Black Bean Sweet Potato Burrito

Black Bean Sweet Potato Burrito

One of my favorite breakfasts is the Black Bean Sweet Potato Burrito. I use sprouted non-GMO corn tortillas and use organic black beans, sweet potatoes and cheese. I sautee the tortilla in olive oil, and add a slice of cheese once I flip it. When it melts a little, I spread a little mashed sweet potato and add a couple of tablespoons of black beans and fold it over into a crescent moon shape.

I always have this with my homemade mustard BBQ sauce. It is superb and healthy!

Healthy Appetizers

Carrot Walnut Lentil Hummas

 This is a Moroccan dish that's very healthy and tasty. Instead of using regular walnuts, I used my toasted walnuts with the Ras El Hanout spice. That was even tastier!

https://www.blissfulbasil.com/carrot-walnut-red-lentil-hummus/

Ajvar is made from red peppers and eggplant. I use whatever peppers I have, in this case, red, yellow and orange peppers. I always have colorful mixed peppers at home because they add such a colorful burst to any dish.

https://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/18449/original-macedonian-ajvar

Toasted Walnuts

I make these toasted nuts myself. In this case, I toasted walnuts with a little olive oil and ras el hanout spice and they came out wonderfully! I don't usually add sugar or honey, but you can if the nuts are a little bitter. This is the nut mixture I used in the carrot, walnut, lentil hummus and it provided a wonderful flavor. The lentils were cooked as part of a curry so they had flavor too. 

Soup and Bread

Tonight I had soup and bread, but it wasn't just any bread or any soup. I had Thai Butternut Squash Coconut Soup (left over from the other night) with a type of somosa that I made with the gozleme bread recipe on my bread page.

Somosa is like an Indian empanada and one of my favorites is pea and potato somosa. I had some sauteed potatoes left over from the other day so I mashed them. I started to make a pea curry and then couldn't find the peas so I used frozen spinach and put them inside the dough and sealed it like an empanada. The inside was a mix of spinach and potato and I sauteed it on the stovetop in olive oil. It came out great! Another vegetarian masterpiece!

Turkish Eggs

This is what I had for breakfast this morning. It’s a recipe for Turkish eggs by Nigella who has a program on Create TV. She recommends using Turkish red pepper flakes which have a milder and sweeter taste compared to Italian red pepper flakes. 

I didn't have that so I used my own medium heat homemade hot sauce and added a few Italian red pepper flakes to spice it up. It was delicious! This is the third time I’ve made them and they always taste great. I just miss the vibrant red color of the Turkish red pepper flakes. I could also change the color of my hot sauce by not using the purple hot peppers. The egg is poached so they are low in fat and I used garlic powder instead of regular garlic cause it’s the morning and i’m barely awake.

Here’s Nigella’s recipe: Nigella’s Turkish Eggs

Here are some other breakfast ideas:

When my bananas start to go bad, I sautee bananas in coconut oil and use them in my yogurt, cooked quinoa and oats. What I make in the morning all depends on what time I get out of bed. 

Learning to Live with Butternut Squash

As this is a blog which emphasizes how to cook efficiently and eat healthy, rather than solely provide you with recipes, I'll share how I used my butternut squash. I cooked it a while back at the same time I roasted lots of other veggies, since I try to be efficient in the use of the oven. This, of course, sometimes leads to problems with having too much food, so I freeze it.

I found the butternut squash I froze a few months ago and decided to use it. It was a big squash so I had to come up with a few ideas of how to use it. I looked for recipes on Pinterest. Fall is looming in the air - I'm in Florida so it has finally begun to get cool - so it's the perfect season for these recipes. I split the butternut squash into three - approximately 1 cup for each recipe.

I started with making a butternut squash creme brulee with coconut milk and minimal agave sweetener. I adjusted the recipe myself to adjust the sugar content because agave has a minimal effect on your blood sugar. This picture probably doesn't do it justice, but it was delicious! 

I probably haven't mentioned it but I've always had a sweet tooth and I've spent my entire life trying to figure out how I can meet my sweet craving while keeping it healthy. My adaptation of this recipe worked! It was mildly sweet, light due to the coconut milk, and yet still had the fiber of the butternut squash. Success!!!


The second thing I made with the squash is a Thai Coconut Curry soup. I adapted the recipe as I always do. I had soft squash, not cubes, and I didn't use all of the ingredients but it came out great. I made myself some flatbread that didn't need to rise and I had it with my soup. And that was my dinner.

This is the last thing I made with the butternut squash. It's something I make every year for Thanksgiving and it goes wonderfully with turkey. Since it uses quinoa, I made extra so I can use it for breakfast cereal in the morning. I took half of the quinoa, sauteed some onions, and mixed it with the squash, craisins and pepitas. I discovered that it’s not good with mashed squash, because you have to carmelize the squash by sautéing squash cubes. Quinoa is such a great source of protein and this combination is nice and sweet. 

Vegetarian on the Fly

Here's a meal I had tonight which is a good example of mixing and matching different dishes. Some of the sides I had to make and others I had in the fridge. The most important thing about mixing different dishes, is that they need to have complementary flavors. If they don't then the meal won't be as spectacular. For example, I tend to avoid mixing curries with mediterranean foods. To me, they don't go together, however,  I would mix Indian curries with Asian coconut curries. I think they would complement each other nicely.

I enjoy mixing Middle Eastern food with Mediterranean food, as parts of the Arabic-speaking world touch the Mediterranean. The food is cooked in olive oil and everything melds together nicely. I used to eat only Greek kalamata olives, but they can be expensive. Somehow, after years of avoiding green olives, I became a fan. In my local Lebanese store, I can buy a 48 oz jar for around $10 and it lasts a long time in the fridge.

My meal tonight included green olives, carmelized onions (in butter on low heat), roasted asparagus, zucchini, onions and potatoes, and sauteed colorful peppers. It was delicious and easy to digest.There is no special recipe for any of this.

I have sauteed peppers and carmelized onions left over which I will use in my morning breakfast tortilla. I always cook things that can be used in different ways and you'll see me talk about that. Another thing I would do if I had a lot of peppers would be to make a roasted pepper sauce by simply mixing it with olive oil in the blender.