Erica

White Bean and Kale Stuffed Peppers

October 26, 2012 by Erica

I think it’s finally fall.

The boots and sweaters are out, and we got our first snowfall yesterday. That means I plan on turning on my oven as often as I possibly can – starting with Wednesday’s cookies and continuing with these quinoa-stuffed peppers.

Maybe stuffed peppers are a little bit 80s, and I’m OK with that. They bring me back to my parents’ kitchen, where stuffed peppers made a regular appearance in my mom’s dinner rotation. That qualifies these as comfort food for me. Also, like any mixed-together dish, they totally make the best leftovers.

Can we talk about leftovers for a sec? As a kid, I hated them. I vowed I would never eat leftovers in my adult life, kind of like some kids said they’d stay up all night when they were grown up. (Even as a kid I don’t think I ever made that claim – I’ve always loved to sleep!) In any case, I’ve done a total 180 on the leftovers thing. Get this: You only cook once… and you get to eat more than once. Best thing ever! Plus, there’s something about a stuffed pepper in a tupperware container that is just so cute. Taking my good-looking leftovers out of the fridge at work the next day, I really feel like an adult, kind of like when I make my own stock or cook dried beans from scratch instead of using canned.

Speaking of beans and stock, both make an appearance in this recipe. The beans I did make from scratch, but they didn’t turn out very pretty. Deb from the amazing Smitten Kitchen mentioned in a post from a few years ago that she makes beans in a slow-cooker, which means no pre-soaking required. That sounds delightful to me, and I think I’ll try it next time. As for the vegetable stock, I have to admit I bought it from Whole Foods. I recently tried making my own veggie stock, but found that it didn’t turn out very well. I think I’m just used to making chicken stock, because my veggie stock seemed to be missing a little something. Duh… chicken. Anyway, I’m due for another try sometime soon, but in the meantime I’m sticking to the soup aisle.

If you’re smart, you’ll wait to make these until bell peppers go on sale at your supermarket. If you’re impatient like me and enjoy parting with your whole paycheck every time you buy produce, you’ll make these as soon as you have a craving and end up spending approximately $12 on bell peppers. Oops.

This is my first pass at these stuffed peppers, so let me tell what I would do differently next time: I would add some lemon zest, maybe a bit more rosemary, and more tomato paste for flavor. I would also add more kale (maybe double it?) because it cooked down quite a bit. If you try out those changes, leave a comment to let me know how it goes!

White Bean and Kale Stuffed Peppers

makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa
1 1/4 cup low-sodium vegetable broth

6 red bell peppers

Olive oil for pan
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 cups packed shredded kale
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1 3/4 cup cannellini beans (or 1 15 oz can, drained and rinsed)
Juice of 1 lemon
Sprinkle of crushed red pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the membranes. Place the peppers in a baking dish and bake for 15 minutes to soften. Chop up the tops of the peppers to add in later.

Rinse quinoa and add to a small pot with the vegetable broth. (You should use the amount of liquid that usually works for you when cooking quinoa – I usually see recipes call for 1 1/2 cups, but less works better for me.) Cook for about 15 minutes or until quinoa is tender and no liquid remains.

Add a small amount of olive oil to a large pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the onions, garlic, and carrots and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rosemary. Stir in the kale and chopped bell peppers. Saute until softened, 2-3 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add the quinoa, tomato paste, beans and lemon juice (and zest if using) and stir to combine. Season to taste with crushed red pepper, salt and pepper.

Spoon the quinoa mixture into the peppers and bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Serve hot!

Whole Foods Trail Mix Cookies

October 24, 2012 by Erica

Whole Foods has been known to inspire food addictions in me. Sprouted wheat “seeduction” bread, Justin’s almond butter, red quinoa… it is a magical wonderland, and I could wander around for hours. Unfortunately, my wallet can only support about 10 minutes…

My most recent obsession is their “mighty omega-3 trail mix,” which was the inspiration for these cookies. Dark chocolate, almonds, walnuts, cranberries, blueberries. What’s not to love? Probably just the fact that I can eat about a pound of it in one sitting, and keep opening the bag back up once I put it away. Actually, let’s not discuss that right now, because I’m too full of cookies to even think about it.

