Vegan Enchiladas with Cilantro Avocado Sauce...(File in Rotation)

I feel like I should turn my blog into a recipe blog since that's the primary focus of late. I cant believe how excited I am about cooking! Thank the Lord once again for sending this my way!It's 1:03 in the morning and i just finished making the below. Which was GOOD! Even J thought it was good but as I suspected he thought the sweetness was unnecessary (I added a pack of equal because the recipe calls for pasta sauce and i love sweet pasta). This recipe will definitely be in the rotation pile. I feel like I need a recipe box...hmmm ..may have to look at one of my fav place "personalization mall" next month. i know the above isnt the prettiest picture ..I'll have to work on the presentation on my next batch...(it is after 1 in the morning)

The recipe came from the infamous fabulous Angela.

http://ohsheglows.com/2011/05/04/vegan-enchiladas-with-cilantro-avocado-cream-sauce-2/

Sweet Potato, Black Bean, Spinach, and Pepper Vegan Enchiladas


Adapted from Time Crunch Vegan Enchiladas.


Yield: 4 Enchiladas
Ingredients:

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped (~2 cups) (I used red onions because that was in my house)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup sweet potato, chopped (or zucchini) (sweet potato)

1 bell pepper, chopped

2 handfuls spinach, chopped

1 can black beans (~2 cups), drained and rinsed

Enchilada sauce or Pasta sauce (about 2.5 cups)* see note (I used Pasta Sauce-Chunky Ragu Pasta Sauce)

1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional) (This really is optional..I paid close to $6.00 for this and you couldnt even taste it)

1.5 tsp ground cumin

1-2 tbsp fresh lime juice, to taste

1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp chili powder, or to taste

4 whole grain tortilla wraps (I used Food for Life Ezekiel) (I used Low Carb Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Tortilla Wraps)

Cilantro Avocado Cream Sauce, to pour on top (recipe below)

Green onion & chopped cilantro, to garnish (I made this optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grab a baking dish large enough for 4 enchiladas. Pre-cook the chopped sweet potato, by simmering it in a small pot of water for about 5-10 minutes until just tender. Do not overcook. Drain and set aside.

2. In a large skillet or pot, add 1 tbsp oil and bring to medium to low heat. Add in the chopped onion and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until translucent. Add in garlic and reduce heat to low and cook for a couple more minutes. Now add the chopped pepper, pre-cooked sweet potato, drained black beans, and chopped spinach. Cook for about 5-7 more minutes on medium-low heat.
3. Now add in your enchilada or pasta sauce. Stir well, and add in your seasonings: nutritional yeast (optional), cumin, fresh lime juice, salt, garlic powder, chili powder- all to taste. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Stir well.
4. Scoop about 3/4-1 cup of the mixture onto the bottom of your casserole dish and spread out in a thin layer. Scoop about 1/2-3/4 cup of the mixture onto each tortilla and wrap, placing the fold down on the casserole dish. Repeat for the remaining 3 tortillas and leave a bit of filling left to spread over the top. Sprinkle with vegan cheese if preferred.
5. Bake tortillas at 350F for 18-20 minutes. Meanwhile, make your Cilantro cream sauce (see below). When enchiladas are cooked, remove from oven and pour the sauce over top. Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onion. Serve immediately. Makes 4 enchiladas.



Note: Depending on what kind of sauce you use, you will have to adjust the seasonings to taste. I used a pasta sauce so I likely needed more seasonings to achieve the taste I desired.

Cilantro Avocado Cream Sauce


Inspired by Kathy’s Cashew Cream Sauce.


Yield: ~1.25-1.5 cups


Ingredients:

1 & 1/4 cup avocado flesh (I'm not there yet to use avocado flesh so I used avocado)

2 tbsp water, or more as needed to thin out

2-3 tbsp lime juice, to taste

1 tsp apple cider vinegar (optional)

1 cup packed fresh cilantro

1 tsp kosher salt, to taste

1/2 tsp garlic powder

3/4 tsp ground cumin

Black pepper, to taste

Red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. In a food processor, process the avocado flesh and water until creamy. Now add in the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth and well blended. Use immediately for best results.

Yummy! Fruit Pizza

I made this for my hubby birthday and all I can say is OMG! This is one of the most delicious desserts I have ever made. My hubby thought it was too sweet but i thought it was just right. Just thinking about it makes me smile:)

Angela from oh she glows has done it again! I love avocado but I've never had it outside of chopped up in a dish or in guac. This avocado lime whip is amazing!!! The only tweak I did with the recipe is I bought a multi grain crust..I can't remember the name but i will be making this again and will update the blog with the name. Making a crust from scratch scares me a bit ..not sure I'm that experienced in cooking yet.

