Twice Baked Walnut and Broccoli Sweet Potatoes

First, I cannot start this post without seriously thanking one of our lovely readers, Alex, for leaving me such a truly smile-inducing voice mail! I woke up to it first thing and it just totally made my day! I love getting the voice mails. So, thanks, Alex! Now onto food. Step aside you peasanty twice baked white potatoes! Your snobby, sophisticated and downright sexy cousins are in town! So next time you're thinking of making boring and commonplace twice baked potatoes, let your rad side roam free and make these Twice Baked Walnut and Broccoli Sweet Potatoes instead.

These are certainly healthier than regular baked potatoes and I assure you much, much tastier. Class it up, people! You're only cool if you're making twice baked sweet potatoes anyways. Hadn't you heard?

Twice Baked Walnut and Broccoli Sweet Potatoes 

Inspired by Daily Bites

Makes 4

• 4 medium sweet potatoes (equal shape and size)
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• sprinkling of kosher salt
• heaping 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped small
• 2 Tbsp. pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), chopped
• 2 cups broccoli (florets only), chopped small
• 1/3 cup vegan cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2 Tbsp. walnut oil (or olive oil)
• 1 Tbsp. ground flaxseed (optional)
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F. Scrub the outside of the sweet potatoes and then dry them. Poke a few slits in each potato with the end of a knife. Rub them with olive oil and a generous sprinkling of kosher salt. Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet and bake 1 hour or until tender when poked with a fork. 

Now, go curl up on the couch and read with a cup of hot cider. Or take your dog for a walk and call a friend to catch up. I did all three of these, you can do what you want. When the potatoes are done cooking, taking great care, cut them almost in half. Be sure to leave a small bit intact on both the ends of the potatoes, however. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet while you prepare the stuffing. Just trust me, you're gonna want to let these mofos cool. Leave the oven on.

On a different baking sheet, arrange the chopped walnuts and pepitas and toast for about 7-10 minutes in the 400 F oven or until fragrant. Careful not to let them burn. They're tricky. Once done, remove them from the oven and cool. Still leaving the oven on.

In a large bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients including the walnuts and pepitas and stir well. When the potatoes have cooled sufficiently, very carefully scoop out the insides and place them in the large bowl with the broccoli. You don't have to scrape every last bit, just be sure to get most of it. Careful not to damage the skin. 

Mix all the sweet potato meat with the broccoli mixture and stir until very well combined. 

Now, carefully place all the stuffing back into the potatoes. Once they are all stuffed and bulging *snicker snicker*, feel free to kind of shape them as you please. Top them with a little extra cheese, if you wish and place them back in the oven to bake at 400 F for about 15 minutes. 

Serve hot! These are badass enough to be a main meal if you're a little guy like me, or as a giant side, I suppose. 

We went for an awesome walk today and Todd took some beautiful, Alaskan Fall photos for you all! I'm in the pink, and my BFF in the purple. We have some termination dust! Long live Winter.

What am I listening to? Ghostland Observatory – Sad Sad City

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Creamy Pasta with Roasted Butternut Squash and Kale

Oh. Good. Heavens!

I literally pranced around the kitchen like a little kid on Christmas morning when I tasted this bangin' pasta. In case you don't know, that is part of some song. I don't know what song, if you know what song, let me know. That's the only part I can recite. Anyways, new favorite dish alert! Gah, this pasta dish is so delicious I could never do it justice just talking about it. You'll just have to go make it, I'm sorry. 

This is Fall comfort food at it's best. It's sweet, it's savory, it's creamy and cheesy and guess what? It's actually pretty darn good for you too thanks to delicious roasted butternut squash and wilted kale. Really, there's not a whole lot tastier than roasted butternut squash. And it makes the whole house smell so wonderful and cuddly and just goddamn lovely. Sigh. 

If you're trying out veganism this is a fantastic dish to start with. I feel like this would definitely be my "bible" of vegan dishes. Like, if I was going around door to door trying to convert people (as I always do...) then I would definitely use this dish as my converting weapon of choice. That was probably horrendously offensive. I can't be controlled.

Anyway, seriously, it's amazing. But I mean, lets be real here...everything, most things, some things I make are pretty amazing. Well, everything I post at least. Did you try yesterday's soup?! It was pretty incredible, too. 

Vegan and omnivores alike are going to love this pasta. Come on, it has cheese in it okay? And yes, some vegan cheese is downright excellent!

