Roasted Veggie and Black Bean Burritos

This recipe was a Pinterest find and win (originally posted on Tasty Kitchen)!

Although I’m not a vegetarian, I like to experiment with these types of recipes because they help me to eat more veggies while I still get my protein. Also, by adding a vegetarian meal to the weekly meal plan, it usually helps the budget too.

If you’re not sold on the ingredients, read up on sweet potato health benefits.

I was surprised at how such a fully vegetable-packed meal could be so flavorful. And, as always, I only post no-fail recipes.

Source: Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients

• 2 whole Sweet Potatoes, Peeled And Cubed Small
• 2 whole Jalapenos Diced
• 1 whole Red Pepper, Diced Small
• 1 whole Red Onion, Diced Small
• 2 teaspoons Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
• 1 pinch Salt And Pepper
• 1 can Black Beans, Rinsed And Drained (15 Ounce Can)
• ½ cups Fresh Cilantro, Chopped
• 2 teaspoons Fresh Lime Juice
• 2 cups Shredded Cheddar
• 1 package Burrito-Sized Wheat Tortillas Or Wraps (6-10 Count)

Preparation Instructions

In a bowl, toss your raw veggies in olive oil and season with spices. Place in a large baking dish and roast in 425 degree oven for 20 minutes, tossing around halfway through.

Let cool. Add your roasted veggies to a can of rinsed black beans. Add cilantro and squirt of lime juice. Combine gently. At this point, mixture can be stored for later use.

Warm your wheat tortillas or wraps in microwave according to directions on package. Spray a casserole dish with nonstick spray or olive oil spray.

Add two heaping tablespoons of vegetable and bean mixture to center of wrap. Top with shredded cheese. Fold over, fold in sides, place in pan and continue to roll the others. Place into your baking dish, seam side down so that they stay together.

Bake in 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Baking this way will make the tortilla wrap crisp. For a softer burrito, spray burrito with nonstick spray, then wrap in aluminum foil and bake for same amount of time.

Makes about 6 burritos.

Tip: Premake your burritos and wrap them in aluminum foil. Keep in refrigerator for 3-4 days for a quick lunch or dinner!

5 Tips to Combat Winter Blues

January and February: my least favorite months of the year. Why? Back to real-life (post-holidays), freezing temperatures, little sunlight . . . it’s a tough combo for me, and I have a feeling I’m not alone. For all who suffer from “winter blues,” try these coping methods that help me to lighten my mood until spring arrives:

1. Get back to the basics. You’ve heard it your entire life, and yet, it still seems to be true—eating well, engaging in exercise, and getting enough sleep make you feel better. Our physical state gives us filters that we use to process the situations and people around us. If we’re feeling well physically, it’s more likely that we’ll be able to handle the emotional and mental stresses around us with a more positive outlook.
2. Treat yourself to “pretty.” Wear those pearls while you vacuum, sport your best outfit when you work remotely, and curl your hair when you’re the only one who will see it that day. Feeling like you look pretty is a quick way to boost confidence and improve your mood.
3. Stay organized. Have you ever heard the saying “the state of your room reflects the state of your mind”? Does that mean that if you change the state of your room, it can change your state of mind? I say yes. This is a simple trick to keep your mind organized, productive, and creative. For me, this equation equals more happiness too.
4. Find things to look forward to. Plan for a date night, schedule time for a fun project,  make a yummy treat, or watch your favorite show. I have never been one to look forward to Monday, but now that I have a couple of TV series I watch that night, Mondays seem a little less dull. It’s the little things; spend time doing your kind of fun.
5. Be grateful. Life is always good, depending on how you look at it. Regaining a grateful perspective might just be the ticket to make today look a little brighter. I have found that learning from the experiences of others or doing some personal reflection are especially helpful.  

Have a happy day!

