Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos with Avocado Crema

February 21, 2017 By Jessica Braider 9 Comments

This month’s challenge from The Recipe Redux is near and dear to my heart: tacos!!

Show us your healthy, creative take on the taco.

For as long as I can remember, tacos have been a favorite food of mine. When I was a kid, my mom had (still has) special bowls that she used to put out the taco toppings and whenever I saw those bowls coming down from the cupboard I knew that an awesome dinner was in store! I think because I was a picky eater I enjoyed the control I had over my own plate—I got to choose which toppings I used and which I avoided and, if I was feeling brave, I could try something new in a small and safe way. As a kid, the taco options were the same every time: ground beef, kidney beans, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, cheese, and salsa. And still, with the exception of raw onions which I am not a huge fan of, I love all of those components and would happily have one of my childhood tacos any night!

For this Taco Tuesday, though, I’m sharing a different version. While the ground beef is great and we definitely eat it from time to time in our house, it isn’t usually something I include with taco night because there are other, healthier sources of fat in the meal. In fact, many times our taco nights are vegetarian, using beans as the protein source. The tacos I’m sharing today involve one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations, black beans and sweet potatoes, along with a creamy avocado-based sauce that makes the whole meal feel special! In fact, the last time I made the avocado crema my 8-year-old said, “wow! This is such a fancy meal!” when the only difference was replacing our standard cut up avocado with the crema.

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Super Simple Slow Cooker Chili

November 17, 2016 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Did you know that the night before Thanksgiving is one of the biggest nights for ordering pizza in the United States? I get why. I really do. Whether you are hosting, cooking to contribute to the big meal, or preparing to travel we all feel pretty overwhelmed on that Wednesday and so, for many of us, the last thing we want to do is think about what to make for dinner. And while I am a big fan of ordering pizza from time to time, it seems to me that with all of the indulging and overeating that is going to happen the next day, having a nutrient-packed meal the night before might actually be a good thing to help to keep our bodies (and spirits) in balance. But making a big fancy meal is not going to fly. So here’s my suggestion: super simple slow cooker chili!…

Roasted Broccoli

July 2, 2015 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

One of the foods that I recommend most often to clients is roasted vegetables. For the busy cook, they are great because they are easy to make, very forgiving in terms of cooking time, and can be made in bulk and then used throughout the week in various dishes.

I also love them for how versatile they are. You can use them on their own as a side dish or include them in a huge variety of dishes including omelets, pastas, grain salads, pizzas, quesadillas, wraps, grilled cheese/paninis, stir fries. And you can flavor them in various ways–salt and pepper, indian spices, chili powder, parmesan, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, and bread crumbs are just a few of our favorite ways to have them….

Simple Grain Salad: A side dish without a recipe

February 19, 2015 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

One of the recommendations I often make to clients and in workshops is to “cook once, and eat two, three or more times.” Many times, life can get so busy that meal planning seems impossible and all we can do is try to quickly figure out the next meal—tonight’s dinner, tomorrow’s school lunch, etc. When we do that we are constantly searching for recipes and depending on our creativity, which can quickly burn us out and leave us resentful of having to cook at all. But, with a tiny bit of planning and maybe some flexibility we can turn one round of cooking into two or three simple meals.

One of my favorite ways to stretch the food I make farther is with a grain salad. If I am making a pot of grains—rice, quinoa, millet, couscous, etc.—I always make extra. So much can be done with leftover grains: you can turn them into breakfast porridge, throw them into a big green salad for some added heft, mix them into soups or stews, fold them into veggie burger batter, and, my favorite, turn them into a grain-based salad. Grain salads are great because they can serve as a hefty side dish and are so incredibly flexible—any leftover vegetables, cheese, or salad dressing you have lying around can get thrown in!…

Sweet Potato Latkes and Changes in the New Year

December 17, 2014 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Hanukkah started last night. In our inter-faith household this is a time of great busyness and excitement. Lighting the candles, favorite foods, festive songs, decorating the tree, time with family and loved ones, and (too many) gifts are only some of the reasons that this time of year is a favorite for everyone in our family.

It is also a time of an onslaught of not-so-healthy foods, many of which are absolutely delicious. So last night I set out to try to bring some more sustenance to our dinner table as we celebrated the first night of Hanukkah. Now, before I dive right into the recipe I want to offer a disclaimer. I know that in order to commemorate the miracle of the oil lasting for eight nights the latkes are meant to be fried in oil but, to be totally honest, I can’t handle the smell of fried food that is left lingering in my kitchen for days. So this year I tried something different. I baked my latkes, with a layer of oil underneath. This is probably sacrilegious and unacceptable for some, but for our family it worked amazingly well. So well, in fact, that while I thought I had made enough for leftovers for tonight, my husband ended up having to show great restraint in leaving the last one to go in our older son’s lunch today as he begged and pleaded for this to happen….

Grilled Vegetables: A Sign of Spring

April 21, 2014 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Spring has finally (!) arrived here in the DC area and this weekend we took full advantage of the nice weather and bright sunshine to garden and cook on the grill. The grill is a relatively new addition to our lives. We have had it for about two years and I am so glad that we do! There is really nothing like a meal full of grilled foods—even on the busiest of days it adds a feeling of relaxation that I just love….

Sweet Potato-Bok Choy Soup

March 24, 2014 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

I love bok choy. I really do. I love it in stir fry because it adds such a wonderful crunch and flavor. There is only one problem: unless I am making a stir fry to feed 10, I always have leftover bok choy and I just don’t know what to do with it. Now, as I have written about before, I hate wasting food, so I have tried it in salads and have never been crazy about it. I have tried braising it and that’s ok. But I really wanted to find a way to use my leftover bok choy that would be tasty and exciting. And I finally did! Sweet potato-bok choy soup….

Spelt Sweet Potato Muffins

November 19, 2013 By Jessica Braider 2 Comments

I don’t know about at your house, but things at our house have been crazy busy! One way you can tell is that our freezer has gotten very, very empty. How is that a sign? Well, it means I have been depending heavily on my leftovers stockpile for dinners, as well as my quick breakfasts stash.

So today I am replenishing my stores a bit. I made a big trip to the grocery store (first trip since our CSA ended for the season, such a hard transition) and have been whipping up some goodies. One of which is a new favorite recipe in our house: Spelt Sweet Potato Muffins.

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Sweet Potato-Black Bean Burgers

November 12, 2013 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

This weekend was a time when I was repeatedly reminded of how fast time is flying by. We spent a wonderful evening with a large group of friends and their kids and, for the most part, the kids just played on their own. Sure there were a couple skirmishes, especially as the evening wore on and kiddos got pooped, but for the most part it was really the grown-ups talking and the kids off, doing their own thing.

Then we spent a late evening with an old friend, playing cards and laughing a lot. It was a wonderful reminder that even as time goes by, even the closest relationships that continue to grow and change.

And then the weekend ended with a family dinner with all the cousins running around (4 boys in 4 years). Similar to the friends gathering, the kids were off entertaining themselves, having an amazing time, and the grown-ups could watch from a distance and enjoy each other.

This feels like a major milestone in parenting—that time when the kids are off entertaining themselves and you can (sort of) trust that no one is going to fall from a great height or poke their eye out. It feels like the time just flew by, and yet I am SO GRATEFUL to be here now….

The Balanced Kitchen

Time for food. Time for Life.