Month: January 2016

Creamy Pasta with Mushroom and Kale

This recipe is inspired from the Creamy Roasted Tomato pasta from a Happy Herbivore meal plan.

Ingredients:

  • 12 oz. pasta, cooked
  • Kale
  • 1 Onion, sliced thin
  • 8 oz. Mushrooms, sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2  can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
  • 2 cups hummus
  • 2 tablespoon of dried basil, adjust to desired taste
  • 1/2 cup pasta water (if needed)
  • Optional: red pepper flakes (for some spice)

Directions:

  1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Add the kale the last minute of cooking (or see notes). Drain.
  2. While pasta is cooking: Caramelize the onion in some water or broth.
  3. Add in mushrooms and garlic and saute for a few minutes.
  4. Add the diced tomatoes and cook for a few minutes.
  5. Stir together the hummus and basil and add pasta water until it’s a creamy consistency.  Add to pan with mushroom and onion mixture and heat through.
  6. When the pasta is done: Combine the sauce with the pasta and serve.

Notes: You can cook the kale along with the mushrooms, onions, and garlic or  steam the kale in advance and add in at the end.  Spinach is also delicious.

 

Enjoy 🙂

Easy Marinara Sauce

Here’s an easy marinara sauce that is totally worth making rather than buying the jarred stuff that contains salt, oil, and sugar.

Recipe from here:

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup onion, diced
  • 1 T. garlic, minced
  • 1 t. dried basil
  • 1 t. dried oregano
  • 1/8 t. freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 – 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

Directions:

  1. In a medium saucepan, saute the onion in water for 3 minutes to soften.
  2. Add the garlic and saute an additional 1-2 minutes while stirring constantly, or until fragrant but not browned.
  3. Add the dried herbs and pepper and saute an additional 30 seconds.
  4. Add the crushed tomatoes and stir well to combine.
  5. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the mixture for 10 minutes to blend the flavors.

This makes about 3.5 cups of sauce.

Add this easy sauce to your favorite pasta, add to beans, rice, and greens, or add as your sauce for pizza.

Enjoy 🙂

Sweet Potato Blueberry Muffins

Here’s another tasty muffin recipe. It uses oats as the flour and bananas, dates, and sweet potato as the sweetener!

This recipe is adapted from here:

Ingredients:
  • 1 medium banana
  • 2 cups sweet potato puree (2 medium to large sweet potatoes, baked or 1 15oz can of sweet potato puree)
  • 8 medjool dates
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups whole oat flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. In a large bowl, combine your oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger and set aside.
  3. In a blender, blend the banana, sweet potato puree, dates, and vanilla extract.
  4. Add this into the flour mixture while gently mixing together until completely combined. TIP: avoid over-mixing to prevent toughness in the final product.
  5. Fold in blueberries
  6. Spoon the batter into muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are lightly browned.

Enjoy 🙂