The Salad to Add to your Entertaining Recipe Collection

I’m always on the lookout for those default recipes that are easy to prepare and consistent crowd-pleasers. This one never disappoints:

http://instagram.com/p/VLBXI6PneY/

Cran-cashew Tossed Salad

10 c. romaine lettuce (or spinach)

1 c. swiss or mozzarella cheese, grated or cubed

1 fuji apple, diced

1 pear, diced (I always forget this ingredient for some reason. The salad is great with or without.)

1/2 c. dried cranberries

1 c. cashews

 

The Amazing Dressing

1/2 c. sugar (possibly why I like this dressing so much?)

1/3 c. red wine vinegar

2 T. lemon juice

2 T. red onion, chopped (white or green onions will work too, but red is my favorite. It gives the dressing a gorgeous, deep pink color.)

2/3 c. canola oil

2-3 t. poppy seeds (optional)

 

Directions: Toss all salad ingredients together. You can add a little lemon juice to the apples and pears to prevent browning. Combine dressing ingredients together and blend. Apply generously. 🙂

Thanks to Sarah for introducing me to so many of my favorite recipes!

The Date Night Planner

We are victims of weekend TV-watching. It needed to end, hence the date jar:

A peanut butter jar, Popsicle sticks, scrapbook paper, creative date ideas, and some color-coding for price-levels (Blue is free or nearly-free, green is under $30, and red dips into savings), and date night is forever planned. Joe is a good sport.

2013 New Year’s Goals for Procrastinators

Courtesy of STOCK.XCHNG

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! I know I did–we just got back to Indiana from a Utah-, fun-, and family-filled season! So, I’m getting to my New Year’s resolutions a little late this year. For those of you who are equally behind in life, this post is for you!

Every New Year’s, I’m reminded of this scripture: Luke 2:52.

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”

What better example? He focused on four areas:

• Mental – “wisdom”
• Physical – “stature”
• Spiritual – “in favour with God”
• Social – “in favour with . . . man”

Choose goals that follow the SMART model and are:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Realistic

T – Timely

So, if you haven’t mapped out your plan to make 2013 your best year yet, I hope you’ll consider this simple model. 

What are you doing this year?

Joe’s Big Break

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! Joe and I treated ourselves to a trip to North Carolina to see my brother Greg and his family. And, as a bonus, we got to see Joe’s sister Maritza and her family in Tennessee on the way. It was a blast!

Thanks to our stop in Knoxville, it looks like Joe’s found his new career path in local news broadcasting:

Click here or wait for video to load below

 

Remember Me?

Yikes, it’s been a while. My only slightly valid excuse is that I started a new job a few weeks ago, and I’m still getting settled. Anyway, I’m back!

Here are a couple of things you missed while I was gone:

#1 – Happy Halloween! Can anyone tell what we were going for? (My shirt says “P,” by the way.) We got a total of zero trick-or-treaters, but at least we went to a party so we could take our $0.30 costumes somewhere. I ate all of the Halloween candy by myself (I think Joe literally had 2 pieces).

#2 – I got a shipment in of colorful tagua bracelets:

 

#3 – I made two batches of these, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies! Probably not the most perfect-looking cookies, but they are definitely the easiest and most moist. Two of the three people I shared them with asked me for the recipe, so I take that as a good sign that they taste good too. I sure didn’t have any trouble eating them. (You can thank Sarah again for this recipe.)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (The Easiest Recipe Around)

1 carrot or spice cake box mix

15 oz. can of pumpkin

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions – pour cake mix and pumpkin into a large bowl and mix until ingredients are well blended together. Fold chocolate chips into the mixture. Spoon onto a greased cookie sheet and bake 10-15 minutes at 350ºF. Done.

 

 

The Perfect Lazy-Fall-Day Meal – My Next Recipe

Is anyone else loving Fall like I am? It’s so pretty outside with all of the rich autumn colors, the summer temperatures have cooled down, there’s a crisp energy in the air, the holidays are around the corner, and of course, it’s time to pull out the slow cooker (one of the greatest inventions of all time) a little more often.

