Mediterranean Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

We had our friend Vimmi over for dinner the other night. Since she’s vegetarian, I scanned my “Vegetarian Meals” Pinterest board for ideas. She’s also allergic to gluten, so that vetoed a lot of the options like pasta and pizza. But I came across this recipe for Mediterranean stuffed sweet potatoes and it’s one of my new favorites. It was great served hot, as well as cold leftovers a few days later. 

We cooked the sweet potatoes in the crock pot while at work which is how I’m always going to cook them from now on. It requires zero effort and they turn out perfectly soft inside. 

Recipe (adapted from A Saucy Kitchen)

Ingredients:

• 1 15 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• 3 T extra virgin olive oil
• 2 T fresh lemon juice, divided
• 1 T lemon zest
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 T chopped fresh parsley, divided
• ¼ t sea salt
• 1 medium ripe avocado
• ¼ cup garlic hummus (or you can use regular hummus and add a clove of garlic)
• ¼ cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• Crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

1. Scrub your sweet potatoes, poke holes in them, and wrap them in foil. Cook them on low in a crock pot for 6-8 hours.

2. In a medium bowl, combine chickpeas, olive oil, 1 T lemon juice, lemon zest, 1 clove garlic, 1 T parsley, and sea salt. Toss to marinate then set aside.

3. In a food processer, blend the avocado, garlic hummus, 1 T parsley, and 1 T lemon juice.

4. Assemble your sweet potatoes. Depending on how hungry you are, either cut a slit in the potatoes to stuff them, or serve half a potato per person (our potatoes were large, so we only ate half per person). Spread the avocado sauce over the potato, then top with the marinated chickpeas, pepitas, and feta. Enjoy!  

Northwest Salad

We just got back from our honeymoon in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver (ate so much great food – more on that soon!)

I also just started a new job this week doing marketing for an architecture firm which is super exciting.  Lots of big changes lately… 

I have to be up pretty early for work, so I’ve been packing my lunch the night ahead.  And after indulging ourselves on vacation, we’re trying to eat healthy and get back to a routine. 

It seems that every place we visited in the northwest had amazing salads – a lot of them including beets, sweet potatoes, avocado, and other ingredients I normally associate with fall.  I stocked up on tons of these ingredients at Trader Joe’s as soon as we got back from our trip, so we have plenty to keep us eating well. 

One of the non-traditional items we asked for on our wedding registry was gift cards to Joe & Son’s Olive Oils.  We already bought several varieties – including chipotle infused olive oil, Tuscan herb olive oil, and fig balsamic.  They are perfect for simple salad dressings (and we’ve used them to drizzle on popcorn as well). 

I’ve made a version of this salad 3 times this week already – it’s my new favorite lunch.  You can add or subtract ingredients as you like, but one of the things I like is that it has such a wide variety of ingredients.  You can include whatever veggies you like, or even add hard-boiled eggs, chicken, or other proteins. 

Northwest Salad

Ingredients:

• Baby spinach
• Sweet potato, peeled, cut into cubes, and roasted (follow this recipe to bake them…)
• Mushrooms, sliced
• Pomegranate seeds (removed from fruit – you can buy them pre-seeded or follow these instructions to do it yourself if you are patient)
• Steamed & peeled baby beets (Trader Joe’s sells these pre-packaged to avoid the mess and hassle…), sliced
• Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains blend, prepared according to package (it’s a mix of Israeli couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans, and red quinoa)
• Trader Joe’s Sweet & Spicy pecans (if you haven’t tried these already, do yourself a favor and buy multiple bags…), broken into pieces
• Marinated mozzarella, chopped (I got Trader Joe’s aka Trader Giotto’s which is in olive oil with spices already)
• ½ an avocado, diced
• Olive oil & vinegar dressing – we used Tuscan Herb Olive Oil and Fig Balsamic from Joe & Sons
• Freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients & enjoy!  If you are planning to bring this for lunch, wait to add the nuts and the dressing to keep it from getting soggy (although this does hold up pretty well even with dressing…) 

Berry Avocado Quinoa & Spinach Salad with Honey-Lime Poppy Seed Dressing

 

We had dinner at our friends Tony & Katie’s house the other night and I brought a salad.  This is now one of my favorite recipes – it’s really healthy and the homemade dressing was sweet & tangy.  It only took a minute to toss together. 

