Comunidad Health Foods

Are you sick of jicama yet? I might be, a little, but only because I pretty much single-handedly went through that monster of a root on my own the other week. If people are what they eat, right now I’d  definitely be a big, dense brown root veggie about the size of a small child’s head. So then why am I telling you about more jicama, you ask? Well, mostly because I thought this Thai Jicama Slaw would be a nice segue way between the cilantro jicama recipe from last week and the Thai chicken recipe I have coming up. Plus, a lot of the recipes I’ve been trying lately need some more tweaking and aren’t really blog-ready yet, making it slim pickins around these parts for blogging.

This recipe really came out of my own head with the help of what (little) I know of Thai cuisine and a session of perusing the world wide web. Most jicama recipes you see will incorporate lime and cilantro, and while that’s fabulous (see Heck of a Jicama Salad for proof), I had just gotten through an entire Tupperware container full of that particular recipe. If I didn’t try something new and different, I was going to experience jicama burn out, fast. Thankfully, I also discovered during my research that jicama pairs well with Thai flavors. It just so happens that I had half of a red bell pepper, half of a cucumber, some carrots, sesame oil, and peanuts that I was trying to use up. Clearly, this was fate.

I’m just now realizing that I also had a Thai curry paste sitting in my fridge that I’m trying to use, that would have worked well in this, too. Can’t win ‘em all.

What came out of this abundance of jicama and odd other ingredients I wanted to use was pretty great! It’s not what I would call spicy food, but there is a kick that you get every couple of bites from the crushed red pepper. It’s just as crisp and fresh tasting as other wonderful jicama slaw recipes, yet it’s different from a lot of the flavors you tend to find in them. You could scale back the dressing if you want – it’s pretty heavily dressed, but even the fats used are healthy so don’t let it scare you too much. A lot of jicama recipes don’t call for oil at all. You could also use less jicama and more other ingredients – this would make the slaw a little more vibrant. I just used what I had on hand, and encourage you to do the same.

One Year Ago: Lazy Balsamic Chicken Skillet

Yield: 6 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes plus approximately 30 minutes to cut jicama¹

Inactive Time: 1 hour

(printable recipe)

3 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons lime juice

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

375g sliced jicama (approximately half large jicama)

75g cucumber, julienned

40g shaved carrot (approximately 1 carrot)

65g red bell pepper slices

45g chopped snacking peanuts (approximately ¼ cup)

Whisk together the sesame oil, lime juice, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Add the remaining ingredients and toss well to mix the vegetables and fully coat them with the dressing. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving. Slaw will keep, refrigerated, for up to 2 days.

¹For instructions on how to cut a jicama, see this how-to post

Alright class, did you do your homework? You know what I mean – did you make your chipotle sweet potato dip like I told you to on Monday?

…No?

Well then how are you supposed to make your chipotle sweet potato oats for tomorrow morning?!

As promised, I have for you a recipe that clearly, I am very excited about. I’ve been a fan of overnight oats for about a year now. When I first started making them, I was toying with the idea of adopting a partially raw diet, which is why I gave them a shot in the first place. What I discovered, though, was that by soaking the oats and eating them chilled, you get a natural sweetness that is lacking from conventionally prepared hot oatmeal. Plus, it’s a ridiculously easy grab-and-go breakfast option that can usually be prepped in full the night before. Even though I haven’t started “eating raw,” I’ve still kept this dish as a staple in my diet. In fact, I’m such a fan of overnight oats that the sad emotions I might otherwise feel when I reach the bottom of a peanut butter jar are completely overpowered by the excitement I now associate with empty peanut butter containers –they make delicious vessels for overnight oats. I’ve heard that if you heat the oats and then pour them into the container, it releases the peanut butter from the sides of the container, but I do just fine with my spoon and will-power, scraping down those container walls like I’m getting paid to do it.

 

Because there is peanut butter in the dip, I thought empty-peanut-butter-container-overnight-oats would be fabulous. It turns out, I was very right this time. My first attempt was a little bit bland – it was enjoyable in that clean, barely-spiced kind of way, but it was certainly not worthy of the name “ChipotleSweet Potato Overnight Oats. For my next attempt, I amped up the chipotle, used my updated (and, I think, perfected) dip recipe, and crossed my fingers for the best. The next morning, I woke up, bounced out of bed, and happily tried out my recipe – perfection! It was hot in a smoky, back-of-your-throat kind of way, cool and refreshing. The consistency was spot on, thick and substantial but not gloppy or unappealing. It was exactly what I was going for. I’m smiling now just thinking about it. Seriously, this recipe is a game changer, a winner, a keeper, a slam dunk straight out of the park home run touch down goal hole in one gold medalist in the breakfast food Olympics.

If you think I’m kidding, you haven’t tried the recipe out yet for yourself. My friends, I assure you, this is no laughing matter.

It may be the end of May, over 80 degrees outside with a humidity percent well into the 70’s, and the kind of weather for cold potato salads and chips, but for the past month and a half I have had just one food on my mind: piping hot sweet potatoes. My brain must secretly reside on the other side of the equator where this kind of craving is more seasonally appropriate. So you’ll have to forgive me and my weird-o brain, because I need to talk to you about sweet potatoes, and I need to do it not once, but twice this week. I think by the end of the week you’ll understand, and perhaps I’ll scandalously get you to buy out-of-season for these recipes, too.

