Try New Combinations

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Andrea

There’s a little diner here that serves the best black beans I have ever had. I dream about these black beans.

Scott and I went one day for breakfast and I got a side order of beans. Yeah, beans for breakfast, don’t knock it! I had eggs with my breakfast and decided to just plop the beans right on top. With a little hot sauce on top, I was a very happy lady.

Had I not ordered beans with my breakfast, it probably never would have occurred to me to try mixing them with eggs.

Once I did, I couldn’t figure out why this hadn’t done this before! Now black beans over eggs is one of my very favorite combinations.

I scramble up eggs and season them with garlic and chili powder. Then I top with:

Black Beans
Cheese
Salsa
Hot Sauce

You can even add in some sour cream as well!

It’s an easy dish to put together and is also very budget friendly. Eggs and beans are inexpensive and pantry staples.

Burrito Bowl

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Andrea

Shaking off yesterday’s heavy topic let’s talk about something fun! And let’s make it about fun food!

Scott and I have a favorite diner that just happens to be very close to us and they have the best veggie burritos. The. BEST. The burrito is gigantic and stuffed with beans, cheese, and all manner of veggies. They won my heart because they actually use a variety of real veggies in their burritos.

Listen, I tend to eat mostly veggie when I’m dining out. I’ve gotten veggie burritos and such at many places and the “veggies” that restaurants tend to give you are as follows:

Onion
Green Peppers
Mushrooms

That’s it. Maybe if it’s your lucky day, there will be a sad basement tasting carrot tossed in the mix. But usually “veggies” are those three things and if we’re being truthful, mushrooms aren’t even a veggie.

Please leave them off my veggie meals!

Anyway, at our favorite diner the veggie burritos are full of:

Nachos OHC Style

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Andrea

Not long ago we talked about nachos here on OHC. I contend that most everything can be made healthier and you don’t have to give up fun stuff in the name of “diet” or “eating healthy”.

For the record I hate the word “diet”. No one wants to be on a “diet”, we all just want to eat. Am I right?

So let’s just eat! But be more aware of what we are eating and how we choose to nourish our bodies. Deal?

Good, now let’s get started on nachos.

Nachos are fun, you can load them up, AND they can still be healthy. This is the OHC approach to making nachos at home.

Start with making a quick guacamole and setting it aside.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Next line a baking sheet with foil and spray with olive oil or nonstick spray.

Add your tortilla chips to the baking sheet. Try to keep the layers minimal so that there is more room for toppings on each chip!

Chili Cheese Fries

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Andrea

Like Paula Deen, I love potatoes. LOVE them. Probably a little inappropriately. Unlike Paula Deen, I don’t think they need to be slathered in butter and cream. Cheese is always welcome. So is bacon but he is not invited to this party today.

Ever since I saw Chili Cheese Fries over at White On Rice Couple, I have been chewing at the bit to make them myself.

OHC style.

We recently had chili for a meal but I was unable to use the leftovers for chili cheese fries only because time was against me and I didn’t get around to it. This week we decided that in order to keep my sanity (we were out of fresh fruit and the veggie count was in the single digits), we made a last minute decision to hit the grocery store. We were there forever (as is typical) and I picked up a bunch of produce. Among those were some russet potatoes and some red peppers (5 for $5, heck yes!).

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Andrea

The last installment of Salsa Week and this one just happens to be in a close running to winning the title of my favorite salsa!

Whenever I look at jarred salsa, the one kind I always search out is a black bean and corn salsa. I love those! The beans and corn add such a nice texture to the salsa. It even allows me to handle a more spicier salsa because somehow the beans and corn seem to tame down the assertive peppers.

Eventually I wondered to myself if one could make salsa with black beans and corn as the main ingredient instead of them being added into a tomato based salsa.

You’re never going to know the answer to your question until you try it, right? So that’s exactly what I set out to do and now I cannot get enough of this salsa. I could pretty much consume the entire batch myself without giving it a second thought! This salsa is super easy to make and takes maybe 10 minutes at most to prepare.

Read more on Black Bean and Corn Salsa…

Sweet Potato and Squash Chili

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Andrea

One of the things that I wanted to do last fall was make chili with pumpkin. Ever since I discovered my love for cooking with pumpkin puree, chili was tops on my “to-make” list. Fall came and went without me having a chance to make some. Thankfully I live in an area that sees a good amount of winter which provides nice chili-makin’ and chili-eatin’ weather.

One of my vegan cookbooks, Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan, has a recipe for chili using cocoa powder in it. This intrigued me greatly! I have used cocoa in a savory recipe before (Cocoa Chili Rubbed Chicken) but haven’t used it as a savory spice since then. I wanted to rectify that quickly. Could I combine my desire for using pumpkin in chili with the addition of cocoa powder without it tasting like a pudding gone wrong?

Last week I decided to experiment and find out!

Andrea’s Sweet Potato and Squash Chili

Tuesday Tip: Roast Chickpeas

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Andrea

Change up chickpeas

I believe it was Rachael Ray who sort of introduced this concept to me. I watched her sautee up some chickpeas in olive oil and seasonings to put out as a munchie item. At first I thought it was odd, who wants to sit down and just chomp on some beans?

Weird.

Then I acquired a new found love for beans and now I’m perfectly happy chomping on some beans. I changed the concept a bit by taking it out of the skillet and into the oven to make roast chickpeas. I have never looked back!

Roast chickpeas are one of my favorite snacks to make because they just taste freaking awesome. However, you do have to actually like beans to appreciate this twist.

They are so easy to make and quick that you’ll be snacking in no time. Ready?

All you have to do is open a can of chickpeas, drain and rinse them. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In a storage bag, place the beans. Now this is where the seasonings come in. You can use as much as you like and whatever you like. I made some today and here’s what I used:

Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos

Posted on January 11, 2009 by Andrea

Crunchy jalapenos

Jalapeno poppers. Jalapeno bites, whatever you call them they have been making the rounds at parties and gatherings for a while now. They interested me but I also shied away from them since I tend to have a low tolerance for spicy dishes. I’ve been slowly working to become more immune because when one has a husband who loves spicy stuff it starts getting harder to avoid it.

I finally decided to tackle bacon wrapped jalapenos. Now, all recipes I have come across just call for some cream cheese in the jalapenos. If you know me, then you’ll know that I consider that too plain. Anyone can do that. I wanted to put a twist in it. Let’s bump this up and play around with it for a little bit and see what happens. I went back and forth thinking about what I could do. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible but still kick up the flavor. Finally it hit me, jalapenos are already spicy (well to me anyway) so let’s stick with that theme and keep the spicy going!