The next day I had leftover and added grilled salmon - it could easily serve as a meal instead of just a side! 

Berry Avocado Quinoa & Spinach Salad with Honey-Lime Poppy Seed Dressing

 (adapted from Cooking Classy)

Dressing:

·        ½ cup olive oil

·        Zest of 1 lime

·        Juice of 1 lime

·        2 T honey

·        1 T Dijon mustard

·        ¼ t salt

·        2 t poppy seeds

Salad:

·        2 cups cooked quinoa (about 2/3 cup dry)

·        1 cup sliced almonds, toasted

·        9 oz. baby spinach

·        1 ½ cups fresh blueberries

·        1 ½ cups fresh raspberries

·        2 medium avocados, peeled, cored, and diced

·        5 oz feta cheese, crumbled

 

Directions:

1.  Toast the almonds & cook the quinoa.  Mix all the dressing ingredients minus the poppy seeds in a bottle or jar until well combined.  Stir in the poppy seeds.  

 

2. Toss all the salad ingredients together.  Enjoy! 

Grilled Tilapia Bowls with Spicy Avocado Drizzle

 

I tried a new healthy recipe last night – grilled tilapia bowls with spicy avocado drizzle.  The original recipe was inspired by Chipotle’s burrito bowls, but with all healthy ingredients. 

It called for 3 cups cooked quinoa – but since we just ate lots of quinoa the other day in our stuffed acorn squash, I reduced it to about 1 ½ cups cooked (since quinoa quadruples in size when cooked, it only took 1/3 cup uncooked). 

I also doubled the original fish amount from two to four filets just so we could have leftovers for fish sandwiches another day. 

The avocado cream made WAY more than it took to drizzle over the fish, but the spicy sauce is so delicious, I think it’s worth making the extra and saving the rest as a chip dip. 

Lance claims that this is one of the best meals I've ever cooked - which is a huge compliment.  I'll definitely make it again!

Grilled Tilapia Bowls with Spicy Avocado Drizzle (adapted from Joyful Healthy Eats)

Ingredients:

Spicy Avocado Drizzle:

·        1-6 oz container plain Greek yogurt

·        Juice of one lime

·        1 large avocado

·        1 garlic clove

·        1 jalapeño pepper, seeds removed

·        Salt and pepper

Seasoning:

·        2 t chili powder

·        2 t smoked paprika

·        2 t cumin

·        2 t garlic powder

·        1 t salt

·        ½ t pepper

Other Ingredients:

·        4 large tilapia filets

·        1/3 cups uncooked quinoa

·        1-15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

·        1-15 oz can whole kernel corn, drained

·        Drizzle of olive oil

·        ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

·        1 medium tomato, diced

 

Directions:

1.  In a food processor, add the yogurt, lime juice, avocado, garlic clove, jalepeno, salt, and pepper.  Blend until smooth, then place in the refrigerator. (I was excited to use my new citrus juicer for the first time!)

 

 

 

2. Put the 1/3 cup quinoa and 2/3 cup water on the stovetop and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cover the pot. 

3. Meanwhile, mix the chili powder, paprika, cumin, garlic, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.

 

 

4. Rinse and pat dry tilapia filets, then rub both sides with the seasoning.  You should have some leftover – put that to the side. 

 

4. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat with a drizzle of olive oil, then add the canned corn.  Add the remaining spice mixture to the corn, then turn down the heat to medium-low and let the corn get slightly blackened. You can also add the black beans and diced tomato to the skillet if you’d prefer them warm (the original recipe kept them cold, but I heated mine for a few minutes).   

 

5. In a large greased pan, cook the tilapia about 3-5 minutes on each side.  You could finish the cooking on the pan, but I finished it on the George Foreman to give the fish grill marks (I would have cooked the whole thing on the grill, but ours doesn’t have temperature controls). 

 

 

6. Remove from the grill and set aside. 

7. Assemble your bowls, placing quinoa at the bottom, adding the black beans, tomato, corn, cilantro, and tilapia. 

 

8. Top with the spicy avocado sauce.  If you want a light drizzle, you can pour your sauce into a Ziploc bag, cut a small hole in the corner, then use it to drizzle over the dish.