My weekend foods

I hope you had a good weekend filled with healthy eating.  Mondays are great, sometimes going back to work can be a relief from the chores at home.  I was pretty busy this weekend, cleaning, purging and organizing.  I felt so productive.  But then again, I didn't do too much creating in the kitchen, unless you call the mess I made a creation!

Saturday and Sunday mornings after a good workout is always an opportunity to make a good breakfast and sit down with my hubby to chat about what the day holds for each of us.  Kind of a way to connect.  I've always felt it important to eat meals together and since we've started a routine of going to the gym on the weekends, it gives us two more meals to be together.  Growing up we always ate dinner as a family.  I have very vivid memories of those times around the table; Mom at one end, Dad at the other and a kid on each side.  Whether we made faces at each other, shared our stories from the day or sat in silence, the four of us were sharing a meal together.  I guess that's one thing that I have carried with me into my own house.  I know as time goes on, the times that all three of us are together at mealtime will become fewer and fewer.  Most nights we munch and chat and laugh and tease.  I cherish those moments because I know soon it will just be the two of us, staring across the table wondering where the time has gone.  Hopefully it won't get to the point where we rely on making faces at each other!

Wow, I totally went off topic there.  Anyhoo -- Saturday's breakfast was what has become a favorite.  My breakfast skillet takes on a different twist each time I make it.  This weekend I used a roasted garlic clove, peppers, mushrooms, frozen corn & tofu.  I tried "frying" the tofu without the little bit of oil this time and it worked!  It firmed right up and got a little crispy outer coating on it.  With the addition of the corn, it really had a Southwest flare to it, so I topped it with some leftover Not-Yo-Cheese sauce and a spoonful of tofu sour cream.  A very hearty breakfast indeed.  My intent was to serve this with a dish of frozen fruit that I had thawed, but those previously frozen berries didn't look too appetizing, so I tossed them in the Vitamix with a little nut milk, a couple of dates as a sweetener and vanilla.  Voila! We had a light berry smoothie.  Our tummies were satisfied.

Alex and his girlfriend made quesadillas for their lunch, so I stayed out of the kitchen until they were seated at the table.  Then I used the leftovers of my lentil tacos to make collard wraps.  I'm gonna have to work on my technique to wrap with collards.  I've never had them at a restaurant, so I'm not sure how to do it.  Mine fell apart.  Anybody know the best way to do it?  From pictures I've seen it looks like you're supposed to use multiple leaves and overlap them so it creates many layers of greens, not like a tortilla.  In any event, it was good.  I love those lentil tacos.  If you haven't seen my many blogs about them, you can get the recipe here and you can also get a great recipe for cheese sauce and vegan sour cream from fellow blogger, Carrie.

In the afternoon on Saturday I had a meeting and then church, so I relied on my stockpile in the freezer.  Mushroom chili was a great way to end the evening.  I piled mine onto a bed of fresh, raw spinach.  Oh, and another topping of cheese sauce.  Maybe I'm eating too much of it.  That's okay.  Nobody else in the house has tried it and are steering clear -- all the more for me!

Sunday I went bonkers and cleaned out the upper cabinets in my kitchen and the pantry.  Gads!  What an ordeal.  You know how when you start those projects, the mess is greater than the problem when you started?  Yeah, it looked like my kitchen and dining area had been bombed, but bombed with little bags of this and that.  It's now all been organized.  Yes, I put labels on everything.  My pantry looks like something from a military kitchen  -- though I've never seen a military kitchen, I can only imagine that things are lined up in orderly fashion... alphabetically.  Okay, it's not exactly in alphabetical order, but there is no room for misplacement of containers.  Everything has a place!  Perhaps that will help me to not buy another bag of red lentils or quinoa!  I need a "do not buy" list rather than a traditional shopping list!

I worked up quite an appetite with all that purging and cleaning!  Dinner was something of a summertime barbecue what with portabella mushroom burgers, crunchy coleslaw with sesame orange dressing, baked beans and a fruit smoothie for dessert!  Last week when we had the burgers, I forgot to take a picture, but I remembered this weekend to take a couple.  I'm obviously not a food stylist.  One of these days I'm going to convince my hubby to become my photographer!  He has much more experience in that area than I do.  I just want to cook & eat!

Ahhh, tasty burger!

I stole the main recipe for the coleslaw from Healthy Vegan Fridays.  The recipe is here.  I adapted it a little bit in that I didn't use the sesame oil that it called for, just used a little orange juice instead.  I thought it was good.  And the baked beans were yummy.  I'm not usually a baked beans person, even in the middle of summer, but this wasn't bad.  Maybe they were better since they didn't come from a can and I knew they were relatively healthy.  I will include the recipe below.

For the burgers, marinate them for about 20 minutes in your favorite vinegar.  Because of the chilly, rainy weather, I didn't feel like going to the BBQ, so I did them on the indoor grill.  They worked just the same; just that the vinegar scorched a bit and created a little smoke in the kitchen.  I managed to avoid setting off the fire alarm though!  That's always a good thing, right?!

I love this thing.  Cook stuff on top & bottom in half the time!

 

For the beans, I used a bag of cannellini beans from my freezer stash, so it was about three cups of beans.  I just mixed them with the BBQ sauce.  Any kind of bean would work.  Next time I'll try pinto just to get a little softer texture.

Beans before baking

my scrumptious summertime dinner!

 

I used a whole wheat bun for my burger, but my hubby used lettuce leaves.  It was a little messy to pick it up, so he opted for a knife and fork.

The meal in itself was satisfying enough, but sometimes I want something a little sweet afterwards.  So I made a smoothie... 2 cups frozen berries (half defrosted) and a little rice milk (about 1/2 cup) in the blender and you get this:

dessert smoothies -- full of nutrients and antioxidants!

RECIPE:

BBQ Sauce
2 cloves garlic
16 oz tomato sauce
6 oz tomato paste
10 dates
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. cider vinegar
2 tbsp. black fig vinegar
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp. molasses
1 tsp. chipotle chili powder 
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 inch fresh ginger
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 tsp pepper

Adjust seasonings to taste.
Put all ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth.  Hold in the fridge (because of the vinegar) up to three weeks.  

Use as much sauce as you'd like on the beans.  I baked mine for 45 minutes at 325.

Hubby even used some of the sauce on his mushroom burger.

Well, I hope your week is off to a great start.  I know mine is going to be fairly quiet.  That will give me some time to plan more meals for the upcoming week, including a new soup recipe for Wednesday.  Check back here then when I'll give you some more ideas for healthy eating.

Make it a good one!