Stuffed Portobellos & Quinoa soup = great weekend eating.

Recently my friend Laura let me borrow some of her CLEAN EATING magazines.  I love them and I love them so much I just might put out the money to get a subscription.  I mean I could borrow Laura's, but I really love tearing out recipes and putting them in my own binder!!!!  Laura just did a raw cleanse, and put great recipes on her blog and so if you haven't checked them out I encourage you to.  You will love them.

This weekend I made two recipes out of the January edition magazine.  One was okay and I probably won't do again and one we loved and will for sure be made again.

Do you want the one we loved first or the one that was just okay?  If it were me I would want the okay one first and then finish off with the great one.  Here's a fun fact about me …. that's actually how I eat my meals.  I save my favorite thing for last so it can be my last taste.  Anyone else do that?

Okay back to food …..

Here's the one that was just okay:

Overflowing Portobellos

Ingredients:

4 large portobello mushrooms

1 tsp olive oil

1 zucchini, chopped

1/2 spanish onion, chopped

1 tbsp fresh minced garlic

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 medium tomato, chopped

2 roasted red peppers, chopped

handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped

1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

1/2 cup parmesean cheese

sea salt

Instructions:  Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Remove stems from mushrooms & set aside.  Clean mushroom tops and set upside down on a work surface.

Heat oil in a medium skillet. Chop mushroom stems and add to skillet with zucchini, onion, garlic and vinegar.  Saute for about 5-7 minutes, until onion and zucchinin start to soften.  Add tomato and roasted peppers and heat through, about 2 minutes.  Remove mixture from heat and transfer to a bowl.  Stir in basil, bread crumbs and cheese.  Season w/ salt and black pepper.

Fill mushroom tops with veggie mixture and bake for 15 minutes or until mushrooms look tender and cheese is slightly melted.

So …. it was just okay.  I ate my filling but the texture of the mushroom was not my style.  We said if we did it again we would cook the mushrooms more.  Actually I'll probably never make it again.  But I don't want you to think it was bad, just the texture of the mushrooms was not my fav.

Now on to the one that I made today for lunch that was yummy yummy delicious!!!  I also want to tell you that there is not one bad thing in this soup and my kids LOVED it!  It was so good.  I mean so good.  I made cornbread to go along with it and it was a meal.  While we were eating Aaron said that this soup reminded him of Ronnie Smith from church b/c Ronnie's always giving us a hard time about eating soup for a meal.  He says soup is an appetizer and not a meal.  We think he's way off!  We have soup for meals ALL THE TIME and love it.  Please tell me that we're the normal ones and not him.  🙂

QUINOA & WHITE BEAN CHILI

Ingredients

1/2 c uncooked quinoa

1 lg red bell pepper, chopped

1 lg green bell pepper, chopped

1 tsp ground chipotle pepper

2 15oz cans white beans, drained and rinsed

4 lg fresh tomatoes, chopped with juices

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

6oz fresh spinach, chopped

Directions

1. In a 4qt pot, combine quinoa and 4c water and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover tightly and simmer for 15 minutes.

2. Add bell peppers, chipotle, beans, tomatoes, cumin, and oregano to pot with quinoa. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for about 10 minutes. While chili is appealingly thick and quinoa is throwing off its tiny white haloes, stir in spinach and cook for 1 more minute, until just wilted. Serve hot.

Notes:

6 servings – 300 calories – 3.5 g fat – 15g protein

For your enjoyment, here's my two crazy five year olds: