Can you tell I'm cooking away from home and trying to use up the ingredients I have? Whenever I am away from my kitchen at home, I always have to put a lot more effort into using up the ingredients that I already have on hand. It's pretty easy to do when cooking for my whole family, but when I am cooking for just myself, I end up with a lot of leftovers! That being said, this recipe is a brand new way to eat sweet potatoes, and the tastes are really different from my last post while still using up many of the same ingredients. By using different spices, you can see how versatile some ingredients (like root vegetables and healthy grains) can be!
I have been in Europe for the past 8 weeks, and I have one more week to go before returning home. I am here with a research group from University of Michigan, working at CERN, the world’s largest particle physics research institution. CERN is situated right by Geneva on the France-Switzerland border, meaning we can easily visit either country– as a Virginia-born American, the concept of hopping country borders rather than state lines was new to me. I had never been to Europe before this summer, and nine weeks is a rather long trial run, but I have had enough time to experience a myriad of amazing places. Of course, there are always more I’d like to see, but I guess that just means I’ll have to come back at some point!
That being said, my return home will be bittersweet. It’s going to be hard to leave amazing views like this:
quaint French villages and country side:
and, of course, all the sunflower fields that cover Switzerland:
I’ve never seen so many sunflowers, and they are infinitely more impressive in big fields than in the small bouquets I’ve seen in the States.
As far as the food goes, my experiences have been a mixed bag in terms of my health. On one hand, I have never had so much amazing gelato. Virtually every new city we visited over the nine weeks called for gelato tasting, often more than once throughout the weekend.
We have also discovered some great places that we enjoy eating at again and again, including a burger place (yes, burgers) called Holy Cow! in Geneva. Since I don’t eat beef (just a personal preference), I always get the chicken without a bun, and it comes on a bed of lettuce. I like to get a scoop of avocado on the side if I’m really hungry. I admit that eating at a burger place like Holy Cow is not as healthy as cooking for myself, but it’s nice to find healthier options when I go out to eat. At most fast food places you can get your sandwich or burger without the bun, which is always a good option. It is also helpful to look up the menu before eating out, because many restaurants and food places have nutrition information printed, and looking at it may surprise you. Often a salad in a fast food restaurant can be the least healthy option on the menu!
I also discovered how much I crave French fries, which has really turned out to be a problem that hopefully I don’t carry with me home. I am somewhat surprised that America is the one with the obesity epidemic, because fries, desserts and pastries, and huge portions are available everywhere here. So I am excited to return home to start cooking a little bit more, and eat a little bit healthier.
I think it’s really important not to beat yourself up over slipping on healthy living though (and science backs me up that feeling guilty can actually be worse for you than letting a slip-up go because of something called "cognitive reappraisal"). Healthy living isn’t about a diet or counting calories, and it’s not about pushing yourself to the extreme with daily exercise. It’s about finding a healthy balance that you can sustain for life, and part of that (the mental health part!) includes forgiving yourself for being human.
Regardless, it’s always helpful to want to cook and eat healthy, and hopefully my blog has helped you do that. I know that allowing myself to enjoy the pleasure and art of cooking has made me healthier naturally and easily, and I hope you enjoying cooking healthy food as much as you enjoy eating it.
But since I have been eating a lot of fries lately, I thought I needed a clean-eating recipe that still had the comfort of fries or any other unhealthy comfort food, of course). Whenever I am in need of a recipe like this, I turn to sweet potatoes. Roasted or baked sweet potatoes have the starch component of most comfort foods (think potatoes and pasta), but they also have fiber and vitamins that come along with eating a vegetable. Sweet potatoes have much more Vitamin A than regular potatoes, which is good for eye health. The calcium and manganese in sweet potatoes will help with healthy bones and your metabolism too! Sweet potatoes have a little more sugar, of course, but fewer grams of carbs overall. Also, when cooked, sweet potatoes deepen their sweetness, making for the perfect snack or healthy dessert after dinner. I often eat mashed sweet potatoes with cinnamon for dessert! (I am probably a little too obsessed with sweet potatoes, as many of my friends are aware.) You could also make the quinoa and lentil mixture for acorn squash or red peppers. If you use an acorn squash, cut two in fourths and roast them just like the sweet potato, until it starts to brown and it’s soft all the way through. If you use peppers, cut off the tops and hollow out the insides (removing the seeds and white pith). Put the quinoa and lentil mixture in the peppers and place them on a baking sheet at 400 degrees. Cook until the peppers begin to brown, about 20 minutes.
While this recipe is really filling and tastes like comfort food, it is vegan, gluten free, and completely nutritious. It’s also pretty easy to make, and if you have leftover sweet potatoes and quinoa from my last post like I did, it’s a great way to use them up! If you'd like, you can sub rice for the quinoa.
Quinoa Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Serves 8
Ingredients
8 sweet potatoes
1 box Trader Joe’s Steamed Lentils (or 2.5 cups cooked lentils)
1 cup quinoa
2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
½ each red, yellow, and orange peppers, chopped
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon rosemary or sage
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup shredded cheese, optional
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place sweet potatoes on a foil lined baking sheet and pierce holes in the skin. This allows the skin to separate from the sweet potato as it cooks. Bake for about 40 minutes, until cooked all the way through. (You should be able to open the sweet potato with just a fork.)
2. Toast quinoa in a medium pan for a few minutes over medium heat until it gets a golden brown color. This step is optional but it adds to the flavor of the quinoa. You will hear the quinoa begin to pop like popcorn; at this point, add in the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook 15 minutes, until all the water is absorbed. Fluff with a fork.
3. While the quinoa is cooking, sauté onion and pepper in olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook for about 8 minutes, until the onion is caramelized and the pepper is soft and browned. Add the cooked quinoa and the bag of steamed lentils (any precooked lentils are fine) to the pan. Add all the seasoning, and stir well.
4. Break apart the sweet potatoes so that you can fill them. Fill each one with about 1/2 cup of the quinoa mixture. If desired, top with cheese and bake in the oven for another 5 minutes, until cheese is melted and brown on top.