Sure, you have your creamy chicken dishes, your pot roasts, and your savory soups–all do well in the slow cooker. But, it was a pretty happy day when I realized I could make a lasagna in it: a traditionally time-consuming dish was now an option for a lazy cooking day, as many of mine  are during the Fall.

Let’s back up: Joe’s sister Emily is one of my most treasured cooking resources. She has a BS in Dietetics (plus an MS in Human Environments), and I like to pick her brain whenever I see her regarding diet (and exercise). She has a gem of a website where she focuses on low-fat, healthy meals. Since she personally tries all of her recipes (and often modifies them to make them more healthy), they’re completely guilt-free in my mind, since they have the cleared-by-Emily stamp on them. Check it out: MyNextRecipe.com.

If you are wondering if healthy diet and exercise really are worth the effort, I should show you a picture of Emily and her husband Craig. Joe’s family jokes about how they are the most well-preserved couple around; they literally don’t age. I’m trying to take a page out of their book and eat better, but I really like cake and ice cream and Good & Plenty and white cheddar popcorn and . . . well, it’s a work in progress. In the meantime, I AM adopting some of Emily’s recipes.

I found this slow cooker lasagna recipe a couple of years ago, and it is on my top five of “favorites” and of “most-often-cooked” meals. I almost always make it with Tofu (one of the alternate “options” listed below); you seriously cannot detect it, thanks to the similarity to ricotta in texture and appearance. It’s great with ground beef too. I also often add vegetables as well (another “option”).

It is amazing, especially for a meal that came out of 20 minutes of prep!

Slow Cooker Lasagna

Serves 8

12 lasagna noodles, uncooked

1 pound of super lean ground beef, browned and drained

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 jar (28 ounces each) spaghetti sauce (I’ve been using Hunt’s Pasta Sauce in the Zesty & Spicy variety–gives it a little kick)

1/4 cup water (I usually cut most of this out if I put fresh or frozen veggies in the mix)

1 carton (16 ounces) fat free cottage cheese

2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated

Directions

Break noodles in half. Place half of the noodles in the bottom of a greased 4-quart slow cooker. Stir Italian seasoning into meat and spread half over the noodles in the slow cooker. Over the beef, layer half the sauce and water, half the cottage cheese and half the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers. Cover and cook on low heat 4-5 hours. Do not cook more than 5 hours.

Options:

• Omit ground beef
• Add any desired vegetables such as cooked spinach, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, or tomatoes
• Substitute tofu for ground beef by mixing tofu with cottage cheese. Crumble tofu and combine with cottage cheese. Add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese to mixture.
• Add fresh parsley to cottage mix
• Reduce amount of mozzarella cheese to 1 cup or less

The Old/New Dresser – Complete!

Joe’s parents had the most amazing dresser in their storage shed:

I fell in love with it the moment Joe sent me a picture of it. Don’t you just love the details of it? Furniture just isn’t made like this anymore. I have no idea how old it is . . . OLD. But wow–it is still a beauty. The decal, drawer/cabinet configuration, and curvature of the top drawer are absolutely stunning.

Joe’s parents were so nice to let us take it over! So, we hauled it across the country during our move, and I put a new, dark finish on it. What do you think?

And, the side and corner views:

Joe told me that he’s planning on keeping this forever. I agree!

 

Just-like-dessert Crunchy Granola

Thanks to the sister Sarah for this recipe–simple, sweet, crunchy, toasted granola. I made it to eat for breakfast, but add some vanilla yogurt and fresh berries, and this is dessert!

 

GRANOLA

8 c rolled oats

1 c wheat germ

½ c coconut

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1/3 cup oil or applesauce

1/3 c water

1/3 c apple juice (from concentrate, thawed)

1 t vanilla

Combine oats, wheat germ, and coconut in a large bowl. Mix sugar, oil, water, apple juice and vanilla together.  Pour over dry ingredients and mix well.  Spread onto a large sheetcake pan. Bake for 30-60 min at 300 degrees until golden brown. Store in an airtight container.