Tag Archives: beets

My beets have been building up in the fridge, and I have been struggling to find recipes that use them. Most call for beets to be roasted, because let’s face it, it is best way to eat them. Sadly it is hot and I am not having my oven on for longer than 30 minutes. So, I figured I would try a sweet route- make beet jam. There was leftover blueberries and strawberries that Wolfie wasn’t really eating, so I figured why not toss them in with the beets.

While that was bubbling up, I had a tomato starting to go bad. I figured I would thinly slice it and make a quesadilla with it for lunch. Nothing terribly crazy, and I wish I added at least some sriracha but oh well. It was okay, pretty much the downfall is that Aldi’s vegan cheese doesn’t work well with quesadillas since it is fairly runny.

While starting to make dinner, I noticed all the okra was frozen (my fridge does this a lot, I also had to toss out frozen lettuce) and I wasn’t sure how baking it would effect it. So I tried my best to wash them off, and quickly chop them. Tossed them on a baking tray to freeze. At the very least I can try and make that pomegranate okra dish this winter, which called for frozen okra anyways.

So I ended up taking the leftover chili and made chili mac casserole. I chopped up the rest of the tomato from lunch, and yet another tomato that was starting to go bad, and sprinkled them on top. Sadly I am super unimpressed by the tomatoes this year, they have really large cores, making a big tomato half usable. You can even see the core in the chopped tomatoes below. Very unimpressed this year.

This dinner turned out kind-of disappointing. Lacking flavor, and I know the cheese sauce was lacking because I ran out of cashews. Bummer. But still was filling and good. And I eventually added more sriracha when I went for seconds.


Last night Wolfie saw me chopping up the beet and got very excited, and thought he was getting some. I felt bad when I told him he couldn’t have any, but told him that he could eat some in his smoothie the next morning, he was pretty excited. So that’s just what I did. I chopped up half a beet into the smoothie he shares with Jon. Then I tossed some into my smoothie. I didn’t take a photo because mornings are chaotic, but it was a chocolate-beet-strawberry smoothie. Tasty stuff.

Jon continued to have his pickled peas, salsa verde sides for lunch, but no leftover wrap. Yesterday I had a stroke of genius of making a quesadilla with the leftover okra dish and some vegan cheese. So this afternoon I tried it out and it was really delicious, although overstuffed. I will probably be finishing up the last bit of the leftovers this way this weekend.

It is also worth noting, there is no ice cream. I know! I am a shameful person! But I went into the freezer to start it up, and saw I never put the ice cream maker in the freezer. I could scream! So I guess it will get churned tomorrow. If it is any good I will try and post a recipe.

Today was a pretty hard parenting day, so I really had to push myself to make this soup tonight. It is pretty simple really though. Just one pound carrots, one pound golden beets, 1 onion sautéed, 1 tbsp red curry paste, boiled in 4 cups stock and blended with 1 cup almond milk. The original recipe roasted the roots, and used coconut milk but it was too hot and I accidentally used all my coconut milk to ice creams (so too hot.) It was tasty, and simple to make, but peeling so many tiny carrots was a pain. *cries* I served it with some of a half baked loaves of bread from Aldi, which is cheap but really nice. I super recommend getting them since it takes less than 10 minutes to bake, and the crust is always super perfect.

And if anyone follows me on Instagram you might of remember seeing one of my stories about a cute Hello Kitty soy sauce container. Well I got it, justifying it as the “fancy serving soy sauce.” And finally it had it’s day in the sun. The recipe didn’t call for salt, so I forgot to put it in. I used homemade stock, and I never salt it like commercial stocks and broths. So we just added soy sauce to make it saltier.

And now I am super pooped and will be saying good bye without spell checking or ending question lol


Anyone want to adopt my kid? Because I really would like some sleep. lol Last night Wolfie was terrified of the fireman demonstration at the library where they dressed up in their full gear, including the respirator. Apparently giving him nightmares so bad I refused to go back to sleep. So we got him a night light so cross your fingers tonight.

Today for lunch I had a bagel with tofutti but Jon had some leftovers. He had that salsa verde, pickles, and a wrap made with rice, beans, halved cherry tomatoes, and the leftover stew from last night. I love adding cherry tomatoes to burritos because they cook up a little when microwaving the wrap. It really will help with the flavor of the wrap. 

I was sitting around thinking about the kohlrabi I had in the fridge, and I decided I would try and make a pickle to use on a bahni mi sandwich. Sadly it went bad which I am honestly not surprised about that. But I did manage to make the basil cucumber sorbet I wanted to make. I need it to chill overnight and I will pop it in the ice cream maker tomorrow afternoon so it can set for the evening. Yummy.

For dinner I made a beet alfredo. It was good, though I am not sure how much the beet actually brought to the table. It feels a little bit more like a fun way to get kids to eat pasta. It felt a little lacking, so I tossed in a teaspoon of miso, and I used leeks instead of onions. It only uses one beet, so it doesn’t bring that much nutrition to the table. That is kind-of the problem with beets, a little goes a long way. Our CSA is having a strong beet crop this year, so that is a little tough since the other crops are hurting. I am starting to think about maybe doing a beetroot jam, or maybe a strawberry beet sorbet. 

Last week I made a cucumber green bean salad tossed in a miso dressing. It was pretty tasty, though I cooked the green beans instead of just “smashing” them. It makes a lot, so we have been eating it from time to time as a side dish. 

