Black Bean + Roasted Sweet Potato Burritos

 

 (purple & orange sweet potatoes)

**This recipe was posted on Crunchy Catholic Momma, for her "Meatless Friday Meal Recipe Link Up"**

I love to cook, so from time to time I thought I'd share a simple recipe, sound good? As I was sitting around thinking to myself what in the world should I cook for dinner, I remembered that I had picked up some gorgeous deep purple sweet potatoes from the Asian market! I have never had the purple ones before and loved the color and I knew I had to make something with them. I had heard of people pairing black beans with sweet potatoes, it sounded like a yummy combination, so I thought burritos! 

So I put my thinking cap on and thought what spiced would be good? I wanted them to have a Mexican flair, so I the obvious ingredients came to mind, cumin, chili powder, etc... But them I remembered I had bought a curry powder mix from the Asian market that contained all kinds of delicious ingredients such as cumin, coriander, chili, cinnamon, fennel, and a few more and thought that would work just fine! So came together my lovely mixture of veggies and spices and a beautiful burrito was born! I hope you all enjoy these as much as my family did! 

Black Bean + Roasted Sweet Potato Burritos

(as with all of my recipes, hardly any measuring actually takes place, so just use your best judgement and make it your own! Also, feel free to replace any ingredients, just think of my recipes as guidelines!)

* 2 Sweet potatoes, diced into small cubes (any variety will work)

* Half of an onion, diced

* 1-2 Tbs Curry spice (any kind you like) or Mexican spice mix

* 2 Tbs Coconut oil (melted) or Olive oil

* 3-4 Cups cooked black beans

*Tortillas

* Prepared Salsa, Grated Cheese, Sour Cream, Lettuce, Etc...

Take your sweet potatoes and peel and dice them into small cubes. Dice up your onions. Put the sweet potatoes and onions in a roasting pan. Coat in oil and sprinkle in spices. Toss to coat. 

Place roasting pan in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F.

Roast for approx. 15-25 minutes, or until tender and slightly crisp

Take the sweet potatoes out of the oven and add them to a pan along with the black beans and saute on medium heat in some butter for a few minutes.
Turn the pan off.

Now it's time to assemble! 

Grab a tortilla and scoop some of the black bean + roasted sweet potato mixture in and add toppings! Easy as that! Simple, frugal, nourishing, and most importantly yummy!!!!! 

Enjoy!

From The Kitchen...

 This past week in my kitchen I was busy making whey. Whey is a glorious golden liquid that is beneficial to the body in so many ways. (read more about the benefits of whey here.) Making whey is so, so simple to do. To set everything up really only takes a couple of minutes once you have all of your supplies. Here's how I make whey.

 First, you'll want to start with a really good whole milk organic yogurt with live cultures. (unless you have made your own, or are using raw milk...this is what I had on hand.)

 Next you will want to get out your 100 percent cotton cheesecloth and open it up, leaving enough layers intact and spread it over a small non-metal bowl, pour in your yogurt and gather the end up of the cheesecloth securely wrap a rubber band around the top. Carefully slip in the handle of a wooden spoon through a couple of the rubber band loops (as seen in the picture). Gently lift the cheesecloth wrapped yogurt and place over a deeper container. (I put mine over a plastic pitcher, with the ends of the wooden spoons being the support.) Now you wait. Mine drained for about 6 hours. You could certainly strain for longer, but this amount of time gave me about 1 pint of whey.

 Just look and those little dropplets of goodness!

 After the whey has been strained completely from the yogurt, you'll want a nice clean mason jar to store it in.

 Mmm...

 There you have it! You've made whey! Now how easy was that?

 Also, one of the best parts about making whey is....the yummy cream cheese you have after the draining is done! Here I have taken the cream cheese and added some fresh rosemary, turmeric, raw garlic, salt & pepper for a yummy spread.

And with all that whey I just had to start a nice batch of lacto-fermented salsa! I can't wait to try it. What are you making in your kitchen?

