A Big Bowl of Delish

As we get closer to cooler weather, you may want to keep this delicious soupy recipe in mind. Lentils are an incredible source of protein, fiber and complex carbohydrates, helping you boost your metabolism, nourish your body, and even lower cholesterol levels. On top of being hearty and satisfying, it is super simple to make.

Ingredients (feeds 4-6 people):

• 1 Lb. Lentils
• 4-5 Chopped Tomatoes
• 2 Large Chopped Jalapeno Peppers (No Seeds)
• 1 Small-Medium Chopped Onion
• A Small Chunk of Onion
• A Large Garlic Clove
• 6 Large Eggs
• Salt
• Olive Oil
• Vegetarian (Optional) Bouillon
• Sweet Plantains (Optional)

Boil the lentils with a splash of olive oil, a bit of salt, and the garlic clove. Cover them up and continue to check them until they are soft (continue adding water if needed). You can make this more of a soup by adding more water and have a more runny consistency. While the lentils cook, lightly saute the onion and jalapeno peppers, then add the chopped tomatoes. Once the lentils are soft, set the heat to medium-low, get rid of the chunk of onion and the garlic. Add the sauteed onions, peppers, and tomatoes as well as the bouillon in to the pot with the lentils and mix it all together. Crack and drop in the eggs into the soup, carefully placing them separate from one another and cover the pot with a lid. Gently mix the soup occasionally (covering the eggs to allow for the heat of the soup to cook the eggs). Once the eggs are cooked throughout, add salt to taste and enjoy. For added deliciousness, separately fry sliced plantains with a bit of olive oil or with an air fryer and add to the soup.

Feel free to adjust the amount of any of the ingredients according to your preference. This is a full meal that will help your digestive health and give you all the nutrients you need.

Try it and tell me what you think. I prefer it with the plantains, but sometimes the stores don’t have them ripe enough (therefore not pictured).

Stay true – Chantal

Vegetarian Street Tacos

YUM YUM YUM! This recipe for vegetarian street tacos with a side of poblano spaghetti squash is going to give your Taco Tuesday a great twist! This recipe serves about 4 people.

Spaghetti Squash:

Cut the spaghetti squash in half, place it on a cookie sheet and sprinkle it with salt, pepper and olive oil. Bake it at 350° until cooked through. Don’t overcook, it still needs to have a slightly crunchy consistency. Once ready, use a fork to scrape the spaghetti squash and make the noodles.  

Sauce for the spaghetti squash:

While the spaghetti squash is baking, boil 3 to 4 poblano peppers, a small piece of onion, and a clove of garlic. Once they are soft, remove the seeds from the peppers and blend them together with half of a vegetarian bouillon cube, salt to taste, and a bit of sour cream. Mix the sauce with the spaghetti squash noodles in a pan and add frozen corn. Cook all together until the corn is defrosted and serve.

Street Tacos:

Slice 5 to 6 large portobello mushrooms and season them with creole seasoning, salt, pepper, and lime juice. Sautee them on the stove with a bit of olive oil and serve them in tacos with corn tortillas. Top the mushrooms with chopped onions, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro.

AMAZING!!!!! Try this and tell me what you think!

Meatless Spaghetti Squash Bolognese

Miracles do happen! I have been cooking a bit more lately, trying to improve my kitchen skills and oh my… I have to say that I’ve had many fails. A few months ago I tried making this same dish and it went completely south ☹ but today I totally redeemed myself!! Some of you will make fun of me, but I honestly didn’t know there was such thing as a “spaghetti squash”! I thought the dish was called “spaghetti squash” because the squash was made into little spaghetti like strings with a fork, but I was completely mistaken! I bought something called butternut squash and the end result was a mashed potato looking paste. The consistency was kind of gross and nobody ate it… it ended up being a take-out kind of day.

Proof of the atrocity committed during the first try… Such a sad day!

My bestie’s husband was kind enough to make fun of my mistake and point out that I used the wrong type of squash … thank you Gus, I got the right one this time!

Ingredients (serves 4-5 people):

• 2 spaghetti squash
• 6 tomatoes
• 2 cups of diced mushrooms
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 small piece of onion
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cube of vegan chicken flavor bouillon (if desired)
• Plant based ground meat (optional)
• Olive oil
• Olive oil cooking spray

Instructions:

Cut the spaghetti squash in half, scoop out the seeds and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Spray all halves with the cooking spray and bake them at 350° for 30 minutes or until soft. Once this is done, grab a fork and scrape the strands.

For the sauce: blend the tomatoes, the clove of garlic, the small piece of onion, a cube of bouillon, and a bit of salt.

Sautee the diced onions with olive oil and the ground meat, then add the carrots, mushrooms and celery. Add the sauce and cook for a good five minutes with medium heat while constantly stirring; add salt and pepper to taste. Cover it up and let simmer until the tomato sauce has a bit of a deeper red color and has thickened a bit.

Serve the spaghetti squash and top it off with the sauce mix. Enjoy!

I am no chef, but I truly loved this dish and hope you do as well. I avoided using canned tomato paste or sauce, but I did end up using the plant-based meat to trick my daughter into eating it since she eats meat lol and the bouillon for a bit of extra flavor. I don’t believe those are necessary, so if you want something 100% natural skip those and voila!

Do you have any other recipes with spaghetti squash for me to try? Would love to see them!

Stay true – Chantal

Plantain Dream Dinner Pie

OMG! I had to share this with you because this dish turned out to be super good. Now, If you know me, you know that I am a total disgrace when it comes to cooking. My daughter hates my cooking, my mother is ashamed because I didn’t inherit her Mexican culinary skills, and because I almost need to make you sign a waiver before you have a taste of my food.