Delicious. I devoured this in a day and a half! Here's a pic after I ate one slice. What a refreshing summer dessert! I think next time I'll use equal to cut down on the sugar and will experiment with different crusts just so I see which ones I like the best. I am so tempted to make this again.

The recipe is below:

http://ohsheglows.com/recipage/?recipe_id=6001759
  Ingredients (8-12 slices)



Cinnamon-sugar pizza crust

•1 cup + 3/4 cup white bread flour, divided

•3/4 tsp kosher salt

•2 tbsp sugar

•1.5 tsp cinnamon

•2 & 1/4 tsp pizza yeast (no proofing required)

•3 tbsp oil

•2/3 cup very warm water

•more flour for kneading dough

Avocado-Lime Whip

•4 avocados

•Fresh lime juice from half a lime (approx 1 tsp)

•1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract (vanilla)-I used 1 tsp of Trader Joe's vanilla

•1/4 cup agave nectar

•2-3 tbsp coconut oil, melted

•1-2 tbsp coconut milk

•12 tbsp icing sugar (confectioner’s)-I used 6 tbsp

Fruit

•Fruit salsa: Chop up a mixture of strawberries, mandarin oranges, mango, kiwi, and raspberries. Add in blueberries too. You will want about 2-3 cups of the salsa.

•Fruit layer: Mandarin, strawberries (sliced), blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, kiwi (sliced), mango (sliced), and whatever else your little heart desires! Peach would be good too.

Instructions



For crust

•1. Preheat oven to 500F. In a large mixing bowl, mix together 1 cup flour, plus the salt, sugar, cinnamon, yeast. Stir well. Now quickly add 2/3 cup very warm water along with 3 tbsp oil. Stir well. It will be very sticky but not to worry.

•2. Now add in 3/4 cup- 1 cup more flour, gradually, as you stir. Once the flour is in, grab the dough and place on floured surface.

•3. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, adding flour as it gets tacky. After 5 mins the dough should be smooth and not tacky. Form into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl. Cover the ball with a bit of oil so it doesnt dry out. Now cover the bowl and let it rise for 1.5 hours. You can punch out the air halfway through.

•4. After rising time, punch air out and spread into an oiled pizza pan or you can place it directly onto a preheated pizza stone. Sprinkle with lots of sugar and bake at 500F for 14-15 mins. until golden. Cooking time may vary so watch carefully.

For avocado whip

•In a food processor, add in the avocado, lime juice, and agave. Process until smooth. Now add in the vanilla, melted coconut oil, and coconut milk. As the last step, add in the icing sugar very gradually until the consistency you want is achieved. Cool in fridge for about 30 minutes before using. Spread over the base of cooled & cooked pizza crust.

For Fruit

•After you have spread on the avocado-lime whip, it is time to layer on the fruit. I started with an outer layer of fruit salsa, followed by a layer of sliced fruit. After those two layers, I did a very small layer of sprinkled coconut, followed by a layer of raspberries, and then finally fruit salsa. I left the inner circle open as I was going to put a large strawberry there, but then we ate it and that was that!

Cooking Bug...Vegan Lentil Burger

OMG! Ever since i found my fav new blog oh she glows I've  been on  cooking bug (which is soo unlike me).

My plan was to make a lentil burger for dinner. I found a recipe over a year ago that is my go-to. Off to the store I went to  get some peppers and an avocado and to begin the process when  i realized there was no eggs (gasp..lol). seems like a simple solution right?  wrong! I had $2 to last me to pay week and tomorrow i will be getting almond milk with that. So I ponder what am i going to do.

The Lord to the rescue..fingers start typing on my laptop..."vegan lentil burgers."

Hmmmmm i never thought about a vegan burger but why not..my new fav blog is vegan so i did a search and the first link that came up was http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=6394&comment=all#comment406318
but it seemed to have mixed reviews so i searched for other recipes (some had wayyy too many ingredients) so i said why not experiment and try the sparks people as a base and mix in seasonings from other recipe. The result...yummmmmy! I like the texture (which is a big improvement from my old go to recipe which i liked cause it was simple...4 ingredients but the texture was mushy). Not this one. The only problem with this one was the patty would not stay together but im ok with that. So I believe my recipe goes like this (i was running from my laptop to the other room pouring in seasonings so I'm not entirely sure). This recipe makes enough for several meals.

1 cup uncooked lentils (I used Trader Joe's steamed lentils). I grated this a bit in the blender..it retained mostly whole lentils)
1 cup cooked brown rice (!0 minute brown rice that comes in a bag go-to)

1 cup carrots, finely grated

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal (Quakers)

1 tsp cumin


½ tsp garlic powder

¼ sea salt

¼ black pepper

1 tsp  Onion flakes

1/4 tsp Red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp of Ginger

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp of black pepper

1 tsp of oil

Mix everything in a large bowl. Form into a patty and cook it on the stove. Served on a whole wheat bun with mayo and ketchup and avocado slices.

