5c of water 1 medium onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 2 corn on the cob kernels ½ Poblano pepper
3c diced potato (I got purple fingerling spuds at my grocery – they look like sausages I think)
1/2c chopped parsley 1/2c chopped cilantro 3/4c frozen green peas 1c shredded mushroom 1/2c shredded green zucchini 1/2c shredded yellow summer squash 1c kale, sliced into small strips 1/2c shredded carrots 1c uncooked brown rice WELL RINSED!
Spices 1 vegan bullion cube (I used Chick’n flavor) 1T drizzle EVOO 2t cumin 1t oregano 1/2t rosemary 1/2t thyme 1t black pepper (coarse) 1/2t pink himalayan sea salt 1/8t cayenne pepper
Start:
Chop Onion and Garlic place in separate bowl (glass or metal, it will change the flavor of plastic)
CHOP EVERYTHING ELSE UP and place in separate bowl.
Blend your spices together using a fork, set aside.
Turn Instant Pot on SAUTE.
Add onions for 1 minute then garlic for 1 minute stirring constantly to soften them.
Add half the veggies, stir well.
Add 4 cups of water.
Add spices, stir well again.
Add remainder of veggies.
Stir (duh, right?). Try to get everything immersed in the water.
Add rice.
Add last cup of water and press rice into the mixture well.
Place IP lid on, turn to steam release off.
Press MANUAL.
Set for HIGH.
Set for 20 Minutes.
Just enough time to get your kitchen put back together!
When done cooking I normally let my IP sit for a little longer and allow the steam to release on its own. If you choose to hurry the process when it is done cooking and timer has gone off just be safe with your release valve. Wear oven mitt and to avoid spraying steam everywhere drape a lightweight (like a bread covering towel) kitchen towel over the top (only one layer).
Please let me know how you like this recipe!
Thanks!
Sarita
PS: Your house will smell SO GOOD from start to finish. Nothing as good as chopped fresh produce then all of these spices.
I am posting if for ONE AWESOME CUSTOMER that came through my line last night. I can’t remember your name but I hope you find this post and can create an amazing chili in your Instant Pot!
4T chili powder 2T cumin powder 1t onion powder 1t red pepper flakes 1t paprika 1t oregano 2t salt 3t black pepper
Blend it all with a fork in a bowl. Store it in a regular jar with a good lid.
This will make a LOT of chili spice!
INSTANT POT CHILI
1 drizzle (to cover ¼ the base of the IP) EVOO 1 onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, chopped 2 c shredded and chopped kale 2 carrots, shredded in the food processor (makes 1 cup of shredded carrots) 1 russet potato, cubed to dice size
1 can (14 oz) stewed tomato 2T of above spice combo 2 cans (14oz) drained kidney beans 1 can (14oz) drained pinto beans 1 jar (24oz) of Rao’s Marinara sauce
PREPARE EVERYTHING IN ADVANCE!
Drain beans IP on SAUTE, add EVOO Add onions, sauté a minute or two Add garlic, stir and sauté another minute Add carrot and blend/stir with a spoon Add kale, blend with a spoon
All of that should be tossed and combined Add chopped potato Add entire can stewed tomato (juice and all) Stir in the 2T of chili spice blend
Add beans Stir
Add Rao’s marinara sauce Fill the glass jar you just emptied with water, put the lid on it and shake it to get all remaining sauce then add to IP
Place lid on IP Put pressure valve to CLOSED position Manual settings: HIGH Time: 25 minutes
Allow pressure to release on its own. If you are in a hurry, you can release it (pull the valve toward you and stand clear). Make sure your IP valve release area has space. I often place a dish towel over it to try to reduce the spray. Open when the valve indicator has dropped (to the right of the valve itself).
I made home-made corn bread from scratch with my chili and it was deeeelish!
I finally put together a video of me making a vegan wrap. Who knows what’s next!
This is all because of two very influential people in my life. Randy and Bogie.
Bogie is keeps himself on the “cutting edge” of marketing and built his business Art Of Saving from scratch. He is seriously brilliant and always interested/investigating things to see how they work (or don’t work!).
I’ve known him as long as I have known Randy, minus a few weeks I think.
Seems I’ve gotten off task!
Here’s my video and my recipe on how to make a delicious and healthy vegan wrap.
