Spinach and Mushroom Enchiladas

The picture might not look like much but this is one of my FAVORITE healthy meals to make! I've made it twice in the past week, if that gives you an idea. Onion, spinach, and mushrooms are sauteed with just a smidge of butter, some garlic, and some spices, rolled into corn tortillas, smothered in a smooth, tangy, roasted poblano pepper cream sauce, topped with montery jack cheese and baked until bubbly and golden. The end result is a very un-photogenic heaping pile of deliciousness on your plate that tastes like the zillion calorie restaurant version but is actually only 764 calories for the whole recipe, which can be two or three servings depending on how hungry you are.

I really enjoy cooking at home and finding ways of reducing the calories in my favorite meals. I order spinach enchiladas (which are usually doused in a sour cream/cheese white sauce) almost every time I go to a Mexican restaurant. The spinach makes me feel like I'm being healthy but the sauce reminds me that I most certainly am not! This super easy homemade version tastes the same but cuts out all the unnecessary calories that restaurant meals like to tack on.

|A word about the photos for this recipe- this was the first time I attempted to photograph/blog about a recipe in the house I'm currently living in. It was night (since I was making dinner), but the lighting in my house is rather dark and mediocre in general. And my walls are yellow so that makes everything else photograph a bit yellow. To counteract this I grabbed my clamp-on work light which lights my light tent and tried to use it as a lighting source. It kind of worked... and kind of not. 

Exhibit A..

..and Exhibit B

For one thing I had to keep moving it between different outlets as I moved from cutting board to stove and back. There was no good spot to clamp the light in either location so I had to hold it in my left hand while photographing with my right. It was pretty amusing, you should have seen it. A lot of the pictures still look like something with a very bright light being focused on it in an otherwise very dark room, but it was ok for a first attempt! I'm going to work on setting up a more consistent lighting arrangement for future posts.|

Note: The calorie counts in my recipes are deduced from the information on thecaloriecounter.com as well as certain brands of products (as products vary), which I will try to specify. Substitutions and variations may work but are not recommended for those watching their calories as they will alter the calorie total of the recipe.

Spinach and Mushroom Enchiladas
Serves 2-3

Ingredients
1 clove garlic
1/4 yellow onion
10 mushrooms (about 2/3 small box of mushrooms)
6 cups (1 large bag) spinach
1 tbsp butter, divided
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne (omit or reduce if you do not like spicy food)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2-1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tbsp flour
2/3 cup vegetable broth (I use Safeway O organics brand)
1/2 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt (I prefer Fage)
1 oz monterey jack cheese
1/2 roasted pasilla (poblano) pepper (instructions below)
6 white corn tortillas (Mission brand)

To roast a pepper:
Preheat oven to 450. Rinse pepper well and dry. Place on center rack (no need to use cookie sheet, right on the rack is fine) and bake for about 5 minutes. Check for charring and blistering on the skin of the pepper and rotate to ensure even cooking. Cook for a few more minutes. When pepper is about 70% charred/blistered, remove from oven and place in a plastic bag. This will kind of steam the pepper as it cools and make it easier to remove the skin. When cool enough to handle, slice open pepper, remove seeds, and peel off outer skin, rinsing if necessary. Tada, roasted poblano pepper!

Preheat oven to 400. In a skillet, melt 1/2 tbsp butter. Roughly dice up the (1/4) onion and add it to the skillet, tossing to coat.

Mince the garlic and add it to the skillet. Cook the onion and garlic for 3-5 minutes, until slightly browned and translucent.

Meanwhile, wash and dry your mushrooms. Yes, I wash my mushrooms. With water. If you don't want to you don't have to but I'm going to, cool?

Slice them up (about 1/4 inch per slice)...

...and add them to the pan. Stir them around to mix with the onions and coat with butter. The pan will probably seem a bit dry but don't add any more butter or liquid! Soon the mushrooms will relinquish all their moisture and everything will be just fine ;)

See? Let them cook until browned and tender.

When most of the liquid has evaporated, add in allll the spinach. It will be a lot in the pan (especially my tiny pan) but the steam from the mushrooms should rise up and help it wilt fairly evenly.

While the spinach is heating, get your spices together.

And once it's almost completely wilted add them to the pan. Stir it around, let it cook a bit more to git rid of excess moisture, taste and adjust seasonings, and the filling is done!