Well for anyone who is keeping track at home here is the total list. I know for a fact we won’t be using the green beans, as I am saving them for next week. There were hardly enough to really use. 

2 garlic scapes
1/2 cucumber
2 green bell peppers
1 kohlrabi R.I.P
1 small head of cabbage
2 lb 4 oz okra
4 lb 3 oz beets (half golden, half red)
1 lb 4 oz carrots
1 bunch of scallions
1 pint blackberries
1/2 pint ground cherries
1 quart sun gold tomatoes
1 lb 5oz tomatillos
3 1/2 oz green beans (1 pint)
12 oz mixed stir-fry greens (1/3 a bag)
3 small leeks
3 slicing tomatoes
4 small salt & pepper cucumbers
1 small striped eggplant (10oz)
4 hot peppers
3 cipollini onions

How do you like using beets? Any recipe recommendations?


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Make a meal with complimentary colors? Yes please! I thought red and green might a smidge too easy, since red and green are found so easily in plants. But blue is practically impossible (and I find that orange is such a subjective color) that I went for yellow and purple. Sadly purple is kind-of a subjective color as well. I mean I find that that beets kind-of have a deep purple color, but some people will just say they look red. 

Okay I know, I’m stretching it! But the end results does look quite impressive?

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So what the heck is in my bowl? Well, clearly there is some brown rice, because I probably should be eating that right now more than white rice. Then I paired it with tandoori tofu and curried beets. I actually thought of using the recipe because of My Cat Loves Daiya, who made a batch of the tandoori tofu from Vegan Eats World cookbook. BTW she made quesadillas with them and they look AMAZING! Anyways, if you want to give this tofu a try, the recipe is available on Terry Hope Romero’s blog.

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But what did I make? Well, the curried beets were my brainchild. They are pretty easy to make, and a quick side dish to put together. The longest thing was to thinly slice the beets, but you can use machines to make it easier for you. Since the cooktime and clean up for this dish is pretty easy, it makes a perfect side dish. The garam masala and coconut milk really cuts into the earthiness of the beets for any of the haters out there ^__~

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As for nutrition? These guys are pretty awesome. Yeah sure, these numbers don’t seem impressive. I mean one thing to keep in mind is that I have the percentages set up for a pregnant woman (aka I need more of like everything) but if you look at the mg numbers you will find that get a good amount of bang for your buck. Especially for something that is just a side dish.

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I love a good bowl. I don’t eat them often, as I tend to be the type of person who just makes one big dish. Curries, chilis, soups, stir-fries, and casseroles are more up my alley. But truthfully a well balanced vegan bowl is easy to do, especially if some prep work is done before hand. For example, I use already prepared hummus, some frozen protein balls I’ve made earlier, and the eggplant was pickled a few days earlier. All I had to do was pop everything in the oven and cook the couscous!

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Funny thing is that making a dish with as many colors in the rainbow can be hard. But I tried my best here using all produce from my CSA. I love being able to eat a dinner that is almost all from the same place. So what is what in the rainbow?

  • Red & Orange: bell pepper, last of the season
  • Yellow: pickled turmeric eggplant (again last of the season)
  • Green: green leaf, arugula, and radish greens
  • Blue: the bowl- duh!
  • Purple: roasted beets
  • Brown: hummus & chickpea beanballs
  • White: Pearl Couscous tossed in soy yogurt

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Overall, it took about an hour for dinner to cook, but there was a lot of down time. The beets that took the longest to roast. It might take longer than an hour if you choose to make your own hummus and beanballs/falafels. But I strongly suggest making doubles of a falafel/beanball recipe and freezing the extras for bowls like this.

For anyone who is wondering- you will need to prepare the eggplant two days ahead of time. I am a big fan of this refrigerator pickle recipe, and it is a great way to preserve some extra eggplant from the summer. If you aren’t a huge eggplant fan, this really alters the taste and the traditional mushy texture. I personally used Wegman’s brand hummus, just the good old classic hummus, though you could go for any flavored hummus if you like. And finally the balls were the Chickpea Eggplant Hemp Veggieballs from Protein Ninja. But there are lots of falafels now that you can find in the freezer section, like Trader Joe’s.

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Last weekend I was pretty stressed from the week. It was pretty weird and all over the place, so I decided to lay back and relax. I made a yummy pizza dip for the Broncos and Seahawks game, and made an amazing butternut squash soup from Isa Does it. So you might see some REALLY old things on this roundup. I didn’t get to share them last weekend and I didn’t want them to be skipped completely.

This weekend I visited my Grandparents in central PA, and when I mean central I mean centered Pennsylvania. It’s in the middle of state right dab in the middle. The closest city is Altoona, if you want to google it in a map. There maybe some photos later this week and some thoughts of veganism and farming.

BUT for now—-

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beets

Red Velvet Raw Beetroot Heart Bars & BBQ Beetroot Seitan Steaks by A2K

A2K has a lot of beets, obviously since she is tempting me to two different beet recipes! One is a dessert made with beet roots and made into cute little hearts! And she pairs it with chocolate?! I love beets and chocolate. Then she goes savory with a beetroot steak. I don’t get too many beets yet from my CSA, so these recipes are making me sad. Soon. Soon.

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The summer crops are dwindling.  The farmers recommend that we stock up on peppers as they won’t be around much longer. The tomatillos were a little dry and sparse. There are less tomato varieties from which to pick (slicing, cherry, peach, and plum). The clearest sign that fall crops upon us? Beets and various greens are making it back to the menu. 

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