I'm personally back on the healthy eating bandwagon and feeling good.
This week I decided to hell with my lack of having a laptop of my own and have officially started to create new bookmarks on Abels laptop with healthy recipes.
He doesnt mind of course because we use two separate internet browsers so he never even sees what I'm bookmarking but for reasons of propriety I suppose I felt it was poor manners to clutter up anything on his laptop at all. (I'm silly that way)
I didn't quite get a chance to play around with the new TVP product I purchased BUT I did get in on the testing of a recipe from The Happy Herbivore.
Far be it for me to publish recipes that aren't mine or that aren't otherwise available on the interwebs but this dish was pretty damn amazing and I would definitely encourage anyone with a kindle to get this book at less than $5 just for this recipe alone.
I'm not going vegetarian nor vegan in this lifetime but as mentioned before, the world of new food options entrances me and has me looking up vegan and vegetarian recipes like a madwoman.
We did adapt the recipe enough to fit the SASS eating strategy as best as possible although I'm pretty sure the tamale/cornbread topping was not the healthiest fit in terms of whole grains....but do you hear either of us complaining?
Never.
The differences we made for our particular casserole was the entire omission of corn and the doubling of the black beans from 1/2 cup to a full cup. Our salsa of choice was a green salsa my mother ever so lovingly jarred from her personal garden and, to boost up the heat factor, a few additional canned green chiles.
Because we've gotten into the habit of making just enough for two servings, we dusted off our internal calculators to halve the original recipe. It wasn't too hard to do which was lucky for us...
...until ,that is, we got to the cornbread batter. That was a little trickier because I really hate math and anything that doesnt end up in a whole number. The end result was our batter being a little thicker than the norm but that could be because we used only a smidgeon of the maply syrup called for. (note the fork prong marks running along the casserole where I tried to make the batter cover end to end...oopsie)
Though I enjoy a good sweet cornbread, the thought of a sweet "masa" replacement for a savory tamale casserole just didn't appeal to me. For "sweet" tamales absolutely, for black bean tamales... not so much.
We also threw in some chopped cilantro to the batter before baking it atop our luscious casserole.
Its a dish that has earned a 4-star rating in our recipe box and the perfect excuse for me to soon buy those cute little individual sized casserole dishes I see all over the place.
We'll definitely re-visit this recipe in the near future as the combinations for the different fillings are almost endless!
Far be it for me to publish recipes that aren't mine or that aren't otherwise available on the interwebs but this dish was pretty damn amazing and I would definitely encourage anyone with a kindle to get this book at less than $5 just for this recipe alone.
I'm not going vegetarian nor vegan in this lifetime but as mentioned before, the world of new food options entrances me and has me looking up vegan and vegetarian recipes like a madwoman.
We did adapt the recipe enough to fit the SASS eating strategy as best as possible although I'm pretty sure the tamale/cornbread topping was not the healthiest fit in terms of whole grains....but do you hear either of us complaining?
Never.
The differences we made for our particular casserole was the entire omission of corn and the doubling of the black beans from 1/2 cup to a full cup. Our salsa of choice was a green salsa my mother ever so lovingly jarred from her personal garden and, to boost up the heat factor, a few additional canned green chiles.
Because we've gotten into the habit of making just enough for two servings, we dusted off our internal calculators to halve the original recipe. It wasn't too hard to do which was lucky for us...
...until ,that is, we got to the cornbread batter. That was a little trickier because I really hate math and anything that doesnt end up in a whole number. The end result was our batter being a little thicker than the norm but that could be because we used only a smidgeon of the maply syrup called for. (note the fork prong marks running along the casserole where I tried to make the batter cover end to end...oopsie)
Though I enjoy a good sweet cornbread, the thought of a sweet "masa" replacement for a savory tamale casserole just didn't appeal to me. For "sweet" tamales absolutely, for black bean tamales... not so much.
We also threw in some chopped cilantro to the batter before baking it atop our luscious casserole.
Its a dish that has earned a 4-star rating in our recipe box and the perfect excuse for me to soon buy those cute little individual sized casserole dishes I see all over the place.
We'll definitely re-visit this recipe in the near future as the combinations for the different fillings are almost endless!