What I’m really dying to tell you about is the chipotle sweet potato overnight oats that I made, because that breakfast was just about the most fantastic combination of flavors to ever grace my humble little taste buds. But I can’t tell you about that right now, because that would be getting ahead of myself. You see, the overnight oats uses a chipotle sweet potato dip, so first things first, we have to talk about this dip.

The first time I made it, I followed the recipe darn close to a T. I used unsweetened and unflavored almond milk instead of vanilla coconut milk, because I’m really not into the whole coconut craze and the store was plum out of vanilla almond milk. I meant to add a little drop of vanilla extract, but as things tend to go in my kitchen, that just didn’t happen. I also used two small sweet potatoes (I’m talking just about the tiniest little yams – oh, that’s another thing, sweet potatoes apparently don’t exist where I’m from – I’ve ever seen) instead of 1 sweet potato. In the end, the dip was good. The chipotle powder was a little demure and the honey gave it a sweetness that I didn’t think it needed when you’re already dealing with a sweetpotatoyam. I also wasn’t satisfied with the “1 sweet potato” measurement in the original recipe. I don’t know about you, but at my grocery stores, sweet potatoes can range in size from modest potato length to absolute colossal monstrosities. I genuinely cannot tell you what an “average” sweet potato would look like. So, because I like you guys and want you to have consistent and out-of-this-world results, I forcedmyself to make this recipe again, only this time, I put the Floptimism spin on things.

Below is the recipe that I came up with, and I have to tell you, it’s truly wonderful. It’s sweet and creamy with a nice kick that will make you blink twice but won’t knock you flat off your feet. It’s easy and fast to make once you take care of cooking the sweet potato, which I baked while something else was in the oven about 2 days before I made the dip itself. This batch stretched for about 3 healthy servings for me, though you may be able to eek out a few more at a party. I’ve used it as a regular dip with apple slices and homemade cinnamon tortilla chips (brush a tortilla with oil, sprinkle with cinnamon, cut into wedges and toast until crisp; if you use a generous serving of oil they’re to die for but shh!); you could use it as a sandwich/wrap spread, mix it with yogurt or almond milk and top with oats or your favorite cereal, you name it. You could also swap out the milk for some yogurt for a thicker, potentially more condiment-like product. You guys, this is so much more than a dip. 

 

So now that you know how to make this dip, I expect each and every one of you to have a batch of it ready by Wednesday, when I’ll be back with the best overnight oats recipe ever – using a healthy dose of this dip as its base! Oh, and please also find time between now and then to enjoy a wonderful, sunny Memorial Day!

When I bought my package of chia seeds, I had no idea that they would be the basis for my new favorite recipe to make. I thought that I would buy them, use them, enjoy them, and then maybe buy them again once in a blue moon. Now, I don’t know how I ever lived without them! I enjoyed the peanut butter & banana chia pudding I made for my first foray, though my heavy-handedness with the rum extract may have detracted a little from my potential satisfaction. I also happily make my Omelet of Champions a few times each month. But what truly stole my heart and crossed me over to the wonderful world of chia seed infatuation was this recipe for Chocolate Chia Pudding.

If you are looking for a healthy, nutrient-packed way to satisfy your chocolate cravings, this is it. It’s not low-fat, so much like an avocado chocolate pudding it’s healthier but not necessarily lower calorie than its traditional, non-chia version. But seriously, this is not one of those healthy “chocolate” recipes that kind of leaves you satisfied, but a little part of you is still saying, “that wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for,” either. No, this is all that and a bag of (chocolate covered) chips. I throw in 2 tablespoons of peanut butter to make a full on meal of it (350calories), but if you’re looking for a dessert or a snack, feel free to reduce or eliminate the peanut butter (but if you’re a peanut butter fan, I really have to urge you to try it with the peanut butter just once, because it’s truly nothing short of heaven). 1 tablespoon of peanut butter will put the recipe at around 260 calories, and eliminating it completely will actually knock it down to 170 – how’s that for a little bowl of chocolate bliss to curb your cravings without sparking any guilt? It’s rich with just the perfect amount of sweetness to counter it, creamy with the occasional crunch from the seed…this recipe is a winner, that’s all there is to it.

Today is National Maple Syrup Day, but to be perfectly honest, I was able to get a little bit more excited about National Chocolate Covered Anything Day (yesterday) and National Cupcake Day (the day before that). It isn’t that I don’t love maple syrup – I do; in fact, it’s one of the sweeteners that I don’t get totally uptight about using. However, it’s still a sugar, and you know me – I like to keep it to a minimum. I’m definitely not the kind of person who drowns her pancakes in the stuff.

That being said, give me a drizzle of it, a subtle hint of maple sweetness, and you’ll see me smile (unless it’s the fake stuff – I stopped loving good ‘ole Aunt Jemima when I left my teenage years, sadly). That’s why I’m happy to be able to share with you this pear and quinoa salad today, because although it does use maple syrup for a light dressing, it’s very demure and not at all capable of putting you into a sugar coma. I made it for a Thanksgiving social that I went to while at school, and everyone loved it! It would also make a pretty nice meal all on its own in the warmer months, but seeing as how winter is settling in for the long haul, let’s just think of it as a warm, comforting side dish for now.