RECIPES: What the Happy Nurse & I Are Eating This Week! Soups, Falafels, Parsnip Fries, Quinoa Salad, Zucchini Hummus, Mac & Cheese, Chocolate Chia Pudding & MORE!!!

Well I'm super excited about our food plan for this week!  What I've made so far has been delicious (with only one minor kitchen disaster:-))!  I've happily tried a bunch of new, very simple recipes from the Everyday Happy Herbivore Cookbook (which I FINALLY got from Amazon this week after being back ordered since December!!).  No time for bulk cooking again due to my call schedule.


What do YOU have on your food plan for this week?!  Any recipe ideas to share?

Dinner Monday Night :-)
Spinach & Dried Cranberries
Homemade baked tortilla chips &
 Gluten-Free Crackers
Homemade tahini-free hummus & veggies
Tarragon Rice w/ Kalamata olive
Ambrosia

On top of a busy clinical week, I have an exam on Friday (yes, Doctors continue to have exams forever--we have to retake our specialty board exams every 5-10 years in order to continue to be described as "board certified!")  For me, this time its an important mock Board exam as I'm nearing the end of my specialty training.  Thus, I'm throwing in a bunch of familiar favorites this week to keep the pressure off as I study!  That said, I need variety to keep my disease of compulsive overeating at bay--so I've also chosen a few simple new recipes AND used the slow cooker!    

Soups:  (Slow Cooker, YAY!)

My FAV:  The Healthy Librarian's version of Robin Robertson's Sweet Potato, Spinach, Fire-Roasted Tomatoes, and a Bit of Peanut Butter Soup:  Tried it in the slow cooker this time and it worked beautifully.  Just threw everything but the oat milk and the spinach in at first and then right before taking it off the heat I transferred it to a big pot and added the oat milk & spinach & cooked for about 3 mins.  YUMM.  I like a little more spinach in the soup so this time in addition to the fresh spinach I added a bunch of frozen spinach too.  I also cut the sweet potatoes up into tiny cubes instead of big ones--just a preference thing.  I think more flavor soaks in!


My Own Split Pea Soup:  Yes I'm biased but I love this.  Basically I put 4 cups (one box) of Vegetable Broth in, a lot of green split peas (enough so I can see them about 1 inch under the surface of the broth), 2 chopped up carrots, 2 celery stalks chopped and two bay leaves.  Literally thats it!  SO good!


Black Bean & Salsa Soup from The Everyday Happy Herbivore Cookbook!  Can't wait to make this--another extremely easy recipe using canned salsa!


Chana Saag (not a soup but a slow cooker recipe!) from the  Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester--I LOVE Indian food & I love spinach so this dish is perfect!  Really looking forward to this!


Main Dishes

Falafels from the Party Vegan by Robin Robertson:  Ok these were amazing and super healthy.  I didn't fry them in oil, instead I used a bit of spray oil on both sides of each patty & it tasted great!  I think the key is processing the chickpeas into a fine powder, refrigerating per her instructions and not skipping out on the fresh parsley (don't use dry).


Healthy Girl's Kitchen's Butternut Mac & Cheese:  Going to do this AWESOME looking dish (and one of my recipes of the week on the Best of the Blogosphere post) this weekend after the exam is over!


Lemon Basil Pasta from The Everyday Happy Herbivore Cookbook!  Made this two days ago.  SO easy and super yummy except for one small disaster--I added a ton of dried basil instead of fresh.  Not as yummy as it could be I'm afraid!  Next time it'll be fresh basil!  I love that this is oil-free and basically uses lemon juice as a sauce :-)


Curried Quinoa Salad from The Everyday Happy Herbivore Cookbook!  I love Quinoa and I love curry--hello awesome lunch (with the perfect balance of all essential amino acids).


Sandwich Spreads, Snacks & Side Dishes


Lentil Spread--still haven't made it--like I said, crazy week! I LOVE this spread though and talked about it last week.  Its on the docket to be made tonight. 


Parsnip Fries with Roasted Tomato Ketchup from My New Roots:  Can't wait to make these!  She made them with parsley root--first of all, I have no idea what that is and second of all, we have a bunch of parsnip in the fridge and she said we could substitute with parsnip!  I'm going to alter the recipe a bit by forgoing the canola oil thing in favor of a little bit of spray oil.  On the roasted tomato ketchup front I've cheated and bought a can of roasted tomatoes!!  Ah time saving techniques!


Zucchini-Almond Hummus from Choosing Raw.  This looks amazing and I'm really enjoying this new (to me) blog!  (Thanks Wendy for the rec!)

Green Olive & Sundried Tomato Biscotti from the Party Vegan by Robin Robertson:  Repeat effort as promised to reduce the oil in the recipe--I've now gotten it down from 3 Tbl to 1 Tbl and am delighted to report that it is still just as delicious!  Next time, no oil, only water!  This time around I saved time by skipping the crushing the pine nuts step and threw them in whole!  It worked great :-)

Spiced Rice-Lentil Squares from Susan Voisin's Fat Free Vegan Kitchen:   Ok so I made a kitchen error with this one and used long grain brown rice instead of short grain--the result--it completely (and I mean completely) fell apart when I was baking it--nothing to stick it together & the chia egg wasn't enough.  (by the way first time using a chia egg and I loved it!!!)  So instead I poured the cooked mixture into a bowl and ate it cold as a salad.  Oh OH SO yummy!!  The spices were perfect--very Persian.  Ah kitchen improvisation!


Cool Slaw from "Appetite for Reduction" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz:  This was recommended by a reader and wow was she spot on!  Easy due to the store bought bagged shredded cabbage and carrots (coleslaw kt)


Desserts!!! (not a regular category for us but I'm feeling like some this week!)

Chocolate Chia Pudding by Susan Voisin from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen:  Ok so this was extraordinarily good!!!!!!!!  I can't even explain how good!  I had no idea that you could use chia seeds (a great source of Omega-3's) this way!  If you like the consistency of tapioca pudding you will LOVE this!

Ambrosia by Susan Voisin from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen:  Once again SO delicious.  I just finished the last of it and can't wait to make more.  I loved that she just peeled the orange and chopped it up--no intricate peeling of the individual slices.  The pineapple really add a lot to this dish!


Post Punk Kitchen's recipe for Raspberry Truffle Brownies: Making these as a treat after the exam.  Will need to eat and give away the rest immediately as my husband can't have sweets in the house.  See my post for my ideas on how to alter the sugar aspect.

Ok that's all folks!  Enjoy! Oh!  And let me know if you have any ideas for recipes for Spaghetti Squash!  I've had one sitting on the shelf for awhile!! 


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