This is some good stuff going on right here.
If you like pesto sauce, (and really, please, who does not?) and you are all about getting as much cruciferous kale good-ness into you, yourself and everyone else around your dinner table because that shniz is just some nutrient packed amazingness-ness, then read on. Twenty minutes. Boom.
Dinner.
Poor little mushrooms. Somewhat underrated (what, a rubbery fungus?) and most often times an afterthought (I’ll take a large with pepperoni, sausage, peppers, olives….and, oh yeah, mushrooms) or delegated to the appetizer section of the menu (where they will be either stuffed or fried, let’s face it) mushrooms are really a versatile if not under-appreciated gem of an ingredient!
Thanks to the influence of my favorite fan of all things schroomie (hi, Michelle!), I took a look into the benefits of adding more of these guys into the diet….and I found that mushrooms contain just as much of an antioxidant capacity as tomatoes, pumpkins, green beans or zucchini! Surprise! Plus they are a great source of selenium, a mineral you don’t generally find in most fruits and veggies. Then there is the vitamin D and folate …. good news for any fungi fanatic, because lotsa people do not get enough of either. Consuming mushrooms can help with immunity, heart health, and even play an important role in DNA repair.
I don’t know about you……but I could definitely use some of THAT. eeek
SO eat your veggies….and your fungus. This creamy, cheesy, comforting casserole (yeh, I’m bringing the casserole back…don’t even try to stop me) will make it easy.
Let me tell you why you want to make this salad. Okay, first and foremost…it is delicious! Charred and delicately crisped roasted broccoli spears serve to just barely wilt down a healthy pile of spinach leaves, all pumped up with cannellini bean powered protein and…if that wasn’t enough for you…..sumptuously draped in a creamy, briny, lemony-dill infused Dijon dabbled dressing! Secondly; it only takes about twenty-five minutes to get this on the table, and third; you can do the meatless Monday thing any day of the week here and be totally fat and happy.
Well. Happy, yes; fat, no.
So we’re told to “eat a rainbow”, and of course that makes perfect sense. As a lover of all things delicious and good for you (as well as all things delicious and not so good for you…..Arg), this pretty plate comes pretty close.
Hearty, rib stickin SUPAH-green, kale plays well here with meaty chick peas and carmelized onion. Sounds good already! Now pop that over a beautifully roasted until it is soft and sweetly smooth boss of beta-carotene sweet potato. Slather the whole thing with a purdy pink dollop of sriracha spiced yogurt sauce and you will be seeing rainbows! And unicorns!
Or, maybe that could be just me who does that……😜
I know, I know…..black bean brownies last week and now this? You think there was a close out on black beans at my grocery store or what?
Well, yeah, I know it looks suspect but the truth of the matter is simply, holy goose bumps, is it ever cold out. So what do we do about it? We eat soup, THAT is what we do. At least that is what I do. And this is really just a bowl full of good stuff. Healthy, beautiful to look at, a snap to make, and as far as ingredients go….cheap and easy! And let’s face it…….I had an extra can of black beans on hand! Ha! So there. Busted. But in a good way. On a very cold winter day, it’s all about the soup.
This is a recipe update from 10-17-2013
Soooooo…… do you know any vegetarians? Are they nice to you? Want to make ’em happy? Want to make anybody happy for that matter? Then take the twenty minutes you will spend in prep time out of your day and make these sunny jewels. Unlike the dense, rice and ground beef Campbell’s tomato soup inspired stuffed green bell peppers of your wonder years, (which I happen to love as well) these peppers are gorgeous, fresh, and actually healthy. Nestle these pretty babies over a bed of quinoa laced with peppery arugula and crunchy sunflower seeds, and you just may look forward to more “meat-free Mondays“.
I have good news. No, you didn’t win the Publishers Clearing House Giveaway.
Sorry. But, listen………
Mangoes are available in January. Did you know this? I gotta tell you, I absolutely did not so when I spotted them at my not exactly trendy local grocery store I bee-lined right over and snagged a couple….but not without my suspicions. Produce out of season typically equals either way expensive or not-sah-good (usually both). Turns out mangoes have two growing seasons depending on where they’re from. January mangoes! This is awesome! No, really, this is exciting stuff!
But only if you like to eat.
Gnudi…as in nudie…rhymes with cutie…it’s your duty…(? ha) Yeah, these guys may not be so pretty to look at naked but they sure are good. Creamy, cheesy sorta dumpling-like, yet not quite dumplings, these little meatless-balls are like ravioli without the pasta wrapper. Hence, they are in the nude. (bada boom!)
Kale has been the “new” spinach for a while now. I myself have been more than happy to hop aboard the borecole bus, adding it to everything I consume from breakfast smoothies to lasagna. You can boil this shiz…bake it…saute it…even roast pieces of it into crispy chips for snackin. You can eat it cooked, you can eat it raw, but you most definitely want to eat it because it is just so ridiculously good for you. Vitamin A. Vitamin C. Vitamin K. Calcium. Iron. Fiber. Antioxidants. Omega-3 fatty acids. Unicorn horn (okay, I made that one up but you get the idea). This favorite child of the cruciferous family is green gold. But what if you just don’t like the stuff? Or, what is more often the case – what if you love kale but your peeps or posse or tribe or whomever it is that you enjoy dining with/cooking for does not? Try this. Raw kale sliced super thinly…