If you want, you can measure this and divide it into 6 equal portions. I just move it around the pan with my spoon into 6 kind of equal piles.

Now for the sauce. Grab a small (not teflon, not scratched up and horrible looking) sauce pan and throw in 1 tbsp flour and the remaining 1/2 tbsp butter. Heat over low heat to form a roux, whisking constantly. This will be a very dry rue, since there is twice as much flour as there is butter. This makes it twice as easy to accidentally make butter-flour dumplings and have to start over! The key is to keep the heat low, add liquid verrrry slowly, and whisk super well while you add the liquid in to break up clumps. Don't worry about getting a very dark roux, just cook the flour and butter until combined and a light golden color.

You can combine the veg broth and milk before adding to the roux or do the veg broth first. At first just drizzle in a tbsp or so at a time, whisking to combine, and then add larger portions (like 1/4 cup). Once all liquid has been added, let cook a couple minutes to thicken up slightly. It will still be pretty thin.

Dice up your poblano pepper and add it to the sauce. Remove the sauce from the heat.

Measure 1/2 cup of cool, creamy, greek yogurt. Let the sauce sit and cool for a minute or two- this is very important whenever you make a dairy based sauce, like for mac and cheese! If you add your dairy product (like the cheese in mac and cheese or the yogurt here) when the bechamel is boiling, the product is likely to break down, curdle, and get grainy. blegh. Especially if it's low fat. So make sure your sauce isn't too hot!

Urgh. Looks disgusting in this picture but is delicious, I promise! Add the greek yogurt and stir well to combine. The sauce will become much thicker and creamier.

not the best angle for my hand

Now for putting the enchiladas together. Pour about 1/4 cup of sauce in the bottom of a small rectangular glass pan (like a loaf pan) and spread it around. Wrap 6 tortillas in a couple layers of paper towels and microwave for 30 seconds. Take a hot tortilla, fill it with 1/6 of the filling, and roll it up tight. Place in the pan, seam side down.

continue with all six tortillas

Grate up 1 oz of cheese (I cut my cheese into even 1 oz cubes when I buy it so I always know how much I'm actually grating/eating. It helps!)

Then drizzle the rest of the sauce all over the enchiladas. Top with the grated cheese. You should have a LOT of sauce so it should fill all the nooks and crannys of the enchiladas.

Bake for about 5 minutes to heat through, then crank up the broiler and cook for a few minutes to brown the top and crisp up the cheese.

Serve with hot sauce (I like Sriracha. I know it's weird to put sriracha on mexican food but it's delicious. meh.) and beans and rice if you please. I usually just eat 3 enchiladas with no sides and it's a TON of food- and a very filling and satisfying dinner!

I imagine you could freeze this after you put it all together and pull it out for an easy weeknight dinner down the road as well :)

Calories
total: 764
serving (half recipe/3 enchiladas): 382
per enchilada: 127

<3

Shampoo? Toothpaste? Face wash? Who needs 'em!

I am all about the semi-recent movement from fancy, expensive store-brought products to healthy, cheap alternatives. It turns out most of the things we are raised to believe are absolutely essential to personal hygiene are actually doing the opposite of what we want them to! One by one I've ditched my once-beloved products and moved on to things that not only feel better, save the environment and save me a whole lot of money.

1. The first things to go were shampoo and conditioner. I stopped washing my hair with them about a year ago and I haven't looked back. I wash my hair maybe once every two weeks with baking soda and vinegar, and other than that I just rinse it well when I shower. Shampoo is designed to strip our hair of it's natural oils, which is not only irritating to the skin but is completely counterproductive. These natural oils are responsible for shiny (not greasy), healthy, protected hair. When they are stripped away, our scalps overcompensate and create too many oils, leading to greasy hair that needs to be washed more often. Conditioner is just there to replace the oils that Shampoo takes out... so really it's entirely unnecessary if you leave the oils alone in the first place.

 When I wash my hair, I use a combination of a couple tablespoons of baking soda (because I have verrry long hair) and hot water, poured over my head in the shower and lightly massaged in. This gets rid of the dirt and grime without irritating my scalp or stripping away too many oils. I follow this with a mixture of a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and hot water, which acts as a natural conditioner/softener and leaves my hair shiny, soft, and voluminous.
To read more about washing your hair without shampoo and condition, you can look here.