Yeah, so I don’t know that these cookies are really the solution to my problem of stuffing my face with trail mix on a regular basis. They are, however, super delicious, vegan, and a great excuse to eat more dark chocolate and dried cranberries.

Let’s get this straight, though – they are not a healthy cookie. They have sugar and vegan butter in them. Guys, this is one of my first attempts at vegan baking. Let’s not try to make it super healthy baking or anything, OK? I’ve got to evolve slowly.

As a base for this cookie, I used my all-time favorite cookie recipe – Joanne Chang’s Chunky Lolas. Here in Utah they somehow became my signature cookie (not like I was trying to make friends or anything), and Nate asks for them pretty much weekly, even when I’m in the middle or baking something else. (Don’t worry, I made them for his birthday a few weeks ago.) I have plans to veganize those soon, and maybe even healthy them up a little bit! But in the meantime, although that recipe didn’t provide the healthiest base, I decided to use it for a cookie I knew would turn out delicious – and it didn’t fail me.

These are like a yummy chocolate chip cookie with some extra chewiness and crunchiness mixed in. You can definitely switch up the mix-ins to match your favorite trail mix.

I should mention something about timing: These cookies are somewhat frustrating in that you must mix the batter and then let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before baking. Don’t skip this step, though – you don’t want to go through all the effort and then get flat, crispy cookies! That would just be sad, so plan ahead and they’ll come out perfectly.

Last but not least, I realized that of 3 recipes I’ve now posted on this blog, all 3 are sweet! I swear I really do cook dinner, too. And to prove it, there is a savory recipe coming up later this week!

Whole Foods Trail Mix Cookies

Adapted from Joanne Chang’s fabulous Flour cookbook

Makes about 18-20 cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks Earth Balance, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 Tbsp ground flax seed

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

8-10 oz dark chocolate chunks or bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup walnut halves
1 1/4 cups dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried blueberries (if you can’t find these, simply omit or sub with cranberries or other dried fruit)

Directions:

First, toast the nuts. Preheat oven to 350 and spread almonds out on a baking sheet. Toast for 2 minutes, then add the walnuts and toast for another 5-8 minutes. This will vary a lot by oven, so keep a close eye on them. Once the nuts are a few shades darker, remove from the oven, allow to cool for a few minutes, and chop them.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and both types of sugar with a hand mixer. (You can also use a KitchenAid mixer for this step if you have one.) Beat together until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add the vanilla, almond milk and flax seeds and beat until just combined.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour through salt). Add in all of the mix-ins (chocolate through blueberries) and stir until thoroughly combined.

Dump the dry mixture into the large bowl with the wet mixture. Stir until the dough is evenly mixed. At this point, sampling is mandatory. Anyone else in the vicinity would probably appreciate a sample, too. But leaving some dough to bake later is also mandatory, so don’t get carried away! Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to a few days.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper. Remove cookie dough from fridge and scoop out in 1/4 cup balls. Flatten each ball slightly with the palm of your hand. These cookies hold together nicely and won’t spread too much, but keep a few inches between them just in case. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until cookies are a light golden brown. Remove from oven and cool the entire sheet on a cooling rack for a few minutes. Finally, remove cookies from the sheet and place directly on the rack to finish cooling.

I love eating these cookies while still warm, although they will keep for several days in a sealed container.

Enjoy!

Race Recap: The Other Half 2012

October 23, 2012 by Erica

I ran my first half marathon on Sunday!

And ouch, now I hurt. But I’d say it was worth it!

I decided to do this race with a few friends about 4 or 5 months ago. I’d been looking forward to it for so long that when the time came, I couldn’t believe it was finally here! We headed down to Moab on Saturday morning and spent the afternoon and evening hanging out by the pool, visiting the race expo, and walking around downtown Moab. The town was crowded with runners and other Northern Utahns coming down to the desert for some sun, now that it’s fall and Salt Lake is getting chilly.

