A Tale of Two Veggies

First, there is Cauliflower:

I followed this recipe. I used my immersion blender to make it creamy--it seemed weird to leave to cauliflower in huge chunks (which is what the recipe said to do). But, in typical fashion, if I don't like something, or it sounds more complicated than it needs to be, I Raime-fy it.  Enter emmersion blender. Problem solved.

 Cauliflower is one of those weird vegetables that I have a hard time incorporating into my diet, other than the typical "California blend" of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots.  So, it was a nice change of pace to enjoy this veggie in a creamy soup.  I went light on the cheese to try to keep it in a healthy range. It surprised me just how much I liked this. Definitely a recipe worth repeating.



Next up...KALE.

My dark green lover.

This was my first rendez-vous with kale, and boy did we enjoy ourselves!

I loosely followed this recipe from neverhomemaker.com.  I didn't have all those spices on hand, so I used my own little blend of: 
smoked paprika
cumin
curry powder
and just a touch a tumeric.

Raime-fication: if you don't have it, and can't foresee a reason to have it for future uses, just use what you DO have. 

 serve this lentil bowl solo, or with a side of pita bread or naan for dipping/scooping pleasure.


And lastly, Mac and Greens.  I LOVE mac and cheese, but I could stand to decrease the fat and calories, so I was inspired when I spotted this recipe from katheatsrealfood.com.

Raime-fied Kale version:

Mac and Greens

Ingredients:
two cups brown rice elbow macaroni noodles
kale
1/3 cooked sweet potato (more if you like the sweetness to temper the bitterness of kale)
parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Simultaneously: boil brown rice pasta, steam chopped kale, and cook sweet potato in microwave for 5-7 minutes. (I like multitasking). Then, food process kale and sweet potato until it's like a chunky pesto. Mix with drained noodles. Add Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste.

So easy. So green. and sooo good. 

Spinach

As a child, i didn't care to eat spinach. Of course, the only way that I knew spinach to be was in the form of a block, frozen, cooked down to a shrivel.

As an adult, I discovered my love of fresh spinach in salads. And more recently I began to wonder what more creative ways i could incorporate spinach into my meals.

Here's what I came up with:

I followed this recipe for spinach soup (I omitted the croutons). 

And I have also been a fan of chopping up spinach and adding it to almost any dish.  Last night, I added it to the 15 bean stew that I made over the weekend:

I also like to use fresh spinach:

• as a lettuce substitute in tacos
• as the base for a salad
• as an add-in for pasta salad

What ways do you use spinach?

Black bean enchiladas

This is an original recipe by me. Recipes by Raime (lol)

Normally I am VERY recipe-dependent.  I need a paper with a list of ingredients and directions to tell me how to cook something. 

But this time, the creative mood struck me by surprise.  

I had been thinking of making enchiladas for a couple of weeks now. I even had it on my list of "recipes to make" on the list app on my phone (yes, I am a nerd).  

But I didn't feel like making chicken enchiladas, and although I love cheese, I wanted something more healthy than cheese-stuffed enchiladas.  I had a boat-load of black bean cans in my pantry that were begging to be used, and that's when i came up with this:

 Black bean enchiladas

one can black beans (drained and rinsed)
one can diced tomatoes
1/4 to 1/3 of a large onion, diced small
one small can diced green chilis
1 tsp cumin
8-10 small corn tortillas
shredded cheese for topping


Preheat oven on Broil.
Combine black beans, onion, green chilis, cumin, and 1/2 can diced tomatoes (drained).
Take 1/3 of that mixture and pulse in a food processor until smooth
Take another 1/3 of the mixture and pulse in food processor just until chunky
Leave the last 1/3 of the mixture as-is (whole).  combine all three.
Fill tortillas with mixture, roll, place seam-down in a casserole dish sprayed with oil.
Broil for 5-7 minutes or until tortillas are slightly golden brown on top.
Cover with salsa (or the remainder of the drained diced tomatoes) and some shredded cheese and bake just until cheese is melted.

Filling mixture (the cumin really adds something special to the flavor of this):

Little enchilada babies ready to be broiled:

cheesy, fiber-y glory:

 I'm not gonna lie---this was REALLY GOOD.  I'm rather proud of this recipe.  It tastes great, it is vegetarian, and it is full of protein and fiber so it will satisfy even a meat-eater's hunger.