2. I just ditched toothpaste about a week ago. That might sound absolutely appalling, but toothpaste is actually a pretty modern invention. One of those ways corporations trick us into paying money year after year when we don't really have to, you know? Instead of toothpaste, which is full of all kinds of fancy chemicals that I can't even begin to try to pronounce, I use a combination of baking soda and sea salt. Baking soda. It's just so useful, isn't it? Not just for the back corner of the fridge anymore. I made a mixture that was probably about 75% baking soda and 25% sea salt and I store it in a quarter pint sized mason jar in my bathroom. The mason jar helps keep the mixture air tight and moisture-free. I just wet my toothbrush, shake out the excess water, then dip the tip into the powder. 

When I first tried it I was pretty worried about the baking soda flavor- I am not a fan of the whole baking soda/warm water heart burn relief method- but I pretty much just tasted the salt. This was no problem for me because lately I've tended to prefer savory over sweet anyways. The baking soda cleans and whitens teeth (my teeth are whiter than they're ever been with "whitening" toothpastes), and the salt gently scrubs and promotes the production of saliva which keeps gums healthy.

Honestly I didn't research this nearly as much as I first researched using BS and ACV on my hair, but I felt pretty confident today when I went to the Co-op grocery store on 4th ave today (a haven of all things super healthy... and overpriced) and found a small bottle selling for 5 bucks called "tooth powder". The ingredients? baking soda, salt, and a small amount of peppermint to give a minty flavor. If the co-op is selling it and touting its health benefits, I feel pretty good about doing it for cents in my own home. For more info, you can look here.

3. I haven't officially tried this one, but it's getting hype all over the blogosphere. The idea is to ditch your fancy shmancy 8$ face wash (or 30$ if you use proactiv, like I did when I was a teenager) and wash your face with oil. Yes, oil. It's the same idea as the shampoo thing. Face wash basically strips your face of oil, which contrary to popular belief is NOT the cause of acne. Acne is caused by changing hormone levels and dirt and bacteria that clog the pores. Face wash gets rid of the grime, but also the naturally created oils that keep our skin radiant and soft. Thus, our skin over-produces oil, making our faces greasy and more likely to get clogged. Washing your face with oil dissolves the grease and grime and replaces it with clean, healthy oils. Also, it's apparently a great makeup remover.

When I stopped by the co-op today, I picked up a bottle of castor oil. I already had a bottle of grapeseed oil from some beauty products I made my mom and sister for christmas, however, I've heard extra virgin olive oil, sunflower oil, and several other types work well also. When I got home I mixed the two in a bottle I used for icing cookies last year (75% grapeseed, 25% castor). I plan on using it tonight for the first time. Here's what you do: put a small amount of oil in your hand. massage it onto your DRY face for about a minute. Get your tap water as hot as you can, and wet a washcloth with it. Put the washcloth over your face and just wait until the cloth reaches room temperature. Doesn't that sound like a great way to start/finish the day? Like a mini spa. Anyways, then rinse the washcloth and wipe the oil off your face. And that's it! Soft, smooth, radiant skin. Or so I hear. I'm super stoked to try this. Supposedly you only need to do it once a day (tops) for results. For more information, look here. 

Do you guys have any diy beauty products that you swear by? I'm pretty sure the next thing to go is going to be my deodorant, and then probably my volumizing mousse and hairspray. Let me know if you have any other suggestions!

my new(ish) favorite way to start the day

This summer, I have found the secret to bright-eyed mornings, refreshing and healthy yet delicious food, easy weight-loss, and general happiness and well-being. I've also found the meaning of life. Excited yet? Perhaps I exaggerate a bit... but seriously, I've found a breakfast to end all breakfasts. In my opinion. Of course... I kind of detest breakfast so I guess my opinion isn't much to go on.

I'm sure half of you are gasping in shock and clicking the unfollow button- for how could one not like breakfast? People are serious about their breakfast, man... some people even eat it for dinner. I don't know. I can't explain it. I've never really been into eating mountains of doughy or bready stuff sopping with sugary syrup that early in the morning... and eggs have always kind of been meh. As for sausage and bacon... I just never really fell in love with it the way the rest of the world seemed to. maybe it's the vegetarian thing. I can appreciate a good eggs benedict though, provided the meat is substituted with sauteed greens or grilled tomatoes or artichoke hearts or something and they use real hollandaise sauce. Because seriously, how can anyone dislike something that's smothered in hollandaise sauce?

