Quinoa Stuffed Portobello

I love my portobello's! Yet another way to stuff these tasty 'shrooms and they're ALMOST completely vegan. If I didn't top it with the goat cheese it would have been. Haha. So the goat cheese is completely optional!

I had to use up the last of the goat cheese since I won't be able to have any starting tomorrow when I start my cleanse. :(

For this stuffed portobello, I chopped up half of a leftover red bell pepper 

and 6 asparagus stalks. 

(By the way, I stuffed only 2 portobello mushrooms. One for me and one for my mom)

Next, I added about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and sauted about 3/4 cup of chopped up onions and 1 tbs. of crushed garlic (Trader Joe's kind) until the onions were translucent. I then added in the asparagus and red bell pepper and cooked them for a few minutes until they were almost tender but still crisp. Reason for this is you'll be baking/cooking the portobellos in the oven and you don't want the veggies to become too soft and mushy.

Once the veggies were tender yet still crisp, I'd say about 3-5 minutes over medium heat, I added in about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of leftover cooked quinoa (I eyeballed it). Stirred to combine and seasoned with salt, pepper, dried basil and thyme to taste. Always taste the food you are cooking!

Took the quinoa mixture off the heat and set aside. I got my portobello's ready by wiping with a damp cloth (or paper towel) to remove any dirt, cut the stem off and scraped the gills out. I layered the bottom, or insides, with chard leaves and then stuffed them with the quinoa and veggie mixture!

Topped them with some goat cheese, again completely optional, and popped them in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes or until the outsides of 'shrooms were soft.

Serve and enjoy!!

Next time I'm going to add to this chopped up shrimp!

(Sorry for the picture being a little dark, didn't have good lighting)

Honey Dijon Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Chard

It's hump day!! Just a few more days till the weekend. No exciting plans as of now, but that's ok. A chill weekend would be nice!

I really want to go see "Water for Elephants" starring Robert Pattinson. So hot. Haha. Plus I read the book a while back and absolutely loved it! I read it in 3 days, I couldn't put it down. Maybe I'll go see that this weekend.

Today, before the gym, I made a Trader Joe's and Fresh and Easy run. Stocked back up on some of the necessities. Just to name a few: Almond butter, Bob's Red Mill GLUTEN FREE oats (SOOO happy when I found these at Fresh and Easy. I can still have my oats while on my detox cleanse!) agave nectar, baby spinach leaves, pistachio nuts, dried tomatoes, dried cranberries.

Earlier today I marinated some chicken in olive oil, honey, Dijon mustard, crushed garlic and some salt and pepper and let it sit in the fridge for about 5 hours. Cooked it up tonight with some sautéed chard with bell peppers (that I had left over) and baked sweet potatoes. When you see the picture of the sweet potatoes you might wonder why they aren't orange. Reason why is... most people are cooking with YAMS, not sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes aren't orange in color, yams are. Yams and sweet potatoes don't taste much different from each other. If you didn't know the difference before, you do now!

On the left is a typical yam that is sold in the U.S. and we see in stores,
on the right is a sweet potato that is also sold in stores.

Okay, continuing on!

Chard cut up and ready to go!

Chicken cooking in the pan.

Doesn't it look good! It smelled good as well.

Finished product! It was so delicious! See?? Sweet potatoes really aren't orange. But they taste just as good, if not better!

I brushed the sweet potatoes on both sides with just a little olive oil and seasoned with basil, thyme, salt and pepper. Baked in a 425 degree oven for about 30 mins. Unfortunately, I do not have the exact measurements for the marinade I made for the chicken. I eyeballed everything according the the amount of chicken I had. It wasn't large quantities due to the fact there was only 3 chicken tenders cut in half. I'll make it again and I'll be sure to measure and I'll post the recipe!

Hope you all had a great Wednesday!

Now time for some t.v., psychology reading, shower and bed.

Chocolate Oat Bars and Stuffed Bell Pepper

Hello Ta-ta-Tuesday! (haha)







Went to class today and my campus finally has a Starbucks on site!! This made me very happy today because I absolutely love their Zen green tea. It's pretty much the only thing I get at Starbucks, hot and cold. Yuuuum.

