What's for dinner this week?
<-----------
Guess what today is??
YUP, Prep day!!
Continuing my love-affair with hearty and healthy autumn harvest-based foods today we are making:
- Hearty Quinoa, Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili
- Overnight Apple Pie Oatmeal (in the crock-pot)
- Couldn't-Be-Simpler Black Beans (in the crock-pot)
- Easy Baked Apples
Ok, here we go, I'll launch right into it!
Hearty Quinoa, Black Bean & Sweet Potato Chili
I adapted this recipe slightly from
makes 6 hearty bowls of chili
Ingredients
two 16 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
one 6 oz can tomato paste
32 oz vegetable stock
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
Your MISTO or 1 TBS Evoo
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
1 cup dry quinoa
salt and pepper to taste
avocado, cilantro for garnish (optional)
Directions
1. Liberally spray a large heavy soup pot with your Misto, and heat the pot over medium low heat.
2. Add onions, and cook until soft and they start to turn brown (about 10 minutes).
3. Add the garlic, and cook for about 2 minutes.
4. Add the tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and oregano and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. 5. Add the beans, stock, and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper .
4. Add the tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and oregano and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. 5. Add the beans, stock, and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper .
6. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the quinoa.
7. Continue cooking for about 15 minutes – 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until quinoa and potatoes are cooked and the chili has thickened. (Add a bit of water if the chili becomes too thick for your liking.)
8. You're done! Top with avocado and chopped cilantro and enjoy. Scrumptious!
I LOVE my slow-cooker. What is better than throwing a few ingredients into the pot, turing it on, and coming back 6-12 hours later to ready-to-eat food! I did two recipes in 12 hours. One when I was going to bed, and woke up to...
I LOVE my slow-cooker. What is better than throwing a few ingredients into the pot, turing it on, and coming back 6-12 hours later to ready-to-eat food! I did two recipes in 12 hours. One when I was going to bed, and woke up to...
Easy, Overnight Apple-Pie (crock pot) Oatmeal
Ingredients:
1 cup steel cut oats
4 cups liquids (I usually use 3 cups water and 1 cup almond milk)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 Fuji, granny smith, or Jonathon apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces)
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
2 tablespoons of brown sugar (or more if you prefer, I like to add my butter and sugar after cooking to get the taste just right...)
Instructions:
Coat the inside of your slow cooker with cooking spray or oil. (I always just use a crock pot liner.) Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Stir to combine. Cover, and cook on low for 7 hours. You don't want to cook longer than 7 hours or the oats might burn. (happened to me once and it was very stinky!)
If you normally sleep longer than 7 hours, and don't have a programmable slow cooker, try using a timer that you plug into an outlet. You can assemble your oatmeal and have the timer turn the slow cooker on 7 hours before you wake up.
Serve up your oatmeal in a bowl and add additional butter, sugar or milk to taste.
Store leftovers in refrigerator.
Then, as I was enjoying a bowl of this for breakfast, I pulled out the liner (I definitely recommend using slow-cooker liners for easy clean up), and made...
Couldn't-Be-Simpler (or cheaper) Crock-Pot Black Beans
Ingredients:
1 cup steel cut oats
4 cups liquids (I usually use 3 cups water and 1 cup almond milk)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 Fuji, granny smith, or Jonathon apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces)
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
2 tablespoons of brown sugar (or more if you prefer, I like to add my butter and sugar after cooking to get the taste just right...)
Instructions:
Coat the inside of your slow cooker with cooking spray or oil. (I always just use a crock pot liner.) Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Stir to combine. Cover, and cook on low for 7 hours. You don't want to cook longer than 7 hours or the oats might burn. (happened to me once and it was very stinky!)
If you normally sleep longer than 7 hours, and don't have a programmable slow cooker, try using a timer that you plug into an outlet. You can assemble your oatmeal and have the timer turn the slow cooker on 7 hours before you wake up. Serve up your oatmeal in a bowl and add additional butter, sugar or milk to taste.
Store leftovers in refrigerator.
Then, as I was enjoying a bowl of this for breakfast, I pulled out the liner (I definitely recommend using slow-cooker liners for easy clean up), and made...
Couldn't-Be-Simpler (or cheaper) Crock-Pot Black Beans
Ingredients
Black beans
Water
Instructions
1. In your slow-cooker, measure out your beans (I used 2 cups of dry beans, but you could do more)
2. Cover them with twice as much water as beans (so for me that's 4 cups of water)
3. Plug in and turn your slow cooker to low, and cook for at least 6 hours.
4. Use them in whatever dishes you like. At this point, they are JUST LIKE the ones you buy canned in the store, but with NO salt or preservatives! Easy peasy!
Easy Baked ApplesIngredients
6 medium apples (you can make as many or as few as you want with this same recipe)
1 cup pre-cooked steel-cut oats
6 tsp brown sugar
Cinnamon, to taste
Directions
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400*.
1. Wash, peel, and core the apples.
1. Wash, peel, and core the apples.
2. Place the apples in a baking dish with about 1/2" of water.
3. Fill piping bag (or zip-lock bag with one corner cut off) with oatmeal.
4. Top each apple with 1 tps brown sugar, like a cap over the oatmeal, then sprinkle with cinnamon
5. Bake at 400* for 30-40 minutes (depending on how done you like them)
6. Try to eat just one... and ENJOY!! YUMMM!
I had another mini shopping list - so, off to the grocery store!
What was on my list?
Salsa
Deli turkey
Green beans
Pears
Sweet potatoes
Mini peppers
Total spent $13.17
Monthly budget spent to date $82.43
Budget money remaining $17.57
It's gettin' a little scary now! Less than $20 for food for the rest of the month AHHH!!!
As for my healthy choices today....
FOOD
Breakfast: I had a bowl of warm, gooey overnight apple-cinnamon oatmeal that I put in the slow-cooker last night, and woke up to enjoy this morning
Snack: a vanilla yoplait yogurt and a small nectarine
Lunch: a veggie sandwich and 2 HBE
Snack: mini bell peppers and a string cheese
Dinner: Hearty quinoa, black bean and sweet potato chili!
EXERCISE
I did Insanity: Pure Cardio today! I worked so hard I nearly lost part of my dinner. YIKES!
Thanks for reading everyone!
Keep those comments coming!
No comments:
Post a Comment