I'm getting off topic. Not liking the typical breakfast food can be difficult in a grand-slam kind of world. I did oatmeal for a while, then chocolate protein shakes, then cereal, then fruit and granola and yogurt, and then just fruit. I like eating fruit for breakfast because it's refreshing, delicious, and low calorie, but it still wakes my body up and gets my metabolism going. This summer though, I decided to mix it up. Enter my parents' blender.

Yep. That's my super awesome secret to everything wonderful. Breakfast smoothies. You're free to go.

Seriously, though! Breakfast smoothies are freaking amazing. The ones I make range from 150-250 cals each and fill pint sized glasses with some usually left in the blender. They are soooo delicious, take a while to consume since you sip it slowly (usually while doing something else, like blogging for instance...), give you an awesome boost of energy, fill you up for hours, AND they're super duper healthy, being low fat, low cal, and chock full of fresh fruit and vegetables and all.

I've been drinking these every day this summer... except for when I went to Greece for 5 weeks. Breakfast in Greece, by the way, made me pine for a big ol' stack of that bready syrupy nastiness. It's bad. Like really, really, really bad. Most times it consisted of shitty coffee, one type of cereal which was the same at every place, room temperature milk, and about 9 types of breads and random pound cakes on which to spread unsalted butter and individually packaged jams. If you were lucky there might be some hard boiled eggs, greek yogurt, or sliced cheese and processed bologna like meat. But fresh fruit? Oh hell no. You're going to eat bread and bologna for breakfast and you're gonna like it.

I hated it.

But now I'm back, and the age of smoothies has begun again!

also, not to like, toot my own horn or anything, but I've lost about 12 pounds this summer. Not saying that it's all to do with drinking smoothies in the morning, but yeah, it totally is.

so whip one up and have it for breakfast tomorrow. It will give you super powers and you will feel like the most amazing person on earth!

Here's what I've been drinking lately:

1 cup frozen blueberries (get the giant bag of them at costco, they will last FOREVER)
1 cup spinach or kale (you can't even taste or see it in the final product, but it's so good for you!)
1/2 a banana
1/2 a fuji apple
1/2 cup water, or soymilk if you're feeling frisky.

dump it all in a blender, turn the blender on. done. total cals: 169, or 214 if you use soymilk.

here's what I'm drinking right now:

1 cup frozen blueberries
2 cups diced watermelon
1 cup spinach
1/2 cup soymilk

total cals: 217. It's so creamy and sweet and light and delicious. and a kajillion times healthier than jamba or robeks!

Tomorrow I'm going to start posting greece pictures. Prepare to be wowed! Or bored. we'll see :)

love you all! happy monday, by the way :)

<3
Ems

An Outlook on Food

There is so much information and research out there about what is good for you, what type of eating lifestyle is the healthiest, and what type of standards you should have when buying food. It can all be pretty confusing. I have personally been an omnivore, vegetarian, and a vegan at different points in my life, and each lifestyle has valid points defending it's healthiness. This blog started out primarily vegan, but you may have noticed that recently some things have been decidedly non-vegan. Over the years, I've shaped what I think is a healthy outlook on food that minimizes harm to animals and maximized flavor. Now, I'm going to elaborate on this outlook so it's a little more clear what goes into the planning for my recipes and food choices.

Zucchini Pasta Salad

I just got back from my annual retreat in the lovely Mendocino woodlands of Northern California. Stewie came with me this time and it was a lot of fun! We got to meet up with my sister, her boyfriend, and some of her other friends... as well as visit our wonderful friend Marby! We got to go to the beach, eat on the pier, chill in the hotel jacuzzi, and drive all over L.A. I can't wait for the next road trip :)

Anyways, I'm back now and I've got a bunch of recipes! I basically did no cooking on my 12 day vacation, but I've got a couple from right before I left and right after I got back. I finally took pictures of my favorite Potato recipe! But that's for another day... Today is a bit more healthy.

For July Fourth weekend, my Mom invited me over to help her make some food for dinner. My rents have been on a vegan/vegetarian health kick for the past few months which I think is really great! Every time I go over for dinner we always make really interesting and filling meals in which fresh vegetables dominate. When I came over on the Fourth, we weren't really sure what we were going to make but we had a ton of fresh basil, squash, and zucchini. One of the recipes we came up with was one I had been thinking about for a long time because it's on tons of different vegan and raw websites. Zucchini Pasta!