Creamy Pasta with Roasted Butternut Squash and Kale

Inspired by Apartment 34

Serves 6

• 1 small butternut squash, peeled and diced small (about 6 cups)
• 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 cup vegan butter
• 17 oz. of pasta ( I used whole wheat spaghetti) 
• 2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced 
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large bunch of kale, de-stemmed and chopped
• 1/2 cup vegan mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
• 1/4 tsp. dried sage

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Peel, remove seeds, and dice the butternut squash. Then, on a parchment lined, rimmed baking sheet scatter the squash cubes and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss around to coat. Bake for 40 minutes or until squash is tender when poked with a fork.

Meanwhile, slice the onions and mince the garlic. When there is about 20 minutes left for the squash to cook, bring a large saucepan of salted water to boil for the pasta. Once boiling add the pasta, cook for about 10 minutes or according to package and then drain. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta water for use later.

Heat the butter in a very large soup pot. Allow to melt over medium heat for about 3 minutes then add in the onions and the garlic. Saute until the onions begin to turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, de-stem and chop the kale, then add it to onions and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. 

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Add in the cooked pasta, reserved pasta water, cheese, nutritional yeast and sage and stir well to combine. Make sure there's no clumps of cheese. Now, add in the squash and stir gently to combine.  

Serve hot with additional sage or nutritional yeast to garnish or even some pumpkin seeds! Yum!

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For The Cure Quinoa

Today my two worlds collide. Mammography and food. Yes. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I'm kicking it off with this delicious, pink, For The Cure Quinoa. Below you'll find some helpful links about breast cancer and it's relation to diet, as well as how to do a breast self exam. Also, you can see how you too can have some sexy hunks remind you to do a self breast exam and show you how. That's right. Oh my gosh, you guys, it's too exciting to handle. This post is rockin' my food/booby world. 

It is all part of my royal duty as a Mammographer. And now, I bring you For The Cure Quinoa! Beautiful, no?

This dish is colored pink by beautiful beets and packed with broccoli and kale, both are the top food fighters against breast cancer! For more on that please, please, please watch this video on the Breast Cancer Survival Vegetable.

And for more information on breast cancer and it's relationship to diet you can read this article, Breast Cancer and Diet. Both the video and the article are from Nutritionfacts.org. Of course I couldn't forget about my male readers. Men get breast cancer to, so check yo self  boys. Seriously. 

For The Cure Quinoa

Inspired by Carla's Confections

Serves 4 

• 3 small beets, peeled and quartered
• 1 cup dry quinoa, rinsed well
• 2 cups water
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup vegetable broth
• 1 head of broccoli florets, cut small
• 1 bunch of kale, chopped
• 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/2 Tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped

Peel and quarter the beets. Place them in a large microwave safe dish with about a small amount of water. Just enough to barely cover the bottom. Don't make the mistake I did and put too much water in. You could end with a mess like this!

Cover the beets with a microwave safe plate and nuke for about 10 minutes or until you being to smell them. Then allow the beets to rest in the microwave, covered, until ready for use. 

Combine the quinoa and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer, cover and allow to cook for about 15 minutes. Once done cooking, remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Set aside until ready to use. 

In a large frying pan, heat the oil over medium heat, then add the onions and garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the onions begin to turn translucent.

Then, add in the vegetable broth as well as the broccoli and the kale. Allow to cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until the broccoli begins to just soften. Stir occasionally. 

Once the broccoli is tender and the kale has wilted, remove from heat. Get the cooked beets and dice them. Then add the beets, salt, pepper, vinegar and fresh herbs to the broccoli and kale mixture and stir well to combine.

Add in the quinoa and stir well to combine. Serve hot and garnished with additional herbs if you like.

Be sure to talk to your doctor if you're 40 or over about scheduling a mammogram. Also, don't forget to perform a breast self exam every month. Check out this great article on how to do a breast self exam.

If you need a reminder to do the breast self exam or just want some serious entertainment, watch this video of hunky men talking about the Your Man Reminder app that gives you monthly reminders and shows you how to do a breast self exam. Just watch it ladies. Trust me. Go do it right now. You'll regret it if you don't! I have the app, really, I do! I picked the bookish man...I know you had me pegged for the culinary man, but you're wrong. 

So make this quinoa, listen to Cher – Woman's World (like I am), do a self breast exam and if appropriate, schedule a clinical breast exam and mammogram. Do it for me, okay?

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