We had a relaxing day on Saturday and headed to bed early in anticipation of an early wake-up on Sunday. The race started at 8:30, so it could have been a lot earlier, but there were mandatory shuttles to bus us 30 miles out of town to the start of the race, meaning we had to get there much earlier than if the race had just started in town.

The morning was warmer than I’d expected, and I was thankful – until we got off the shuttle, where it was FREEZING.

Maybe it was the slight change in elevation that made it so much colder out there? In any case, it was a chilly start to the race.

The race itself was well-organized, with a speedy packet pick-up on Saturday, shuttles to the start of the race, plenty of port-a-potties beforehand (remarkable!), lots of water and Gatorade at all the aid stations, and a great finishers area with beer and food. The only hiccup seemed to involve the shuttles. Apparently they didn’t send enough shuttles to one of the pick-up locations, and had to send a few back (30 miles into town) to get the rest of the people waiting there. Those shuttles showed up after the race was scheduled to start. They held the race for them, so we started 10 or 15 minutes later than planned. That doesn’t sound too bad, but when you’re waiting out in the desert in a tank top at 8:30 am, 10 minutes seems like a LONG time!

Once the race started, the course was beautiful… although to be honest, I could only appreciate it for the first few miles. Looking around at the scenery was quickly replaced by focusing on putting one foot in front of the other!

As far as my run, I stuck to my race plan, and I think I ran as well as I could have, considering my injured knee! Amy and I started off strong and ran together for the first 5-ish miles. My splits at the beginning were:

Mile 1: 8:57
Mile 2: 8:26
Mile 3: 8:35
Mile 4: 8:39
Mile 5: 8:28
Mile 6: 8:25
Mile 7: 8:44

The first hill started at the end of that 7th mile, and I kind of broke down from there. The hills were frequent and LONG for the next 5 miles, and you can see there was definitely some walking involved by mile 10!

Mile 8: 9:30
Mile 9: 9:25
Mile 10: 10:22
Mile 11: 9:35
Mile 12: 11:08

The 2:00 pacer passed me at the mile 12 aid station. Noooooo! He had clearly been very consistent the whole race, and was just going much faster than me at that point. I had no hope of keeping up.

That mile 12 hill was a killer, but at the top were the taiko drummers! They were just the motivation I needed to keep going at the top of that hill.

Mile 13: 9:22
Last .25: 2:01

The race was totally at least 13.25 miles instead of 13.1 – brutal! I think I can safely say that making it through the last 2.5-3 miles was the hardest thing I’ve ever done physically. I know it was only a half marathon… and I can’t imagine ever running a full! After running the first 12.75 miles or so on highway 128, we turned into the Sorrel River Ranch to finish up. It was one of those finishes where you think you must be so close, and it just. keeps. going. I was so ready to be done by this point. I had been told that the final stretch on the ranch felt long, but I didn’t really appreciate that fully until I was ready to fall over and still couldn’t see the finish line.

I finally made it over the finish line in 2:01:41. Not bad for my first half! In fact, considering the fact that I hadn’t trained in over a month because of my knee, I’d say I did as well as I could have.

Happy girls!

After the race, we got our bags, snacks and free beer in Other Half pint glasses, and hung out on the grass for a bit.

It was a great finishers’ area. I’d never had beer after a race before, and although it’s nice that they had it, beer was not exactly what I wanted. And this is coming from a major beer lover! All I wanted was Gatorade. Luckily they had that too :)

So now I am back in Salt Lake, hobbling around and looking ridiculous… and already wondering whether I’d be able to run the Canyonlands Half Marathon in Moab in March. Of course I won’t let myself – remember how I promised myself I wouldn’t race for a year? – but the point is, I think I’m hooked.

Thanks to Nate and my family for all their long-distance support! And of course to Jacquey, Madelyn, Amy, Janelle and Carlee for making this such a fun trip.

The Other Half – I’ll see you again next year!

