Slow Cooker Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup (Indian Fusion)

Courtesy of Food Network

Today, I'm going to do something a little different.  I will be traveling all over the place this March: San Francisco, Baltimore, DC and Houston.  (Those are the one I know about, too.) That means that I won't have a lot of time to cook and I won't be home long enough to eat many new slow cooker recipes.

In the meantime, I thought that I would highlight some recipes that I'd like to try and share them with you. 


From Food Network, I found Slow Cooker Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup recipe that sounds delicious and inspired by Indian fusion.

I'm assuming that it will taste amazing; the Food Network rarely dishes a flop.  I'm aware that the Food Network takes very pretty pictures of their food. Yet, the warm orange and yellow hues in this bowl look so inviting and I can feel the beta-Carotene doing good already. Plus, I ran this recipe through about.com's recipe analyzer to discover that this is nutritionally amazing: low in cholesterol and sodium; high in manganese, thiamin, vitamin B6 & vitamin C; and very high in dietary fiber and vitamin A. I can't wait to have some time to make this!

Courtesy of about.com

The current recipe is already vegetarian, but I might make this vegan for Lent and use some olive oil in lieu of the butter.  Also, I don't have curry powder on hand but I have some garam masala that I used in my rajmah recipe to bring out the curried flavors. I'll let you know how it turns out when I'm finally home to enjoy it.

A newer me for the rest of my life

I’m 9 days from turning 39, which means I’m 374 days from turning 40.  It’s time to take control of my life again. I did it once and I can do it again.

About three years ago, I shed off about 40 pounds through diet and exercise.  I got hurt and I stopped living that healthful lifestyle.  Though complacency I bounced back to heavier than when I started.  It’s really easy to say “I’ll go back to the gym, tomorrow” or “One extra serving of ice cream’s ok” and permit yourself to go back down the spiral.

“One extra serving of ice cream’s ok”

I know that I have to take a handle on things and manage what I eat and drink, including less nights at Schmitty's. Now is the time to start, while I can still make progress.  My genetics is already stacked the deck against me: there’s a history of cancer on both sides, my dad’s diabetes and my mom’s deteriorated knees, just to name a few.

So today, I’m starting back up; I’ve already returned to drinking 64 ounces of water a day.  I planned about 10 days of meals and went to the grocery store to pick up the supplies.  I’ve managed to pack my days with good things to eat. I’ll return to eating salads at both lunch and dinner (my definition of salad makes it simple to eat 5 vegetables daily.) I want to get into the gym; I will start slow. After two solid weeks of watching what I eat – healthful, smaller meals alternating with a healthful snack about every two hours – and getting myself used to that pattern, then can I go back to the gym with cardio.  Like my lifestyle change, three years ago, I did a month of cardio-only work outs before adding the weight-training.  Meanwhile, I’ll take walks before then.

It's not the Food Pyramid anymore, image courtesy of ChooseMyPlate.gov via SCDoA

I’m going to seek out help in the form of peer groups.  I look forward to writing more #shitIseeatthegym entries versus just re-tweeting them.  I’ll take advantage of about.com’s Calorie Counter and the recipe analyzer. I prefer the app Lose It for tracking and I love my Eat This, Not That app too for healthy decisions on the road. Plus, I’ll have you to help, to encourage, to praise, to support and to bolster me on my blog, twitter, facebook, maybe google+, probably foursquare and even pinterest.

For cardio and weights

According to Lose It, I’ll meet my goal before the end of the year. I didn’t pick some unrealistic goal; The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, United States Department of Agriculture, would suggest that I weigh around 170 lbs and I would never realistically reach that weight. So I just want most of my weight off to improve my health, minimize my risk for diabetes and elevate the strain and shock on my joints.  In the meantime, I look forward to reporting back through the year.  Any feedback so far?

 
Ice cream and sneaker photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

myPics: Lent

Though I wasn't in Ireland for Lent, I thought that this Celtic cross in a cemetery would an ideal shot for my blog today in honor of Quadragesima.

I was struck by the white and golden lichens growing on the granite tombstones throughout this church graveyard in Shrule (Sruthair).

Spicy Vegan Black-Eyed Peas

Black-Eyed Peas

I hosted bookclub this month.  Since its Black History Month, I choose The Black History of the White House by Clarence Lusane. While our critique of the book was that needed better editing and the academic arguments took away from the anecdotes that were amazing stories of American history, the assessment of our food theme, soul food, was that it was delicious.


We have a vegetarian in bookclub and we try to be mindful of our menu to make accommodations. However of the difficult things for me is when you remove meat from a dish to make it vegetarian, the dish can fall flat.  So I find it so very important to find additional sources of umami to compensate for that lack of meat in a dish.

Black-eyed peas are a hallmark of soul food. However, the dish, slowly cooked with ham hocks, is far from vegetarian.  I searched the net for recipes that were slow cooker friendly and vegetarian but I ended up tinkering recipes into my own.

