healthy black bean salad

Despite all the healthy stuff in here, my guests enjoyed it too. I brought this to a potluck tonight.

Ingredients:

1 lb dried black beans (I was out, so used Rancho Gordo vaquero beans--they are black and white), or 2 cans

1 bunch kale, frozen

juice of 1 lime

flavored vinegar (optional)

1 stalk broccoli

1-2 cups cauliflower

1 red bell pepper

fruit--10 oz frozen or fresh mango, or apple, orange, pear in any combination, maybe 12-16 oz total

some cilantro and/or chives

10 oz bag of frozen corn

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cook the beans if dried (soak overnight first, cook for a few hours), drain. Add the corn which will thaw the corn and cool the beans. Remove the kale from the freezer and crinkle right away with your hands (shatters into small pieces so save chopping time!). Add the lime juice and some vinegar to the kale. Chop the rest of the ingredients in a food processor, combine everything in a big bowl. Serve and enjoy!

I forgot to take a picture of the final product but here's the beans and the corn before draining:

and here's the veggies after chopping in the microprocessor:

Then they were all combined. It was good and filling!

Mon, March 22, 2010

I'm still trying to adjust my meals to my new schedule. I don't want a big lunch because my exercise class is at 4 pm. Then I end up not eating as many calories for brekky and lunch, and can only eat so much at dinner, so my overall caloric intake has been lower than I expected. Maybe I should eat more at breakfast--or just eat more nuts and seeds. But except for being pretty hungry by lunch and dinner, I haven't notice a problem with it. I'm quite full right now at 8:30 pm and yet, according to CRON-o-meter, I only ate 1352 calories today. I guess I'm pretty sedentary apart from my 2 hour bike ride/exercise class, and I'm almost 50 years old (whoopie!). Here's what I ate.

Brekky: blended salad

Lunch: veggies in turnip sauce. The veggies were brussels sprouts, cabbage, and shitake mushrooms. I cooked everything in the pressure cooker, then blended the turnip with lime juice (didn't have lemon), 1 Tbsp sesame seeds, and 1 Tbsp sunflower seeds, and poured it over the veggies. I made a similar dish for housemate using her more favorite veggies: peas, corn, brussels sprouts and carrots. I snacked on a carrot while preparing, and had a kiwi for dessert.

Dinner: big ole' chopped up salad (11 oz of greens! that's lettuce, romaine, and spinach) topped with bean soup. To the bean soup I added a sliced banana, 1 Tbsp chia seeds, 1 Tbsp shaved coconut, and 1/2 tsp curry powder. I call this my bean curry salad. It's quite good. You could use chopped apple and raisins instead of banana. I snacked on carrots, small apple, and 1/2 red bell pepper while preparing.

Total calories today: 1352, protein 56 g (13%), carbs 258 g (71%), fat 24g (16%).