New Blog that I love that I found over the weekend

Again I think this is one of those times where God talks to me through the computer. I have no idea on how I found this wonderful blog where the recipes has inspired me (renewal to try more things nutritionally). Carey and I have had a conversation about the raw diet and i recently signed up for an ecourse by one of our fav goddesses. i looked at the recipes section and i was uninspired...possibly I'm not there yet ..to try the raw diet but it sounds amazing. in the meantime it appears i have stumbled on a vegan blog so lets start there (I am more of a gradual person). The link is:

http://ohsheglows.com/

so many wonderful recipes that i wanted to try..i settled on two for the moment...a protein bar and carrot cake oatmeal (seemed to make sense to focus on this since this is two things i eat daily).

Also, after spending 1.00-2.00 a daily for protein bars whether at Bally's or at Trader Joe's I realized there has to be a better way...enter this lovely recipe....
http://ohsheglows.com/recipage/?recipe_id=6007772

I edited the recipe where it mentioned dark chocolate for a 100 calorie trader joes milk chocolate bar because i don't like dark chocolate. I couldn't find brown rice syrup so as indicated I used honey. I also couldn't find brown rice crisp cereal so I used regular rice crisp cereal. I love the taste and it was so easy...the only problem i realized that after i divided the recipe this only has like 3 grams of protein so this is basically like a chewey granola bar which is great just not what i was looking for in terms of protein...so my next batch i will add nuts and some other protein to beef it up and may have to not use chocolate or as much. I love this was the first thing i built from scratch (well as scratch as i can get it..lol). I wished my bars looked as lovely but they don't. i did take a pic but it didnt come out so well but I will post later. Winner!


Tonight I tried ("Carrot Cake oatmeal)
http://ohsheglows.com/recipage/?recipe_id=6002053
i wouldn't go as far as saying carrot cake  but its a nice base. Quite filling and a nice change. i substituted sugar free syrup for the maple syrup and I added brown sugar..maybe three tablespoons to make it sweeter. I will put this in the rotation.

UPDATE: 07/29/12
I added  a handful of diced frozen pineapple to this (yummy it was just what the recipe needed). I also played around with an "icing" or topping for the oatmeal (1 tablespoon greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon of coconut milk, 1/2 teaspoon of syrup, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Outcome...not bad.....it needs something else but I cant figure out what (I'm sure the more I make it the more i know).

Smoothie Recipes

One of the things i wanted to do more of  is trying more recipes....welp you know who reignited that (yes you guessed it..my kindred sister in Christ Carey). I feel kinda of bad not acknowledging all of the rest of my beautiful loving people in my life on my blog more (my wonderful supportive husband J, my wonderful sister Robin, my wonderful friends (Jackie,Kia, Kym, Ara, Fran). I could take several posts commenting on the wonderful blessing each and everyone one of them are but that's not the topic of today.

Now what was i saying...oh yes Carey had sent me a smoothie recipe link in late June and i was thinking what a great way to incorporate protein shakes in my life especially since i knew i would be working out more. As always I always adapt the recipe to my own liking whether its because i want to a. only use the things that are presently in my house b.  adapt based on the reaction to my system  (aka soy milk (almond milk forever), bananas (so many digestive issues).

http://blog.integrativenutrition.com/2012/06/47-smoothies-for-summer



One of the things Ive been wanting to try more of is a green smoothie (i had a taster cup at my health fair which was soo good but it was soooo high in calories). Naturally I looked at the recipe for a green smoothie and picked ...You'll Never believe it's a green smoothie (website below). Simplicity gets me every time. The recipe said: "Take a BIG handful of fresh Spinach or Kale and put it in the bottom of your blender. Add a peeled banana and peeled orange. Then add about 1/2 cup of pineapple or mango. Top it off with 1 cup ice. Blend it up. Drink this in the morning and you will never need coffee again!"

So i grabbed my handful of spinach, pineapple chunks, strawberries, and strawberry protein powder and 2 equals (yummy). That has been a morning staple for the past two weeks....I'll have the explore the website more to see what other goodies may be there.

http://healthyhappyandhot.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/jumping-for-joy-with-these-foods/


At the gym I'm going to they have a juice bar and i was in need of replenishment so I spent 6.00 on a berry protein smoothie ..never again. I could have licked the container but that's insane. Today i tried to duplicate it..it tasted like it may have had banana so clearly adapting is necessary.  I used: 8 oz of almond milk, frozen package of mixed berries, and my strawberry protein shake..(yummy yet again). The only thing missing is the creaminess so tomorrow I will try yogurt.