Spicy Vegan Black-Eyed Peas, adapted from Allrecipes' Slow Cooker Spicy Black-Eyed Peas & Food.com's Spicy Vegetarian Black-Eyed Peas

Ingredients:

Some bottles of hot sauce

• 1 lb dried black-eyed peas, sorted and rinsed
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 jalapeno chile, diced (remove the seeds to turn down the heat)
• 1½ tsp cumin
• 1 tsp Creole Seasoning
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt, to taste
• 4 cps vegetable broth or stock
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• ¼ cup cider vinegar

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients but the vinegar in the slow cooker and stir to blend. 
2. Cover the slow cooker and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours until the beans are tender. 
3. Up to 30 minutes before serving add the cider vinegar.
4. Serve with hot sauce.

myPics: Madonna of the Trail

On a recent work trip to DC, I made a visit out to Bethesda. I took the Metro from Union Station and walked to my appointment.  My stroll to Woodmont Avenue surprisingly took me past one of the Madonna of the Trail status.  Since I'm a big transportation-ophile, I had read about this series of statues set up along the the National Old Trails Road, also known as Ocean-to-Ocean Highway.

From Wikipedia, the Madonna of the Trail is a series of 12 monuments dedicated to the spirit of pioneer women in the United States. The monuments were commissioned by the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR). The NSDAR placed the monuments along the National Old Trails Road which extended from Bethesda, Maryland, to Upland, California (The much of the route of the route follows the old National Road and the Santa Fe Trail in the West.) There is a moment - dedicated to the spirit of pioneer women in the United States and serves as symbol of the courage and faith of the women who conquered the wilderness and establishing permanent homes -  in each of the states that National Old Trails Road passed through.

myPics: Trailside Village

Here's the view out the front door of our rental this past week. The ridge that located in the middle right of the picture is the actual Killington trail, Great Eastern.

For the skier, snowboarder or the quasi-professional après-skier, this was an excellent location that we rented through www.skionskioff.com. Good work, Jack!

Slow Cooked Creole Baked Beans

In looking for a good Creole flavored baked bean recipe, I was disappointed that none of them started with a base of the Holy Trinity, the Cajun and Louisiana Creole variant of mirepoix. I did my research on the hallmarks of good Creole flavors and created this dish.

After all was said and done, it was a lot of work to make a these baked beans in particular. While they did taste different than the baked beans out of a can, it was all subtlety. The thyme was a nice addition to the sweet and a dark flavors of your usual baked beans, while the andouille added a great smoky meaty flavor that didn't overpower.

Slow Cooked Creole Baked Beans

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. dried beans (I use 1lb. navy and the other lb. Great Northern)
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 large bell pepper, chopped
• 4-6 celery stalks, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-3 Tbsp. butter
• ½ lb. andouille sausages, cubed
• ½ cup bourbon
• ½ cup molasses
• ½ cup dark brown sugar
• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 Tbsp. Creole seasoning blend (see below)
• 1 Tbsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dry mustard, or more, to taste
• 1-2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1-2 cps water, on reserve
• Salt, if needed.

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients; store in an airtight container. Sort through the beans, discarding any that are discolored or damaged, rinse them well. Put them in a large bowl or container, cover them by at least 2 inches with cold water, and soak overnight or longer. 
2. Sauté the onions, bell pepper and celery (Holy Trinity) with garlic in with 2 Tbsp. butter until tender, about 7 minutes. Remove from the pan and add to the slow cooker.
3. Fry the andouille in the remaining pan fat, adding the additional Tbsp butter, if needed, until slightly crisp, about 7 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the bourbon and add the pan’s contents into the slow cooker.
4. Drain the soaked beans and add to the slow cooker. Follow that with molasses, brown sugar, ketchup , creole seasoning, thyme, mustard and Worcestershire.
5. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours (or high for 4 to 5 hours), until beans are tender and flavorful. Check and add a little of the reserved liquid as necessary.
6. When finished cooking, taste to see if salt is needed and add, if necessary.

In making this again, I may cut the molasses.  It was a very strong taste - very rich and almost too earthy and caramel. However I noticed that most of the recipes that I found called for unsulfured molasses. I don't know if I had unsulfured molasses or not; it was tough just to find any molasses when I went food shopping!

Creole Seasoning Mix, adapted from Creole Seasoning Blend at allrecipes.com

Most of my friends swear by Tony Chachere's for their go-to seasoning of choice. It's great; I love it. However, I can't always find it in my local area stores, especially when I've run out and I want to use it immediately.  In those cases, I whip up a batch of Creole Seasoning and I know that I'll have some good New Orleans' kick in my food.

Ingredients: (Original recipe yield was 1¼ cups, based on one part = one tablespoon)

• 1 part dried thyme
• 1 part black pepper
• 1 part white pepper
• 1 part cayenne pepper
• 1 part sugar
• 2 parts onion powder
• 2 parts garlic powder
• 2 parts dried oregano
• 2 parts dried basil
• 3 parts salt
• 5 parts paprika *

Directions:
1.    In a small bowl, combine all ingredients; store in an airtight container.

* I have replaced some of the paprika with other peppers in a ratio of 1:1.  (e.g. 1 part Hatch chili pepper, 1 part West African hot pepper and 3 parts paprika, instead of 5 parts paprika.)