Easy Chickpea Kale Bowl

We take a break from our regularly scheduled Thanksgiving updates to give you this yummy bowl. 


Vegans seem to eat things in bowls- just lots of stuff piled together in a bowl and it makes a meal. When we were staying with my family for a couple of months, my mom commented that it was a bit weird, but I've been vegan for 3 years and I mostly eat at home, where other people aren't looking, so I hadn't really noticed. But it is a little weird. I'll have to remember to share my favorite bowl with you guys sometime. I keep forgetting and I don't have any pictures. This one's really good though, and super healthy.

I also want to start sharing more of what I actually eat every day. Sure, I make a few recipes a week and generally live off the leftovers of big batches of soup or whatever, but I also make other, super simple meals. I'm sure other bloggers can relate to me on this-- there are just some meals that don't seem photo- or recipe-ready, or you don't want to bother with clearing off the table just to take a picture of your super-simple-but-super-yummy oatmeal. But I'm beginning to think it's worth it, and I remember particularly that daily food sharing forums from Veggie Boards and What I Ate Wednesdays really helped give me some good ideas when I was starting out-- they still do! So here is one of those quick posts-- it's super simple, not really a recipe, but yummy and I remembered to take a picture! You could really change up the ingredients endlessly, but this is what I had for lunch (and dinner, rolled up in a tortilla) yesterday. It was delish.

Chickpea Kale Bowl

Also, you can go check out my Pinterest page for ideas-- I pin stuff from here but mostly a ton of other things including a massive Vegan Recipes the Inspire Me board full of ideas and recipes!

Here goes!

2 Servings
Ingredients:

• 1/2 tsp or small drizzle olive oil
• 5ish baby portabella or cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 celery rib, sliced or diced, your preference
• small bunch fresh parsley
• 2-3 big sage leaves or other fresh (or dried!) herbs
• 3ish cups of ready-to-go kale, or other green, or chop and wash your own
• 1 can of chickpeas (my favorite, but your could use any bean
• balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

•  Drizzle tiny amount of oil into a relatively large pan-- I used my stockpot but I think the big skillet would have worked.
• Drain your chickpeas in a colander and run water over them until they are fresh-looking and don't have that bubbly, gooey can juice on them anymore.
• Slice or dice your veg and add to the pot, turning it on medium.
• I love parsley and the amount I use is a small handful, about 1/4 cup once chopped. Take the tops off of your parsley by pinching or cutting. Slice your herbs thin. Then chop it all up together, alternating directions and re-scooping your pile until it's all finely chopped. Or you don't have to and just leave it chunky.
• Add to the pot, then immediately add your greens.
• Let them cook a couple of minutes, add some salt, pepper, and olive oil.
• Add your chickpeas and cook a couple or more minutes 'til they're warm.
• Finish off with a drizzle of balsamic--  taste as you go because it can get real crazy real quick-- and more salt and pepper, and voilà! Yum.

Note: If you use spinach as your green, add it last so it doesn't cook too long.

Also, I haven't been putting nutrition info on here because I wasn't counting calories for a while, and then I changed the program I used and the info format is different, but I know some of you liked that and I'm tallying again so here you go! 

cals (using 1.5 tsp oil) per 1/2 recipe: 286kcal | fat: 7.80g | carbs: 43.78g | prot: 15.26g

Apple Crumb Pie

This is Adam Apple Mouth. This is what happens when you are a little brother and you've been expected to entertain yourself while all the grownups are watching football or cooking. All day long. And then your sister tries to make an apple pie and your mom sliced up the apples, which was awesome of her, but your sister isn't quite ready to assemble the pie yet and there are apples sliced up and sitting on the counter and one of your favorite foods is apples.

After a very long two days of painting and cooking, everything else was in the oven or on the counter ready to go for dinner and I was making this pie to go in the oven while we ate. Adam likes apples. And there were plenty left for the pie. And the pie was a complete success. I even suggested tweaking something for if I make it again and Sam said something about how I couldn't ruin the best pie ever. So, apparently, it's the best pie ever.

Adam Apple Mouth

Pie after being sliced into

Also, I love this blog I've been reading Hyperbole and a Half. Everyone else has probably already heard of it, but I just discovered it. Allie's posts about depression (post one and post two) are hilariously insightful and her post on procrastination and guilt seems like it was written directly to me. Please read it, it's wonderful! (There are some curse words though, just so you know)

Pie before crumble topping

Onto pie. The recipe came from My Sweet Vegan by Emily Mainquist. This is an awesome book that has so many recipes I want to try and came to me courtesy of Trina from Your Vegan Mom. The pie was super easy and quick to put together, but I did have to bake it for about an hour longer than stated. It was all good though, we were playing Yahtzee and not ready for pie yet. I added some lemon juice and apple butter to the filling and used about 1/3 cup sugar instead of 3/4. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly so I don't want to publish it here -- go buy the book! Seriously, it's great.

Action shot

The tempting bowl of apples

Pie crust, apples, and look at our green dining room!

More to come on green bean casserole, dining room before and after, roast squash, cranberry sauce, eating (some) garlic and onions again, and actual recipes!

Thanksgiving 2013

This year was a doozie. My  mom and I cooked for what seemed like (and almost was) two days straight, and my hubby and I decided it's be the perfect time to re-do the dining room right before the big day. There was still painting going on Thursday morning. All in all, I'd say it was a success, we had lots of fun and lots of food! Sam was a fantastic photographer for the day, and there are many more pictures and recipes to come in the next few days!