Curried Black-Bean Sweet-Potato Soup

I found this recipe online just browsing along looking for comfort vegetarian foods. The ingredients sounded awesome and it was a "chilly" day in Hawaii so gave it a go.

With having had meal plans in the University Dining Hall for 4 years, I never gave myself many opportunities to explore cooking much of anything. A chef(y) day for me was making ramen and adding an egg to it, and if I was feeling wild, perhaps a few vegetables. 

Now I look forward to making and trying different nutritious meals. Here is one I will definitely be making (or some variety of) often.

Ingredients: (4 Servings)

(picture features double the ingredients i.e. 8 servings)

(Veg)

1 Sweet Potato (cooked and peeled)

1 Can of Black Beans (drained)

1 Cup of Chopped Onion

2 Cloves of Garlic

Handful of Chopped Cilantro

(Spices)

1 Teaspoon Curry

1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (less for less bite)

1 Teaspoon Ground Ginger Root

1 Teaspoon Cumin

(Other)

1 Can of Light Coconut Milk

1 Cartoon of Vegetable Stock (Can substitute half cartoon and use water as the other half for those trying to limit excess sodium)

Olive Oil

Directions:

Using a tidbit of Olive Oil, cook the Onion/Garlic together until Onions are semi-transparent.

Add in the spices and let them sit for a couple minutes.

Add Beans, Sweet Potato (mashed), spices and cook for a few more minutes.

Add Vegetable Stock, Coconut Milk.

Add Cilantro.

The instructions I followed say to use an immersion blender to make the soup light and creamy but due to not having this, skipped it.

Cook until soup starts to boil and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle Cilantro on individual servings for aesthetic appeal (and delicious taste!)

Most important part! Serve with Rice. I am partial to sticky white rice but any rice or something to compliment the soup (such as a bread-bowl) shall work. That's the fun thing about cooking is you can do whatever suits your fancy.

Personally, I like to divide my dish up in sections so rather than stir the rice in with the soup, I partitioned them, but again, whatever suits your fancy.

Reflection:

This was a fun/quick recipe to make and the only thing I would change about the recipe is including chunks of Sweet Potato in the soup along w/ the mashed ones the recipe calls for.

Reflection pt 2.: Putting crunchy peanut inside made it taste so great! After trying these I decided it this combo created one of my favorite foods..

Extra ramble section.

This was an awesome meal and ate quite a hefty amount of it. Probably could have survived without eating the 5+ pieces of bread on top of getting 4ths and 5ths on the soup/rice but hey, it suited my fancy. The problem is, I don't use my brakes or discipline very well when it comes to consuming things I like (in this case, the soup!).

Later on this evening after indulging in this comforting meal, ate 10 (yes 10) of Uncle P's Chocolate Chip Cookies, followed by a bowl of Breyer's Vanilla Ice-cream. I semi-justified the ok-ness of this compulsive eating to running in the woods for 5 hours last night, however, I still got the same guilty feelings after going to far (in this case with eating), again.

I have been weighing myself everyday just to keep track of how my weight has been changing with the decisions I make.

Until next delicious delight! :)

Uncle P's Chocolate Chip Cookies N' Daily Food

I decided to start a food/thought blog for somewhere to formally put down some of the recipes of food I want to remember, along with any thoughts that are going around at the time.
The camera I am using for these pictures is a little below par but hey it's something.

Before I begin to ramble too much let's get to the goods:

Uncle P's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
3/4 Cup Sugar
2 1/4 Cup Flour
2 Softened Stick of Butter
1 Teaspoon of Salt
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
2 Eggs
2 Cups of Chocolate Chips
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

Directions:
Beat Brown Sugar, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Baking Soda, Salt, and Vanilla
Mix in Flour
Mix in Chocolate Chips

Heat at 375 for 10-12 Minutes

Although I have not had any of this batch of the cookies ^, I remember what they tasted like the last time I had them. Right now I don't feel comfortable eating them because I'm not sure if I could limit myself to eating as few as I would like to. Lately, I have been choosing to limit (eliminate) eating sweets from my diet, as I have done many times before, just because of the difficulty it is to limit myself on them. The easiest it has ever been to limit myself is when I have completely eliminated them so from now on that's how it will be. Would like to reflect a little more on this but am considering how sane other people might think I'm not. Hmm Perhaps more on this later.
Regardless, they are awesome cookies and try them out if you get a chance!

Lately, I have been really enjoying making and preparing healthy food with Uncle Paul. We both would like to see ourselves eating healthier and losing weight. As far as eating, the past week we have done pretty well with a typical day looking like this:

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with Cinnamon, Cacao, Ground Flaxseed Powder, Banana, and Almond Butter
Cup of Coffee
The new and improved "Uncle P" drink (sorry Kayla/Kyle)

Ingredients:
1 Can of Japanese Green Tea (No Sugars)
1 Bottle of Coconut Water
Ice
Handful of Spinach
Frozen Blueberries, Cherries, Blackberries
Ginger Powder
Cayenne Pepper (very surprised that it doesn't make it taste too bad..(A unique warm after-taste)


(Am writing this blog at night and can't flippin' wait for Bfast!)

Lunch:
Large Spinach Salad
with any or all of the following:
Kimchi, Almond Butter, Onions, Chopped Garlic, Croutons, Raw Pumpkin Seeds, Unsalted Sunflower Seeds, Mushroom, Bell Peppers, Avacado, Sprouts, Banana

Dinner:
Quinoa+Some mix of Veggies/Black Beans

Snacks during daytime: Nuts (Nonsalted Almonds, Cashews, Macadamian Nuts) Fruit (Orange, Apple, Plum) Sometimes will snack on Kimchi, Tofu dipped in Soy Sauce,

For the most part, have been sticking to this but usually am hungry at night because of lack of sleep and probably lack of protein. During writing the blog had to go get some food so made Cream of Wheat with a banana, cinnamon and almond butter, and snacked on some baked peasnaps, granola bar, and a peanut butter granola thing (pretty much tasted like a sweet to me). Definitely wish I just waited until breakfast..Grr


Even after my naughty eating spree after Twin Cities Marathon, have got down to about 168 with eating semi-decent. Would be nice to get to 160!  Will see how bad I want it.

Look forward to putting more recipes on here and recreating them sometime! Yay