RECIPE
Ingredients
Tin foil (optional: for the wrap-to-go) Mission veggie wrap Randy’s hummus Quinoa Frank’s Original Hot Sauce Black Olives Romaine Lettuce Kale, chopped up Carrots, shredded Small tomatos, chopped in half or thirds. ¼ avocado
The ingredients are built to enjoy a bit of each of them in every bite.
I warm my wrap a tiny bit to make it more pliable.
Directions (as they unfold in my video)
Place a warmed wrap on foil.
Spread hummus across it.
Place your romaine lettuce with the top of the leaf toward the top of your wrap.
Kale is then placed on top of the lettuce wrap, then carrot shreddings.
Splash Frank’s Hot Sauce all over it!
Add the tomatoes down one side of the wrap.
Place black olives next to the tomatoes.
Add your avocado from the top to the bottom.
Time to fold it up.
Bottom up first then side to side. Use the foil to help keep it in place.
Allow me to entertain you for about 45 seconds (unless you are a slow reader). Also, see my current physique which will shock you (not).
Goodbye 2018.
Hello 2019.
Handling my own problems with painting.
January 1st, 2019
WELL. We made it. Survived the entire year scraping by.
I wrote a lot of actual LETTERS last year. I took a photo of each envelope to make sure I replied to all of the letters I received plus I wanted to look back on all of the colorful envelopes I made.
Randy has been pushing me to keep creating too. It’s hard and discouraging.
Seems like people aren’t interested in writing letters anymore. It’s a ‘digital age’ and the younger folks are going to miss out.
I cannot imagine this. I’ll be writing letters to people I love and care about until I die whether or not I get a response. I always hope to of course.
Luckily 2018 had a friend that kept me from losing my mind working at a place that was paralyzing on happiness. I had to fake it most every single day just to make it to the end and throw my exhausted bones onto our tiny cheap couch hanging out with our dogs Zoey and Kona plus our cat Piper.
My husband and I sat down at the start of December in our new home to make a list of all of the great things about 2018. It was so fun to remember THOSE THINGS and write them down! It is never to late to reflect on a period of time and pick out the great stuff within it.
ANYWHO…we’re buzzing along here in freezing cold Colorado learning AGAIN how to start from scratch. By the end of our adventures (if not now) I think we can help someone else map out WHAT NOT TO DO! HA HA!!
Zone where LBs have nested.
I’ve put on a few LBs, managed to mess up my left hand (which makes is super fun to write, paint, type and use my mouse), last year in September I tore my rotator cuff during one of the grocery store case lot sales followed by a FIVE 12-PACKS of Coke Products/Pepsi Products for $10. This reduced my yoga participation by about 25% so I’ve been working on kettlebell and free weight 30 minute exercises.
I know that 80% of any body change battle starts with my food habits.
Randy and I wrote this baby and used it at our boot camp business for over a decade. It was tweaked and modified…updated and changed…all to make it more effective.
I’m putting a page here for you to download and use if you want to make some changes to any habits you are not happy with.
For me: I want to stick to a healthier food choice plan and get back to drinking the right amount of water…OH AND I WANT TO KEEP EXERCISING despite a -6 degree temperature outside.
Right now I’m staring out my back window as 8 deer are chomping away at whatever they can find. It’s butt ass cold out and in the last two months I’ve watched these deer (must be a family) roam through our backyard. Their fur is darker and the babies are growing up. One boy deer lost one antler (we hunted for it but no dice) so he’s wandering around with ONE antler. It doesn’t seem to be affecting him though and the lady-deer are just as irritated with him trying to insist on some hanky-panky time chasing them all through the trees.
For 2019 I plan to get my feet solid on the ground again.
I have things I want to accomplish. Not really RESOLUTIONS. More like accomplishments that I want to have on my list NEXT December.
OK gotta go.
I hope you download this food journal page if you need help. It’s free from Randy and I.
We are offering our entire food journal in electronic download too, if you are interested. We are pricing it at $12 (not $15). It WILL help you go 6 weeks straight, just like the old days at 805 Boot Camp.
Have you ever actually created a week long meal plan (snacks included) and stuck to it? I DID. Here’s how and what REALITY CHECK happened…
Making a meal plan is NOT easy.
So much life just distracts you. For me, sitting as quietly as possible in a room without anyone else and zero music playing…only dogs licking themselves off and on bothering me… it took me an HOUR.