Mmm...

This is a pretty darn good combination if I do say so myself. (Yes that is a mixer glass, but hey its also my biggest glass so....HA!!)

Italian Wedding Soup & A Hair Ball.....

Okay....I know its sound totally gross, but I can explain.....I swear!! As most of you know who follow this blog or have seen some of my post at MDC....know that I have dreads, well.... HAD dreads.... yesterday I had my mom brush each and everyone of them OUT!! It took about 2 hours total and I really dont regret it. I had my dreads since Dec. 23, 2008.....and I guess all I can say is they weren't really want I wanted. I just felt like a mess and I cant believe I didnt have to shave my head....Oh boy was I glad about that. I really dont know if i'll ever have dreads again, but I can say that if I do decide to have them again I am going to take better care and probably wait till my hair is a bit longer. ( Oh thats something I'm loving now is my longer hair -- oh oh and the ability to run my fingers through it!!) Now about the whole "hair ball" thing. I guess as some would figure...having dreads means not brushing your hair...rriiiighhhtt?? Well, when we brushed out my hair you can imagine all the hair that was just waiting to come out as soon as that comb touched my head.... so I was left with this HUGE ball of hair. And then I thought "well I cant just let all this hair go to waist.... LETS GET CREATIVE..... so, I pulled out my felting needle and a bit of wool and Ta-Da!! I GOT A BIG BALL OF HAIR WITH A PRETTY LITTLE SWIRLY THING AROUND IT. Okay, maybe it is a little strange....creepy perhaps, but I look at it as my little souvenir for having dreads.... haha. Well, I think its pretty cool. Now on to the yummy part of the blog (and my first set of images here). I was watching Barefoot Contessa today and OMG!! I saw her make some Italian Wedding Soup and it looked devine...so I just HAD to make some. It was a big hit. And instead of making the meatballs out of chicken/chicken sausage....I made them out of turkey/turkey sausage. It was sooooooooooo good. I am so glad I'm not a vegetarian anymore (haha). I pretty much followed along the lines of this dish being a "traditional foods" dish. At least I can say that it was a "real foods" dish. I also made some homemade wheat bread today to go with the soup. Mmmmm..... It was all so so good. Well, I hope you all enjoy these pictures and have a wonderful day!! Mmm... Such a wonderful soup!!

Here is my creepy/crafty little hairball. haha.

Before the finishing touches were put on it.

How the heck did she manage to get my hair un-knotted??

I'm not a veg-head anymore!!

*Breaking News* The Evans family is no longer *vegetarian*, but instead have adopted a "Traditional Food Diet".

Thats right folks......after doing quite a bit of research today my husband and I have decided to stop with the vegetarian lifestyle we adopted over 3 years ago and switch to a "traditional food(s) diet" We decided that we just weren't healthy. Within the 3 years that we have been *veg we have both gained a lot of weight and just over all have been unhealthy. I have developed terrible rosacea on top of it all. I have recently talked to a bunch of moms on MDC who have bascially experienced the same things I have been going through since becoming *veg and most of them switched to a "TFD" and all feel better and are over all healthier. I have a lot of confidence that this will help my self as well as my family to living a more healthful life. I recieved a load of great advice today as well as book recomendations to get me started and I thank each and everyone of you. This will be a lifestyle learning process, and i'm excited to see the results that will come from being on this diet. "One step at a time".


(I had my first burger today -- first one in 3 years and I have to say that I'm not as disgusted as I thought I would be eating meat again, but it was different. We have decided that we will only eat all natural/organic/local BEEF. Nothing else. One thing that was perticularly hard for me to do was see my son (who is 17mo) eat meat for the first time. But as soon as he had a bite he responded with a "MMmmmmm". So I guess he was a meat eater all along. (haha). ) I will have pictures up soon of "Meat Eating Experience" (lol). **more explanations of why we went for the TFD coming up within the next few blogs so stay tuned**

(TDF= Traditional Food(s) Diet)