An Attempt At A Vegetarian Meal

Hey everyone!  I hope ya'll have been having a wonderful weekend.  It's been busy around here but fun, too.  Last week, I had invited a dear friend of ours & her daughter to come for dinner.  She seemed rather pensive & finally shared with me that she has recently been diagnosed with cancer.  I was shocked, to say the least.  Her hesitation in responding to my invitation was due to a radical effort on her part to eat vegetarian in an attempt to make her body as healthy as possible for what she has to face.  She said that maybe she could just come to visit for a little while instead of having a meal.  I promptly said no way, that I would be happy to prepare a vegetarian meal & quizzed her on exactly what she could & could not have.

Now, truthfully, I have cooked some meatless meals but not true vegetarian.  But, off I went to the internet-- how did we ever live without it before?  She can't have any dairy, which narrowed my search quite a bit, but I finally found a recipe that sounded delicious & fit the parameters.  This is what I found:

Sweet Potato, Corn & Black Bean Hash

*http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/sweet_potato_corn_black_bean_hash.html

From EatingWell:  March 1998

Quick and easy hashes are fabulous one-pot meals for those nights when getting dinner on the table fast is a priority.

2 servings, about 2 cups each | Active Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
• 4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté until browned in spots, 3 to 5 minutes. Add sweet potato and cook, stirring, until it starts to brown in spots, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic, jalapeño, cumin and salt; sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add water and cook, scraping up any browned bits, until liquid is absorbed, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in corn and black beans and cook until heated through. Stir in cilantro and season with salt and pepper. Serve with lime wedges.

Nutrition

Per serving : 419 Calories; 6 g Fat; 0 g Sat; 3 g Mono; 0 mg Cholesterol; 80 g Carbohydrates; 16 g Protein; 17 g Fiber; 771 mg Sodium; 621 mg Potassium

4 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 3 starch, 2 vegetable, 1 1/2 lean meat, 1 fat

I thought it might be fun to share some photos of the steps in preparing this dish.  What can I say, I sometimes think I'm THE PIONEER WOMAN.......lol!  Anyway.........

I steamed the diced sweet potatoes in my Pampered Chef steamer for just a few minutes to soften them just slightly.

I diced the onions & garlic together.

I was never impressed with cast iron pots & pans until I was able to use them on this  gas range.  Now I want more pieces!  Do ya'll use cast iron cookware?

See all this golden brown goodness!  This smelled so fantastic!

Next I added the slightly cooked, diced sweet potatoes.  They get sauteed until they begin to brown around the edges.

Then it was time to add the jalapeno & spices, stirring for just a few seconds, & then the water.  Cook for a few minutes until the liquid is absorbed. 

Finally, I added black beans,  whole kernel corn & cilantro.  Can ya'll say "YUM?"

This is Snap Pea, Cucumber & Asparagus Salad & it is so good.  I first heard about this amazing salad over at Liz's at Savvy Seasons.  You really can toss in just about anything you want (I added baby peppers, cut in circles), but you can find the original recipe HERE.

This was dessert, but I forgot to take a pic until the next morning after the meager leftovers had been in the fridge over night.  They looked much better right after I made them.  I used a good quality bittersweet chocolate, & even though the strawberries were not great, they tasted very good.

The meal turned out very well, even though our plans got changed drastically.  I'll share more about that tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'll also share how I prepared my table, but here's a sneaky peek.

Teehee!

Thanks for stopping by everyone, & please come again soon.

CAS