I wanted to use what was IN my cupboards, fridge and freezer.
Here’s what I came up with.
Week 1 Plan
I ran it by Randy to see if he wanted to make any changes. We had eggs so he decided to switch out breakfasts a few times.
I created my grocery shopping list and because I know what/where items are in the grocery store I organized it to be super efficient in that task. This is a bonus as a Vegan Chef – I know where the odd things are.
HERE IS MY PLAN FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS IN PDF FORM
Life began to happen and we almost fell off within 2 days.
I began baking and creating the dishes that we would have. The house smelled great. This was only possible because I am not working right now. REALITY CHECK.
Randy began to look for my beat up planning paper to ask what we’d be having for dinner which inspired me to stick to the plan.
Our grocery shopping for WEEK 1 was about $68. Again, I had resources in my kitchen but I was pretty stoked to only spend that much for a full week of meals ALL HOME COOKED, packed with flavor, low on salt and always enough for LEFTOVERS!
I also planned out my exercise and the pet’s meals (we are all dining on the ritz). The $68 INCLUDED their 7 days, 2 meals a day.
WHAT I LEARNED
You need TIME to plan and execute a meal plan.
It is important to have a dessert (in our house). You can make them with less junk in them – with lots of flavors.
It is cheaper to plan meals and cook.
Once we got rolling it was easier. It’s not EASY yet (and I’m going to be working again…which means a lot of cooking on days off). I’ve got Week 2 planned out and I’m excited to make that chocolate cake (vegan of course).
Week 2: WISH ME LUCK
Green Salad or Wrap
Kona’s yummy dinner.
Baked this little guy (cost .25)
Lunch wrap.
Spaghetti squash with red cabbage black bean slaw.
Wrap: hummus and refried beans together are KILLER with Dave’s Hot Sauce
Red Cabbage Black Bean Slaw made a delish wrap!
The beginning of my veggie packed southwestern seasoned chili.
Cucumbers are excellent in wraps.
Bagel with hummus and avocado, topped with tomato and black olives (YUM)
Another Kona meal.
Lettuce wraps.
Apple Pie – spent .99 on a giant bag of mixed beat up apples. Added chia and vegan butter. We have them for Week 2 snacks as “apple pie”. Low sugar and no salt.
Buzz Bowl. Cayenne pepper kicks this sweet frozen fruit puree (too much liquid). Topped with chia, hemp, flax and granola. Licked bowl it was so good.
Seeking a good recipe idea on my phone/iPad or desktop. Search and discover plenty of intriguing photos and headlines including ‘recipe’ in them. Choose one, click link and begin reading the Life History of the writer/blogger along with giant (well taken) photos of progress of the dish plus the grand finale (sometimes 3 or 4 shots of it). After 10+ scroll-flips I happen to locate the ACTUAL RECIPE I needed 10 minutes ago. Ugh.
I really don’t care about the backstory or the life history build up. I’m too busy right now! Don’t get me wrong: I appreciate the story and enjoy the writer’s thoughts but it’s just too much. Now I know which sites have this and coast past them before clicking in my search.
On that note I’ll shut the hell up now and post my recipe!
If you want a story, just keep moving down my blog post (2 scroll-flips) and I’ll weave an amazing tale/backstory about my dish…plus photos!
Ingredients:
1 Fresh peach
3/4c Oats
1T Sunflower Seeds
1/2T Chia Seeds
1/2T Shelled Hemp Seeds
2T Cranberries
1T Coconut flakes
Orange juice fill bowl until it covers all of the goodies
Stir
Let sit so seeds and oats can absorb the juice (YUMMY!) for about 30 seconds to 2 minutes
Eat
Stirred, so my chia and oats absorb some of the OJ quicker.
This breakfast is very simple. I put all of my individual components into separate glass jar containers and my table looks like an apothecary before I begin combining everything. Tomorrow I might change things up. It’s a risky life I’ve leading over here, right?
But seriously: all of these ingredients give me a lot of energy. The only sugar is in the cranberries and OJ. You could one-up me by squeezing your own OJ (let me know if you do).
Epic Backstory For This Recipe
I got up at 5:00am remembering I’d agreed to run a 5K before it got too hot today.