There are very few dishes that I can actually make and they tend to be very basic, but lately I have been trying to practice more, determined to get to a decent cooking level. Well, one of my dear (cooking challenged) friends shared a simple recipe with me and I added a little twist to make it my own. This thing was so good that both my daughter and mother decided to try it, and not only that, they even had seconds and asked for me to pack them some for lunch! Now that I feel like a chef goddess, I want to share my simple recipe with you.

Ingredients:

• Plantains (they can be green for a more savory taste or brown for a sweeter dish) – I used 6 for a 9.5’’ pie plate
• Salt to taste
• 1 cup of yellow corn
• 2 cups of mozzarella cheese (or as much as you want)
• Olive oil cooking spray

Instructions:

If you are using green plantains, boil them until soft; brown plantains are already very soft, so no boiling is needed. Spray the baking dish with cooking oil. Mash the plantains to create a soft paste and create a “crust” layer covering the baking dish. Once you have a thick layer of plantain paste, top it with lots of cheese and corn. Cover the filling ingredients with a layer of plantain, sprinkle a bit of salt, and spray some cooking oil on top.

Bake the pie at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until the top of the plantain pie is spongy but solid and somewhat brown. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Yum!!!!!! So easy even I can do it!

Stay true – Chantal

Smoothie Time!

Strawberry Smoothie

Anyone who doesn’t like smoothies is just not to be trusted… they are insane! The creativity of flavor combinations, the colors, the smells, the taste, what’s not to love?! Well… if you are one of those people that buy them out on the street, maybe the price. It can get pretty costly to enjoy store bought smoothie on a regular basis, and don’t get me wrong… I will drink the crap out of a Smoothie King or Jamba Juice delicious blend, but between my smoothie obsession and my coffee obsession, I am at a loss 😦 A great alternative if you are trying to eat healthy, get your veggies and fruits in is to do your own juices and smoothies at home. You can even save yourself some work and do meal prep over the weekend by putting together all of your combinations in separate containers to have them all ready to blend. I will share with you a couple of my fave combinations hoping you will give them a try. Feel free to send me your favorite recipe so I can try that too!

The top pic has a basic strawberry, oats, honey, cinnamon, and almond milk smoothie… absolutely delicious and filling. Feel free to replace the almond milk for soy, nonfat milk or any other milk variation.

Mamey Smoothie

This next smoothie is made with an incredible delicious orange fruit called Mamey. I can never find the fresh fruit in a local market but some places carry the frozen pulp and it is AMAZING!!!! just blend some of the fruit pulp with oats, cinnamon, honey, milk and… Voila! It is heaven in your mouth!!

If you are more of a juice person or prefer water based smoothies, just grab your favorite vegetables and fruits and go crazy! Here are a couple of my basic blends:

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Both of the above blends include spinach and carrots but one has pineapple and oranges that will be blended with water while the other has strawberries and will be blended with orange juice… SO DELICIOUS!!!!!!! Sometimes I add some ginger, beets, mixed berries, or guavas, but the options are endless! I just got hungry writing about this.

It is so hard have a balanced and healthy diet, especially when you are always on the go, so smoothies really do become your best friend when you get into the habit of pre-packing your blends. I actually keep a personal blender at work to be able to make my smoothies there as well… hey, whatever works right?

Stay True – Chantal

3 Ways to Use Avocado

Y’all – if you’re not using avocado for literally EVERY use in your life.. you’re missing out! I won’t take total credit for these “recipes” (Chantal is the resident beauty expert here), but I got to be the guinea pig and L-O-V-E-D all of this.

In case you didn’t know, you can use avocado in your meals (duh), for your face, and for your hair. Avocado is rich in healthy fatty acids, and can be extremely moisturizing externally. It also has potassium, letithin, and more minerals that nourish your body inside and out.

Avocado Toast

Ingredients:
Toast
Avocado
Corn
Cilantro
Greek Yogurt
Cotija Cheese
Salt/Pepper (optional)

 

Avocado Hair Mask

Ingredients:
1 1/2- 1 3/4 Avocado
2-3 tbsp Honey
2-3 tbsp Olive Oil 

(Adjust ingredients based on how long your hair is)

 Put on your hair for 20-30 minutes to hydrate! Then wash your hair as normal.

Avocado Face Mask

Ingredients:
1/4 Avocado
1-2 tbsp plain yogurt
1-2 tbsp honey

Place a THICK layer all over your face and leave on for 20-30 minutes! Once it’s dry, wash off and feel the difference!

Hopefully you try out these recipes to get all the benefits out of avocados. Have a great weekend!  

Drunken Apples

If you have a sweet tooth just like I do, you are going to love this healthier, lower calorie dessert.

Ingredients:

Your favorite apples 
Finely chopped nuts (I chose almonds, pecans, and pine nuts) 
Raisins 
Red or white wine 
Cinnamon 
Honey or agave nectar

Preheat the oven at 350°. Slice apples in half and cut out a hole in the center to use it as a pocket. Stuff the center of each apple with a mix of nuts and raisins. Place the apples on a cookie sheet. Fill the center of the apples with the wine. Sprinkle cinnamon on top of the apple. Drizzle them with the honey or agave nectar. Cover the apples with aluminum foil and bake them for about 25 minutes or until soft. Enjoy them while warm. Yum!

Add your own spin to the dessert and share your master piece with us!

Stay true – Chantal