"Prayer makes your heart bigger, until it is capable of containing the gift of God himself." Mother Teresa
Playing with food is becoming a more frequent event in the home these days. Growing up on fast food, stove-top style dinners, and the typical SAD (Standard American Diet), never really inspired me to cook outside of baking for Christmas and our traditional Thanksgiving meals.
Honestly, food just wasn't something I enjoyed. I preferred reaching for nuts, fruits, salads, etc, even at a young age, but consistent with the thinking I 'needed' animal based food to stay healthy, I submitted myself to eating as I was told to.
Over the years, however, I have become much more 'in-tune' with what my body is asking me to provide it as food. Last August, I asked the family to commit to The Engine 2 Diet for 30 days to see if we couldn't resolve some of the allergy issues several of us seem to be experiencing.
The 30 days has long since come and gone and I am quite pleased at how much our eating habits have changed. I am pretty much all plant-based. The rest of the family is at various levels of "flexitartian" eating. I don't want the children to resent the food we prepare, so I allow them to eat what they like outside of the home, within reason (not much fast food, soda, or candy).
After 9 months of plant-based eating, I have tried many new recipes and now have begun to come up with my own. Lunches are a real problem area for us because they need to be quick, but I want them to be healthy and one can only eat so much pb and j.
Today I prepared a new type of quesadilla, sort of a spin off of a recipe I had used from The Vegan Table.
This is my recipe
Cilantro and Tomato Quesadillas
Preparation time: 10 mins.
Ingredients:
Tortillas
Hummus - see recipe below
Tomatoes - sliced
Cilantro- finely chopped
Juice of Lime - optional
Spray oil for griddle
Preparation:
Heat griddle over medium heat, spray lightly with oil. As the griddle is heating, prepare tomatoes and cilantro. Spread Hummus on one tortilla. Arrange tomatoes on the hummus. Sprinkle with cilantro. If desired, squeeze the juice of the lime onto the ingredients. Cover the quesadilla with another tortilla.
Place tortillas onto the griddle and allow to cook to a light golden brown then flip to the other side and cook in the same manner.
When it is finished, place on cutting board to cool for a few minutes. Cut in half and then in half again.
Garnish with lime, cilantro, and serve with your favorite fruit.
Hummus
I like to make a batch of this on the weekend to last the week. This preparation is healthy as I do not use olive oil in it.
2 cans chick peas, drained and rinsed
2Tbs Tahini
Juice of 1 lemon
3 Tbs minced garlic
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Salt to taste
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Water to thin as needed
Place all ingredients into the blender or food processor and proceed to blend. This process takes a little time as you must stop and move the ingredients around quite often. It is worth the effort though! Add small amounts of water in as needed to help move the ingredients around. You could also use lemon juice or olive oil.
One it has blended to a fairly smooth consistently, place into a covered container and enjoy it all week long, if it lasts that long!
This was a winner with the kids today. I hope you enjoy it as well.
Thanks for sharing the recipe. Fits great in my flexi diet!
ReplyDeleteThe SAD diet is as advertised!