My dinner last night was a veggie burger and I loaded it up with lettuce and tomato, Frank’s Hot Sauce and mustard. I had a cup of tortilla chips (the end of the bag so they were pieces). Very satisfied, I grabbed my book to read a few chapters then do my regular “time for bed” ritual.
It stays daylight – broad daylight – until 9:00pm here so I’m disoriented as far as when I should be in bed.
At 10pm we finally hit the hay and I played Edgar Cayce’s “Abundance Program” to drift off into Sleepy Town. I fall asleep so quickly with this guy’s calming voice and never really know what is being said past the “blink your eyes slowly as I count to 10”.
Back to NOW. 5:00am. Sipping my coffee quickly (thanks to my amazing Husband Unit for brewing it every dang day of my life) I imagined what I’d wear to run in. I had bad breath and crap in my eyes as I enjoyed and watched the local news telling me how much hotter it would be today.
Then I got dressed (fast) and met my Husband Unit (HU) at the door to go.
“We’ll go upriver today.”
That’s the path right next to the Jordan/Provo River. It’s asphalt and maintained pretty well BUT it does have a lot of ups and downs due to the tree roots so I have to pay close attention when scooting along and that makes it tough to daydream.
The sun hadn’t crested Y Mountain and I noticed zero clouds in the sky. Yup, it was going to be hot today and I was thankful we were getting this done now. I CERTAINLY would not be doing it later in the day!
We ran together and then I needed to walk. After my HU confirmed the Brutality and Women’s Self Defense moves I’d learned from Master Rene in Simi Valley he took off in a blaze of neon orange wearing his Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue shirt (one of his favs…thanks Deresa).
I watched him disappear into the foliage and lost contact with him completely.
It was me, the river crashing next to me, snails that had no chance of making it across the path in time (so I stopped and saved every single one of them) and a soft cool breeze. The path was completely empty and peaceful. There is a canopy of tall trees covering most of my route and I could see birds moving around zipping back and forth.
I began running again forced to watch my footing to avoid tripping as well as paying attention to any spider webs that might be crossing the path. We were THAT early and the rest of the town was still sleeping.
I crossed two foot bridges, ran beneath three under-bridge-paths and wound up sort of at a cross road “T”.
On the left it seemed to Dead End into a power plant and on the right there was a beat up asphalt path with a body stretched out next to a bike. It was a homeless person trying to rest. I decided to turn around and glanced at my Garmin. 1.84 – then I did the math on whether or not that would equal a 5K as I began jogging – alone – back down the river path. Despite the river crashing loudly next to me, I had my antennae up (read: danger!?!).
I heard the sound of scuffing and tripping behind me and turned quickly ready to kick someone’s ass.
Ah. My HU.
We began jaw jacking about ideas for our future. Things inspire us on our running time. He had two excellent ideas. I laughed (in my head) when one of his new ideas was about the same idea I’d had! How does that happen??
I’m not going to tell you the ideas.
With about half a mile left HU is DONE walking and says, “you ready to run yet?”.
Yes, I was. Plus my pipes had turned on and I needed to get to the fully plumbed home we were renting.
The sun was blasting over the mountain when we made it to our street.
I never like road running and definitely don’t enjoy doing it on trash day when the sun bakes the cans. We have a few neighbors that NEVER take their cans off the street and put them back in their yards. They smell THE WORST.
That hurried me along (as well as my plumbing needs).
Post restroom visit I hear a voice calling from the backyard, “you coming to workout?”. I’d forgotten about agreeing to that part! I hurried up the basement steps to the yard where my HU was doing Man Makers. I grabbed weights and started my curls while deciding which body part I wanted to work on. Arms, Shoulders, Abs.
Finished my plan, 100%.
This is where my recipe comes into the picture.
I was hungry. There were two peaches on the counter about to expire due to the heat.
So I made the peach recipe above.
The End.
PS:
What did you eat for breakfast? Did something inspire the choice? Just curious.
In case you are wondering…a few pics/videos for fun:
The Jordan/Provo River bridge crossing. I feel the urge to just stop on bridges to watch what is happening beneath them.
The Jordan River creating power!
I found out how effective this sit-up is for me. I move slowly and stretch both to my toes and above my head each time. Ahhhhh….I can’t seem to put the video in (like I could with my HU above).
Warning: at least 1 cuss word.
