Red Pepper Quinoa and Chipotle "Sausage" Stuffed Yams

Nothing says fall like the vibrant orange and earthy goodness of my favorite root vegetable. Yams, with their rough and tumble outside and surprisingly sweet inside, are the one thing I always have to have after the long summer months are over. Even though they’re available all year round, they just don’t taste the same to me unless the air is a little cooler, the breeze a little stronger, and the leaves a little yellower.

I like to use yams in many different ways; they really are a versatile vegetable, pairing well with both sweet and savory dishes. I like to bake them, roast them, add them to stews and casseroles; sometimes I’ll even throw leftover yams into a nice autumn salad. This time I decided to bake them and stuff them with roasted red pepper quinoa and Mexican chipotle veggie sausages. I let flavored ingredients do most of the work for me, so this one is super easy!

Black Bean Tacos with Lime Infused Rice

I know I haven't finished part 3 of my European Adventure, but I made these yummy black bean tacos the other night, and I just couldn't wait to share it with you! More of my adventure to come soon, but in the mean time - enjoy!

One thing I adore about tacos is that there are literally endless possibilities for ingredients, flavor combos, textures, and presentations. The resourceful cook (and scattered cook alike!) can cultivate any number of wildly different and seriously mouthwatering recipes by ever so slightly tweaking ingredients, adding fresh herbs, trying out flavored rices and tortillas, adding different types of beans or tofu, grilling, sauteing, chilling, infusing, adding hot sauces, cheeses - whatever your heart desires! In fact, you could probably have tacos every day of the week and never eat the same thing twice! That may be going a little far, but you get the point.

Due to its aforementioned versatility, tacos are a steady thing around these parts, and with the bounty of agreeable veggies during the summer months, you simply can't go wrong!

For this particular recipe I combined lime infused white rice, black beans, and a few simple toppings that paired well, looked great, and tasted even better!

Corn Chowder with Cilantro, Avocado and Lime

For the last couple of weeks I have had a serious craving for corn chowder. I had never actually had corn chowder before making this, but that’s beside the point! Somehow I just knew it would be delicious…luckily I was right (if only I could say that more often!).

Not only was this recipe good, I think it might be one of the best recipes I’ve ever made, AND it hardly took any time to make, which made me love it even more. My husband and I devoured it, and my mom, who tasted leftovers the next day, went straight out to get the ingredients to make it for dinner! That’s really what I love about cooking and trying new recipes; when it turns out great, it gets people excited to try it, add in their own creativity of flavors, and share it with the people they love.

The toughest part about the whole endeavor was removing the corn from the cob, but I learned some tricks that will help make this process easier in the future. Other than that, this recipe is pretty straight forward. The cilantro and lime give it a Mexican flair that would be great as a starter for the Vegetarian Enchiladas or Grilled Eggplant Fajitas I’ve made, but it also has enough weight to be the star of the meal.

I sincerely hope you try this one; you won’t be disappointed!

Magically Disappearing Guacamole

If there’s one thing I love about get-togethers, it’s all the yummy appetizers I don’t normally take the time to make at home. One of my favorites is guacamole.

Now let me make this clear, I’m referring to the real stuff here, not the pre-packaged, store bought “guacamole,” which I regrettably bought several months ago. I put it in quotes because, unbeknownst to me, it wasn’t actually guacamole. In fact, I don’t think it even contained avocados in any form. 

After pulling back the lid and seeing the weird, goo-like consistency glaring back at me (it was almost frightening…almost), I realized the container actually read “guacamole flavored dip,” which could mean any number of things in the tricky marketing world. Even worse than the consistency were the ingredients listed on the back, half of which I could not pronounce, and all of which were not very tasty.

So long story short, I decided to find a recipe and make my own, and I’ve never looked back…I’m afraid to; that goo was the stuff of food-lovers’ nightmares!

Grilled Eggplant Fajitas

I’ve been spending some time revisiting a few of the classics lately, and finding ways to make them fit into my vegetarian lifestyle, whether they want to or not! ;) This week’s lucky dish was fajitas, and with the help of one of my favorite nightshades, I can now add this usually meat stuffed delight back into my rotation - yay!

I’ve actually had this idea since I made the Vegetarian Gyros a couple of weeks ago, and finally decided to give it a go. I used eggplant in place of meat, which gave it a great texture and soaked up all the flavors of the fajita mix really well. I almost used mushrooms (as I’m prone to do), but was glad I chose the eggplant in the end. It was very yummy, and healthy to boot!

Vegetarian Enchiladas with Green Chile Sauce

If you know me, then you know I LOVE Mexican food. When I became a vegetarian it was one of
the things I had the hardest time adapting to. All of the wonderful, yummy Mexican meals I liked before contained mass quantities of delicious meat, and trying to make them vegetarian just wasn't the same. 

One of my favorite dishes, pre-vegetarian, was my mom's chicken enchilada recipe, which was absolutely amazing. She used chicken, chipotle peppers, black beans, olives, jack cheese, and green chile sauce. I was really craving some of these delicious enchiladas recently, so I decided to recreate my own meat free version, and see how it compared. To my surprise, I think I like the vegetarian version better! I was really happy with the result, and to top it off, I decided to make my own roasted green chile sauce from scratch. The best part? This recipe made enough for two dinners and two lunches, meaning I didn’t have to cook tonight!