{Vegetarian Curious #2} Lindsay’s Loaded Sweet Potatoes

I have another great “Vegetarian Curious” guest post for you as I work on getting back into the swing of school things.

This post is from Lindsay who somehow coordinates the awesome Foodie Penpal program AND is going through a dietetic internship (something I get to look forward in the future with MY degree!).

Don’t drool on your keyboard TOO much with this vegetarian recipe!
—————
My name is Lindsay and I blog over at The Lean Green Bean.

I was lucky enough to meet Amanda at Blend Retreat in May and am excited to be guest-posting for her today!

My husband and I stopped eating a meat a little over a year ago. I had previously gone several months without meat, but my husband was a true carnivore. He loved his steak and ate meat pretty much every night for dinner. One day he came home and asked me if I wanted to stop eating meat for 6 weeks. It was so random and I was totally shocked. I suggested we try for one or two weeks, because quite honestly I didn’t think he could do it. We settled on trying to go meatless for one month and I blogged about about our first 4 weeks as vegetarians. Then we just kinda kept going!

Although we still eat seafood occasionally, we’ve officially gone one year without meat and I’m so proud of my hubby. We’ve found a lot of new favorite dishes over the past year and several have become weekly staples in our house. I thought I’d share one of them with you guys today.

We literally eat these at least once a week at our house. We’re huge Mexican fans over here so we usually make them Mexican themed, but there’s lots of room for creativity! These are also great for using up all the leftovers in your fridge!

Here’s what you need:

Sweet potatoes– One per person, or if you have super big ones you can give each person half.
A Grain– I usually use leftover brown rice, quinoa or wheatberries. You could also use couscous or even something like orzo
A Protein– I almost always black beans. You could use pretty much any type of bean…or try chickpeas or lentils!
Veggies – whatever your favorites are! I usually use red and green peppers and onions. You could add carrots, zucchini, squash, etc.
Toppings– My favorites are tomato, avocado and Mexican cheese! Use your favorite kind of cheese, or sprinkle with some nutritional yeast
Spices– I use cumin and cayenne pepper for my Mexican version.

Here’s what you do:

1. Dice the veggies and saute them in a large pan with a little olive oil and garlic. When they start to get soft, add the spices and the protein and let everything heat through.
2. While the veggies are cooking, stab the sweet potatoes all over with a knife or fork to let steam escape. Throw them in the microwave. I usually don’t do more than 2 at a time and they usually take 5-6 minutes to cook (on high power), depending on the size. Flip them over halfway through.
3. Remove the sweet potatoes from the microwave and warm up the grain if necessary.
4. Slice the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise. Top with about 1/2 c of the grain, add some of the bean and veggie mixture and then add your toppings!

Dig in!

Hope you guys enjoy these. Like I said, they’re one of our favs 🙂 Feel free to stop by The Bean for more recipes and some fun workouts! I love visitors.

Enjoy!

–Lindsay–
—————

Hope you’re all having a great week!  I might manage a WIAW post tomorrow…we will see. 🙂

What’s your favorite kind of potato?

Have you tried quinoa before?