Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking to the Breast Cancer Wellness Group at Cancer Services, the non-profit that I work for.
It was a lot of fun and in just 1.5 hours, we pretty much had a full meal. The meal consisted of roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli, BBQ chicken, 7 superfood salad, and chocolate hummus with sliced apples.
Outside of the hummus, all the other recipes were ones that I use ALL THE TIME!
In fact, the 7 superfood salad isn’t even a recipe. It’s just a super convenient product that I like to buy. There’s a small version I get at my local grocer, and a larger package I get at Costco. [Side note – check out my fav things at costco here!] It makes it so quick and easy to get veggies in. And the leftovers can be eaten for another day or two and not get soggie, like tossed salad does. You can see what it looks like here.
For your convenience, here are the recipes!
Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Broccoli:
- Cut sweet potatoes and broccoli into small chunks.
- Toss in a container with olive oil (or drizzle olive oil on them and toss them with your hands).
- Add salt and pepper and toss some more.
- Roast in oven at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes. You’ll know they’re done when they have a little crisping on the edges. I also try to mix them around after 20 minutes or so.
- NOTE that you want to make sure your veggies are not piled on top of each other. Otherwise they will steam each other instead of getting crispy on the edges. I’ve made that mistake before – oops!
Instant Pot BBQ Chicken:
- Combine 2/3 cup BBQ sauce, 1/3 cup water and 1/3 cup vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar) – mix and pour into pot.
- Place frozen chicken in pot. I estimate about 3 pounds. (I use boneless skinless chicken thighs but you could use boneless skinless breasts).
- Set Instant Pot on manual for 30 minutes, if frozen, and 15 minutes if fresh. (If using fresh, I like to saute the chicken in cooking spray for 3 minutes on all sides to brown the chicken first.)
- Once done, allow for natural pressure release for 10-15 minutes. Then quick release any pressure that’s left and remove lid.
- Break apart chicken with 2 forks to make sure it’s done and mix with the sauce. If desired, add frozen spinach or other veggies and use saute function to heat the veggies with the chicken and sauce. Drizzle with more BBQ sauce if desired.
- Enjoy with rice, rolls, slider buns, sweet potatoes or anything else you like!
Chocolate Hummus…. an interesting experiment. : – D
The chocolate hummus was another experience. I usually do not try out new recipes on groups that I have not tried before. But yesterday, I just decided to go for it. I have tasted chocolate hummus from the grocery store before and decided we could make it.
Well, I picked up my garbanzo beans and tahini (sesame seed paste) from a Syrian grocery store that is right behind our office building. YES – SUPER convenient for me! I keep Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder around all the time. It’s great for the avocado chocolate pudding, the tofu chocolate pudding recipe, and also for my fav smoothie recipe (FYI you can make the smoothie with milk or soymilk, rather than nutrition supplement drink). Trust me, I’ve tried other cocoa powders, and this one makes it more chocolate-y. Which is important for this chocolate lover!
And just in case you’re wondering… NO… Hershey’s doesn’t even pay me to say that! IF ONLY it was that easy for me to make some extra money for Cancer Services to help pay for our client’s medicine!
Anyway, I used this recipe for the hummus. And I did a taste before passing it out to the group. And…… it wasn’t so great. So I added another 1/4 of syrup. It still wasn’t what I was expecting but we went ahead and tasted it anyway. Some people liked it!
The funny thing is that I kept eating it with the apples that were left and the more I ate, the better it tasted. I did have this other recipe that I think I will try for next time and see if it’s better. I think it might be more of what I expect because it uses peanut butter in place of tahini. We all know that peanut butter and chocolate make marvelous partners.
That’s all from me today. Be sure to check out my podcast. My latest episode (#5 – on GMOs) should be posted up today!
– Julie