I usually don't keep frozen fruit around but now I do....especially when i realized how flavorful it makes my protein shake and i didn't realize until now how I don't have to add ice since its frozen so its perfect.

Sadly my beverage blender died on me on Saturday so I'm waiting for the replacement on Tuesday so Sunday and Monday no green smoothie for me. I tried it in my other blender and i gaged....i have major texture issues...cannot do pulp and thats what the spinach tasted like so for right now mixed berry smoothies it is which is fine with me.

I look forward to experimenting more smoothies. I've been reading alot about chia seeds and my fav place trader joe's now sells them so next week i want to make the "Power Plant Breakfast Smoothie" or maybe this week depends on how I'm feeling). http://www.wellandgoodnyc.com/2012/06/08/recipe-the-plant-power-breakfast-smoothie/

4 kale leaves (I already know i will substitute this for spinach)


1 cup organic frozen blueberries

2 Tbs of chia seeds

1 Tbs organic peanut butter (I just purchased sunflower seed butter which i like the taste so I will be using this)

1/2 avocado

1 cup coconut milk

1 Tbs raw honey (I don't know about this may substitute for agave..we will see)

2–3 ice cubes

Squeeze of lemon, optional

Stay tuned to see how that comes out....

Re dedicating myself to weight loss

After spending the time with my best friend Carey in mid-June talking about our spiritual nutritional journey we would be undertaking in the Fall together (yay!) I felt a sense of renewal in my spirit and I didn't realize truly what that all entailed. As always in the upcoming weeks it would be known exactly what. So many areas there was renewal and joy. But today lets start with nutrition......

I realized how beautiful it is that God gives you exactly what you need when you need it (unknowing to you just how much you need it). Spending much needed girl time honoring our souls reminded me that I am on the right road right now in terms of extreme self care. Right now I need to focus on me and listen to the small whispers that I hear from God..honoring the things that are important and what I need in this time. Continue my coocooning as much as i need it.

I also realized that i needed to get my eating habits and exercise back on track..i would have good days and bad days..but the consistency wasnt there. It's like the day before my sister bday trip to New Orleans i was down to my lowest weight in the past two years (188....in recent months ..i had reached 188.4..188.2 but not an even number and i was esctastic to be in the 188's but an even number...whoo hooo.) A week later after a wonderful trip of gorging on such wonderfood food I had gotten back to 195 and i just cried. i had not seen that number since late December and it was great at the time because my highest weight was 216 but not when i had been hovering in the 188 for a minute. I didnt spiral out of control with my eating but i wanted it gone like next week. I stopped going to weight watchers...continued to weigh myself. Until i found a number that was pleasing to me i was not going back (not realizing then thats the exact place i needed to be). I'm not sure right now exactly when it hit me in June but i said its time to do things differently.

I'm sure there was some motivation and  a light bulb moment but writing this now in July i dont remember. But I did want to remember this time in my journal.I think the end of June was so pivotal in so many ways...finding my art school and realizing that i wanted to explore expressive arts. I think it was a time of now.For such a time as this.....

As of mid-July I've had a strong start of working out for 3 weeks in a row and it feels soooo good (1st week..worked out twice a week to c25K..i know its 3x a week but with my bad knees i think its best I ease into it; 2nd week and 3rd week...6X a week...say what!). Let me explain that soooo good  feeling...it's not when you're like I've missed this (insert smile) but that soo good when its like... its not about the how good or not exercise  makes me feel but its necessary and removing all emotion that means I have to do it (Focus). Priority right now is me and specifically working out. Ive never entered into this state but i see the necessity in it. There are some people who just get things done and then there are others who conceive it..think/pray about it..think/pray about it some more and finally take a step. I'm taking a step...I started my c25k which has been on my list for years (I'm entering my second week of this...the real first week was trying it out). I'm walking more. I'm even taking spinning class (which is another item on my list for awhile...that in itself is a real feat and i decided this week I'm going to start doing it twice a week....Lord help! lol). The intensity the challenge is exactly what my body needs. I'm also doing a fluidity class which is modeled after the bar method (which i had not heard about before) but wow ...for a low impact class...its something....Ive also decided to do this twice a week. Its funny i had my whole schedule made up of what i was going to doand just like life it changes... I'm honoring my soul and body right now and challenge is what I need. Right now my constant is C25K, spinning, and bar method with whatever else I throw in). Hopefully in September I will have amazing results to show....ideally i would like to lose another 25lbs by my birthday but I'm not going to get wrap up in the number but instead be concerned about consistency and building a stronger body.

July 1st re dedication started.....