recipe

gnocchi with butternut squash and kale

/ Brienna / 2 Comments

I bought a butternut squash at the store last week, and I really didn’t know what to do with it. My inspiration came when I realized we had a LOT of kale, and a quick google search turned up a recipe on the Food Network.

This is my modified, veganized version.

(somehow my picture got lost…..)

Gnocchi with butternut squash and kale

Makes 4-6 servings.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium butternut squash, cubed into bite size pieces
  • 3-5 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1-2 tbs sage, chopped
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste
  • 2 tbs vegan butter
  • 1 bunch kale, rough chopped
  • 2 – 2.5 cups water or vegetable broth/stock
  • 1 package vegan gnocchi (some have eggs, so if you are vegan, make sure you check!)
  • Parma (vegan parmesan) or nutritional yeast, to taste
  • salt to taste

Directions

  • Melt 1 tbs butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add butternut squash and cook for 8 minutes or until slightly tender (but not fully cooked, because it will be mush at the end if you cook it too much now)
  • Add the sage, garlic and red pepper flakes, cook another 1-2 minutes. Add more vegan butter or olive oil if your pan starts to get dry
  • Add 1 to 1.5 cups water, bring to simmer
  • Add kale and cook 1-2 minutes until kale is slightly wilted
  • Preheat the broiler on your oven
  • Add gnocchi, cover and simmer 5 minutes or until gnocchi are tender (at this point, I moved everything to a large stock pot because my skillet wasn’t big enough. I also added an extra cup of water because everything was very dry)
  • Add Parma to taste, and last tbs of vegan butter (if you want)
  • Add salt and more red pepper to taste
  • Place under the broiler for 3-5 minutes

Notes:  If I were going to make this again, I would modify the instructions quite a bit. I would cook the gnocchi separately in boiling water. It was good, but trying to do it all in one skillet was hard because I had to guess when to move on to the next step and I felt it was all a little mushy in the end. So, cook the squash pretty much all the way, add all the spices and garlic, etc, the kale, and then combine with the gnocchi at the end before broiling. Another interesting thing to try would be using cannellini beans instead of gnocchi.

black bean and bell peppers w/ quinoa

/ Brienna / 2 Comments

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a recipe. I started a 2 week gluten-free challenge on 9/29 and it’s been tough coming up with veggie AND gluten-free dinner ideas that my hubby will like.

Anyway, he gave this one the thumbs up!

black bean and bell peppers w/ quinoa

black bean and bell peppers w/ quinoa

  • 2 bell peppers (I chose red and yellow but any color will work)
  • 1/4 – 1/2 Red onion
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 1 bunch green onions
  • 4-6 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 – 1c cilantro
  • chipotle powder, salt, and lime juice to taste

Directions:

  1. Prep the veggies: Chop the bell pepper into bite size pieces and then do the same with the red onion and green onions but slightly smaller. Mince the garlic and chop up the cilantro now too.
  2. Cook the quinoa according to directions.
  3. While the quinoa is cooking, sauté the bell pepper, onions and garlic with olive oil.  Add in the chipotle power and lime juice now. Salt to taste.
  4. When the veggies are almost done, add in the black beans and heat until bubbly
  5. Add cilantro at the end and adjust seasoning if needed
  6. Serve either with the black beans and bell peppers on the side, or mix with quinoa.

Notes:  You can see from the photo that I used red quinoa. Any will work! I served this with a side of sautéed spinach, but that’s just because it’s what I had handy. Also, I meant to add diced tomatoes and forgot. Corn would also work well in this dish, as would some vegan cheese on top. I left it off this time as my husband is not a big fan of the cheeze.

chocolate banana peanut butter coconut smoothie

/ Brienna / 2 Comments

I thought my husband would like this combo, so I threw some stuff together in my Vitamix as an experiment, and wow, it was really tasty!

Here’s the recipe:

chocolate banana peanut butter coconut smoothie
serves 2

Ingredients

  • 2 cups vanilla light soy milk or any non-dairy milk (even water could work, if you want cut down the calories)
  • 2 scoops Vega Energizing Smoothie in Choc-a-lot flavor
  • 1 Banana
  • 1 generous scoop peanut butter (I used homemade peanut butter, another great thing you can make with a Vitamix!)
  • 4-5 coconut water ice cubes (just freeze coconut water in your ice-cube trays to make)
  • Roasted coconut flakes

Directions

  • Combine all ingredients except the roasted coconut flakes in a blender, and blend until creamy and smooth.
  • Pour into 2 large smoothie glasses and top with roasted coconut flakes.

nacho cheese kale and avocado salad

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

The photo (which has since been lost) is really terrible but I wanted to share. Kale, avocado and white beans topped with nacho cheese dressing, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pistachios and some “salad booster” which I think is primarily spirulina and chia seeds. I am in love with nacho “cheese” kale chips lately and I thought using the leftover “cheese” to make a salad dressing was pretty clever. And it was super yummy!

Oh and that’s a chocolate-peanut butter-banana-coconut smoothie on the side. 🙂