Quinoa Coconut Lentil Curry

Indian food is one of my favourite types of cuisines, and although I never re-create it as good as my favourite Indian restaurants, it’s usually pretty tasty!  I had some lentils to use up, and have become quite hooked on quinoa after going gluten-free..so this is what resulted!

Ingredients

extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

1 potato, peeled and chopped into small cubes

1/2 cup cooked quinoa

3/4 cup baby peas

2 handfuls baby spinach

3/4 cup lentils, cooked

1/2 cup regular coconut milk

1 tsp Madras curry powder (contains a blend of turmeric, coriander, cumin, etc..)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt, pepper

Saute chopped onions and garlic in EVOO on med. heat until onions are translucent.  Add in cubed potatoes – cook for 4 minutes or so.  Add in spices, lentils, coconut milk, peas and simmer for 25 minutes.  After 20 minutes, mix in spinach until wilted.  Season with salt and pepper and serve over cooked quinoa. Enjoy!

Whipped Sweet Potato & Peanut Butter Puree

Side dishes….I’m not a huge fan of the standard green bean casserole, or a weak mashed potato.  So, I’m always looking for great vegetable side dishes to try out.  I love sweet potatoes and I love peanut butter, so I searched online for a recipe that combined the two.  To my dismay, there were none..other than sweet potato stews.  But I wanted the creaminess of the sweet potato and the richness of the peanut butter together.  In sweet harmony.  So, I whipped up this little number and boy is it rich – and great!

This is the sweet potato that I used – I had to take a photo 🙂

Ingredients

1 sweet potato

2 tbsp milk (I used rice milk)

2 tbsp organic creamy peanut butter (crunchy doesn’t work here)

1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt

pinch of brown sugar

Pierce and roast sweet potato for 1 hour at 400F.  Peel off the skin of the sweet potato, and mash in bowl.  Add in the milk, peanut butter and salt.  Put ingredients into food processor, and process until smooth.  Taste, and add in brown sugar if you so desire.  Enjoy! 🙂

Green Monsters = Deliciousness

I am so addicted to “green monsters” as they are called around the blog world!  I originally saw them on Oh She Glows blog which I read every day, and was a tad bit scared to try them.  They were so green!  But then I dug in and wow, there’s now no turning back.

So what’s in my green monster?

Ingredients

a few handfuls of organic baby spinach

3/4 cup rice milk (my favourite kind is the brown basmati!)

3 ice cubes

1 frozen, very ripe banana

That’s it!  It has the best flavour and it’s chock full of nutrients.  Angela also recommends steaming the spinach before you blend it up, to get the most nutrition from it.  I have yet to do it because I’m a little scared of steamed spinach..but I may eventually 🙂