When I got home from class today I put together some Chocolate Oat bars from a recipe I came across on Love Veggies and Yoga  and adapted it a bit. Super simple to put together and oh so yummy! My oat bars consisted of chocolate, almond butter, oats, chia seeds, agave nectar, raw almonds, dried cranberries and dried plums. I don't think I'll be able to eat these once I start my detox cleanse so I might as well now! Haha. (Don't kill me Jenna) I'm pretty sure if I nixed the chocolate out of these, I probably could. Right?? lol. I'll have to run it by Jenna. :)

Oooo wait!! All the ingredients except the chocolate chips are gluten free... bought at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. YEAAY!!

Okay, back to the making of the Chocolate Oat Bars:

First I melted the almond butter and chocolate in the microwave 

with 2 tablespoons of vanilla almond milk for about 30 seconds. 

Make sure to watch it so it doesn't burn. 

Then I added all my other dry ingredients in a bowl and poured the 

chocolatey goodness over. Stirred it all together to combine all the ingredients. 

You want this mixture to be fairly dry. If the mixture isn't dry enough add more oats one tablespoon at a time. Press the mixture into bars or into balls.

Pop in the freezer for about 30 mins, or until it has set up, and then enjoy! 

(After it sat in the freezer for a while.)

I wrapped them individually in plastic wrap then put them in a 

plastic zip top bag and back in the fridge.

Rice puffs would also work great with this. I'll have to try it out next time!

Here's the recipe for the Chocolate Oat Bars which I adapted a bit from Love Veggies and Yoga

Chocolate Oat Bars

Ingredients
1/2 cup of oats
2-3 tablespoons chocolate chips
2-3 tablespoons milk
*The ingredients listed below can be switched up and substituted with other items. :)
1 tablspoon chia seeds
~ about a handful of almonds
dried crandberries (eye ball it)
dried pitted plums, cut up.
~ 1 tablespoon agave nectar

Oh yea, and a stuffed bell pepper for dinner tonight. No biggie. ;-) It was a yellow bell pepper cut in half stuffed with quinoa, cut up red and orange bell pepper, spinach, mushrooms, and onions with garlic, salt and pepper (All the ingredients, minus the cut in half bell pepper, were cooked before stuffing the pepper). YUUUuummmmm! Threw it in the oven and baked it at 375 (preheat oven before hand!) for about 25-30 mins, or until the bell pepper is slightly soft but still somewhat firm.

Stuffed Portabella Mushroom

Good evening all!!

I just had the most amazing, delicious dinner!!

I took the recipe Stuffed Portabella Pizza from Oh She Glows and adapted it a little bit. For the "cheeze" sauce she uses nutritional yeast. Instead of using the nutritional yeast, I used goat cheese and oh my gawd it was yummy! I also cooked up and added some spicy italian sausage to it. Why?? Because my dad HAS TO have meat and I cooked this for my parents and I. So I added the italian sausage to his portabella and left it out of mine.

It was a hit! I knew my mom would love it, her taste in food is similar to mine. The main person I was worried about was my dad. He loves his meat whereas I can do with out it. I'll still consume chicken and fish, but all other meat is off limits. NO WAY JOSE! But he loved it! Mainly because there was meat in it, haha.

Stuffed Portabella Mushroom


Ingredients:
4 Portabellas (or how ever many you want)
1 cup pizza sauce
Goat cheese
2 cups spicy italian sausage
1/3 cup of each- red and orange bell pepper; diced
1/3 cup sweet onion diced
Red pepper flakes
2-3 large basil leaves, finely diced

Method:
Preheat oven by setting the broiler on low. Take a baking sheet and line with foil, silicone non-stick baking mat or parchment paper. Makes it easier to clean up. :) Remove the stems of the Portabella and gently clean/rub the mushrooms with a wet cloth. Place the Portabellas "belly" side up on the baking sheet. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of pizza sauce into each Portabella, then crumble on the goat cheese on top of the pizza sauce. Next chop the onion and bell peppers and sprinkle on the Portabellas. If you want to add the spicy italian sausage, cook before adding to mushrooms. Add to mushrooms after adding the goat cheese and before the bell peppers and onions. Finally shake on the red pepper flakes and sprinkle on the basil. Pop them in the oven on the middle rack and broil on the lowest temperature setting; takes about 10-12 minutes to cook. Serve immediately and most importantly ENJOY!