Pre-Race Jitters

October 19, 2012 by Erica

Tomorrow morning I’m heading down to Moab, Utah with five girlfriends to run The Other Half on Sunday.

As I mentioned before, this is my first half marathon, and my training hasn’t exactly gone as planned. I’ve been injured for over a month, and my longest run was 9 miles, rather than the 12 I was hoping to build up to. So it’s with some definite nerves that I’m looking forward to Sunday.

On the bright side, that 9-mile long run was also down in Moab, during a super-fun weekend with my parents in September.

And it was beautiful. The red rock just astounds me, similar to the way I felt about the Wasatch mountains when I first moved to Salt Lake. (They were so beautiful I couldn’t take my eyes off of them, and was even afraid I would crash my car on the way home from work because I was so distracted by the scenery!) Well, I don’t think the red rock will make me run into anything on Sunday, but the gorgeous nature I know I’ll be running through makes me very excited for the race, despite my doubts about my fitness.

I’ve watched a few videos of the 2011 race to psych myself up for Sunday. And what I’ve concluded is that 13.1 miles is long! Not that I didn’t know that before, but watching the mile markers roll by in the videos just emphasizes how many of them there are. One video showed lots of runners walking by about mile 10… and I can’t help but think I’ll be among that group.

So what’s my race strategy?

– Start out with the 2:00 pace group (9:09 miles) and stay with them for as long as I can.

– Walk and drink water at every aid station (located every 2 miles).

– Skip the Gu they’re handing out and instead take 2 Shot Bloks each at miles 6 and 10 (plus I’m bringing 2 extras). I’ve cut the Shot Blocks in half to make them easier to chew, and am going to pin this Ziploc bag of them inside of my shorts.

– If I reach a point where my legs, lungs, etc. can’t carry me any further, stop to walk for as long as necessary (but preferably for only a minute or two at a time).

– If my knee is in serious pain or I feel like I might be doing permanent damage to it, drop out of the race at the next aid station.

– Wear a hat and lots of sunscreen!

I’ve promised Nate I won’t hurt myself, so I’m going to do my best to stick to that. As happy as I’ll be if I can jog the whole race, I also hope to have many more decades of running to look forward to, which is much more important than finishing one half marathon. I’m not putting much pressure on myself, because I know I’m injured and can’t do my best. Oh, and I’ve sworn not to race or train hard for the next year so that I can build up a base and not injure myself next time!

We’ll see what Sunday brings!

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins with Banana and Carrot

October 18, 2012 by Erica

Muffins! If you didn’t know already, I’m telling you: You need a fall muffin recipe, and this is it.

This definitely falls into the category of “write this recipe down so I don’t forget it myself” blog posts. I wasn’t really setting out to create something new when I baked these muffins this weekend, but they were so good that I just have to share!

I had planned on making pumpkin pancakes for Saturday morning… but woke up feeling decidedly anti-pancake. Nate suggested muffins – sounded much more delicious – so I scanned my breakfast Pinterest board for muffin recipes. I wanted pumpkin (did I get carried away when I bought several huge cans at Smith’s the other day? hmmm) but I couldn’t really find anything that I had the ingredients for and looked tasty. So I mashed up these summery muffins from Eat, Live, Run with what I had in my fridge, and the result was delicious! These are kind of like banana bread meets carrot cake meets pumpkin muffin. And bonus – they’re vegan and you would NEVER know it. I didn’t use any walnuts here, but will probably add a half cup next time!

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins with Banana and Carrot

Adapted from Eat, Live, Run, who adapted it from The Black Dog Summer on the Vineyard Cookbook

makes 9-10 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup spelt flour

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp clove

2 ripe to overripe bananas

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)

2 medium-sized carrots, grated

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices).

In another bowl, mash the bananas (with a fork is fine). Add the pumpkin, maple syrup and oil and stir until combined.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine. Gently mix in the grated carrots.

Grease muffin tins and fill 90% of the way full with batter. Bake for about 25 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and serve.

Enjoy!

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