life's Raw Protein Powder.  When choosing a powder, make sure it's both safe (click here for some help from Food Babe) and does not contain any hidden non-vegan ickery (click here for help from Vegangstaz on making sure nothing that came from a beaver's butt is in your food).

- 1 oz of your favorite raw nut - best if soaked in water overnight (it just blends better).  I love adding raw almonds into my smoothies!

The first thing I did this morning was pull out my mighty Breville Compact Juice Extractor and fed it beets and carrots.  Check out the gorgeous sunrise I concocted on this incredibly gloomy day:

I added this wonderful juice to the banana/spinach/protein powder/nut concoction that was chillin' in my Ninja blender:

After the Ninja had properly kung-fu'ed the daylights out of my drinkable salad, I had one perfectly pulsed breakfast treat!  I poured it into one of my re-purposed kombucha bottles for portability (reduce, reuse mofoz!)...

I coupled my cocktail with a Go Raw Live Pumpkin Bar.  This was a lovely pairing that kept me going until lunch!  Yay raw energy!

Will Work for Zen

0730: Wake up, sit peacefully for 15 minutes breathing. This will inevitably wake the cat, dog, and husband. They will all want love at the same time. Forfeit meditation in exchange for kisses.

0745: Go Raw Spirulina Energy bar with a big glass of water. Take vitamins. Try to recreate meditation time on the toilet. This will induce cat's super door opening powers. Husband will complain of full bladder. Curse lack of forethought when going with the 2/1 condo instead of a 2/2. Resign oneself to try meditation during walk with Shih Tzu.

0800: Walk dog. Zen music on, crisp breeze, and delicate sunshine dance around us peacefully. Breathing adjusts to the pace and a calm begins to... Escalate to blind rage as loud mouthed neighbor with antichrist chihuahua comes around the corner. Heart palpitates as every fiber of thy being tenses. Just don't make eye contact. Don't. Look. Neighbor excitedly runs over. Evil chihuahua bark permanently ingrained in head. Neighbor makes about as much sense as Boomhauer on King of the Hill attempting to emulate Fran Drescher from The Nanny. Spend next 20 minutes asking God to never do that to me ever again.

0830: Attempt to regain feeling in frozen extremities. Save walk in handy MotoACTV. Watch eats all workout history and crashes. Pick up iPhone and write whiny blog post for 15 minutes. Realize legs fell asleep and now cannot resume upright position.

Bulgur Holidays Continued!

I would like to premise this post with the fact that this is indeed, the UGLIEST dish I have ever made.

But it's pretty darn tasty and nutrient packed.

I had a lot of dolma filling left over from yesterday's adventure, so I decided to put it to use with some of the portobello mushrooms and tofu I had chillin' in the good ol' icebox.  Here is how I "repurposed" some creativity:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Dolma Filling 

4oz Portobello Mushrooms

2oz Cubed Extra-Firm Tofu

Drazzle of Olive Oil

1T Bragg's Liquid Aminos

1T Sriracha

Assembly Instructions:

Set stovetop to medium heat and throw a sauce pan on that hot little burner.  Drazzle the bottom of sauce pan with Olive Oil.  Dump all aforementioned crap in pan.  Cover.  Walk away until sizzling and hot (5-8 mins).

Quick, easy leftover utilization!  Turned out super tasty and filling!

Merry Motivation!

Last week I made the conscious decision to commit to making three simple things part of my daily life:  Veganism, Activity, and Learning.  I am a firm believer that those who succeed, PLAN!  So, although I'm not jumping headfirst into these daily endeavors, I have been more attentive to what I need to be successful.  For example:  We are slowly working all non-vegan foods out of the house and replacing them with plant based goodness.  Basically, I'm working under the premise of "once this crap is out of my fridge, I'm not buying any more."  I'm hoping the gradual transition to veganism will only make me stronger in this pursuit.  I'm already finding myself reaching for the veg more than the cheese, so emotionally I think I'm doing the right thing to prepare myself.

To put it in the words of one very wise BFF: "You are a horrible vegan."  Yes, I am.  I've hopped on and off the vegan wagon so many times my grass sucking hippie friends (hi LL *waves*) probably don't believe I'll last a week on an entirely plant based diet.  But I want to be a grass sucking hippie so bad.  I hate how lethargic and awful I feel after eating even the smallest portion of chicken, cheese, whatever... but for some reason I keep going back to the teat of the mammals.

The routine of intentionally phasing foods out of the house has been therapeutic.  It has helped me become more creative in the kitchen as well as conscious of how much better I feel after vegan meals vs. non-veg meals.  This method has basically helped me reinforce my belief that this is the right choice for me and only strengthens my convictions.

Tomorrow I start running with more regularity.  I already picked out my outfit, conjured up a new play list, and found my lucky socks.  My calendar on my phone has been updated with the next 13 weeks of scheduled runs/workouts.  I also blocked off time for myself on my work calendar to ensure I can do self-care throughout the day, even if in 15 minute blocks.  A 15 minute a day tabata workout is way better than sitting there letting my posterior widen.

The pursuit of "learning" has thus far been the easiest.  I have picked up a book every day in addition to spending time doing actual research online on random topics.  This morning I downloaded an app that will help me be a little more organized in my bird watching (bird nerds unite!).

So, the whole point of this post was to contemplate ways to promote momentum towards these three simple life changes becoming a daily fact.  I am incredibly driven by waving shiney objects and/or proverbial "carrots" in front of my face.  With that in mind, I bought myself a "commitment present"that I have been lusting over since checking it out at the library:  Vegan Eats World by Terry Hope Romero.  She is also one of the masterminds behind the coveted Veganomicon cook book.  I love this book so much and have already learned so much about making delicious vegan wares.  I cannot wait to conjure up my own batch of kim chi as soon as I locate the spices Ms. Romero prescribes.  All in all, best commitment present ever.

On January 31, 2013 I will ask myself these questions:

1. Have you been a dutiful vegan this entire month?
2. Have you logged at least 60 miles walking and 60 miles running this month?
3. Did you post at least 20 blog entries this month?

...then I will sit down and write an old school paper (circa 1996 Mr. Roberts Research Writing style) about something I learned that month.  If I successfully can answer to the affirmative on all three questions and feel like I did my best to enhance my mind, I will treat myself to this very special running top:

This awesome mp3-friendly long tank is offered by Gracie's Gear.  She is an incredible, inspirational coach and entrepreneur and I would be tickled to finally don something she designed out on the trails here in Austin, TX.

Monthly I will conjure up a new set of questions/criteria for gifting something new to myself.  If successful, I will allow myself one of the following:

1. Aqua Jogger Belt and Floatation Sandals
2. LifeFactory Water Bottle
3. A new bike seat that is a little more ergo, like this. 
4. Punching Bag (I haven't really researched brands, but I want one!)
5. Membership with one of the local farm CSA's
6. New pair of blue tooth headphones - I haven't had the best of luck in this arena.  I have tried 3 different models and all failed within a month of purchase.  The first pair, died in 3 days.  
7. A new bathing suit - something cute with whimsy like this -->
8. A culinary-driven camping trip. When The Husband and I first started dating, he took me camping for my birthday.  Some of the best meals I made for him came out of that campfire :-).
9. A weight set for home.  I've always had a certain stigma about weight training in public.  I should start picking sh*t up in the privacy of my own home.
10. A trip somewhere completely unnecessary.
11. Enlist in a formal running training group like Tough Cookies.

Ok, I have my carrot in sight.  Time to get real ;-).  Much Love!