Tag: chick pea

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Warm Winter Salad

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Now that the holidays are coming to a close, and New Years is staring to wave at us with all its new beginnings and good resolutions. Why not indulge in something reminiscent of comfort food, but without the guilty pleasure price tag? This salad is just right for that. Sustaining enough to not leave you looking through the cookie jars in the break room, but nourishing and light at the same time. It’s a salad for those that don’t like salad. Like my one friend that doesn’t see why anyone would want to eat ‘crunchy water’. This would even work for her, a no greens salad!

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And of course, where would we be with our healthy living resolutions if it were not going to be convenient? So this one packs neatly into a jar, dressing and all. When ready, just shake, remove the lid and heat up ( I like mine warm), or enjoy cold!

imageper serving you will need:

Ingredients

  • 1 small sweet potato
  • 3 tbsp chick peas (cooked or canned)
  • 5 small mushrooms, quartered
  • 1/2 small zucchini, diced into cubes
  • 3-4 tsp roasted garlic dressing
  • 2 cup mason jar

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Directions

  1. Prick sweet potato with a fork, wrap with 2 paper  towels, drizzle some water on the paper towel for moisture and microwave until soft and cooked through. (Alternately use  some leftover roasted sweet potato, peeled) Once cool enough to handle, peel and cube and set aside to cool completely.
  2. Heat a teaspoon olive oil in a small skillet, add mushrooms to pan and quick sauté for 1 minute. Set aside to cool. Add zucchini to pan, and sauté for another minute, set aside to cool completely.
  3. Layer ingredients into a  2 cup mason jar in the following order:
  • creamy roasted garlic dressing
  • sweet potato
  • chick peas
  • zucchini
  • mushrooms
  • lid

You can assemble this salad completely and store in your fridge for up to 4 days!

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Copyright © 2012 Simple Healthy Homemade. All rights reserved

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Better-for-you Gluten Free Brownies

imagebrownie and sunshine 🙂

imagebrownie, no sunshine. Oh yeah, the thing in the middle there? A overly cooked white chocolate chip…

I wanted to do something a bit special, celebratory for our 1 year anniversary and how better to celebrate than with something sweet and chocolatey? Yes, it is true, today my little blog turns one!

Therefore today’s recipe had to be a little special, so ‘common’ brownies were not going to cut it and since I don’t like things that are very sweet anyway, a standard recipe would not have been my thing. I have often felt that there are too many products and recipes out there that are, for example, gluten free, but now there are 18 eggs in them, or they are low fat but have twice as much sugar. So I challenged myself, why not combine some of the restrictions people face into one recipe without adding extra “bad stuff”?  A lot of folks have issues digesting gluten + diabetics should be real careful eating sugar (and I don’t like lots of it, + it’s really not good for you) + most people watch the amount of fat they consume: I was setting out with quite a lofty goal. Can’t be done, you say? Well, I just think I might have nailed it! Best of all, if you just happen to be vegan, you can make this too 🙂

And since the weather looked a good deal like fall today I added another good for you ingredient: Pumpkin, to make it moist (also packs vitamin E, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Iron, Manganese and is a good source of fiber) and chick pea flour to keep it gluten free. I did have a whole big bag of chickpea flour, from who knows what recipe originally that I just rediscovered last week in making Socca.

By the way, get Besan from the Indian grocer, much cheaper than other healthfood store brands. As a matter of fact, anything you can buy at an ethnic store will be cheaper. If it is considered a specialty or an exotic item the grocery store will a) buy less of it, making it more expensive, and b) they can get away with charging premium dollar for ‘delicacies’ and ‘gourmet food’.For example, if you have a Asian grocer nearby, get your shallots there, also rice and rice noodles, dried or fresh will be a lot cheaper, so is Tofu, if you have that on your meal plan. Indian grocers usually carry various beans, peas and lentils, spices and almonds are usually less as well. And of course they have Besan, which is the chick pea flour we just talked about. But since it is not sold as a ‘gluten free’ flour… fraction of the cost!

But I digress, back to today’s topic: The gluten free, virtually fat free, low sugar, vegan anniversary BROWNIES! Yes, I am a tad exited about them, can you tell? 😉

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Ingredients

  • 3 ripe bananas
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened
  • 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
  • 1/2 cup millet flour
  • 1/2 cup chick pea flour/besan
  • 1/2 cup sorghum flour
  • 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup mixed chocolate chips (dairy free, or it’s no longer vegan) or 1/2 nuts 1/2 chips
  • 3/4 cups water
  • 1/4 cup raw sugar (turbinado)

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Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF
  2. Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ baking dish (lasagna dish) with coconut oil
  3. In a large bowl mash the bananas and mix in the pumpkin puree, then stir in the cocoa powder.
  4. Add the brown rice syrup and the water and stir until well mixed
  5. Combine the three flours, the xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda
  6. Add the flours and 2 tablespoons of the raw sugar to the cocoa mixture and stir until well blended, then add the chocolate chips or nuts.
  7. Spread into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle top with remaining sugar
  8. Bake in the middle of the pre heated oven for 45-50 minutes or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
  9. Let cool completely before cutting, or you’ll have fudge brownies

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade