If You Come Visit Me, I'll Make This For You

You will really be glad. They are so good and healthy too.

Our family recently had an F.H.E. lesson on the Word of Wisdom. We focused on keeping our bodies healthy so that we can be more effective in serving the Lord. So we decided to do a little family experiment of eating vegetarian for one month. As of tomorrow, our family will have gone 2 weeks eating a non-meat diet (but we are eating fish—I know, I know, but we’re taking baby steps to reduce our saturated fats). There had been many factors in all of us--mom, dad and the kids--getting on board with this goal. This book, The China Study, was one of them. I’m hoping to read it soon.

Our goal was all well and good until the day before we were to start when I started thinking, “What in the world am I going to feed my family?!!?” I didn’t want to just up my carbs and dairy, but really hoped to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into our diets.

There's one of our new favorites:

Homemade Falafal, Mexican Style

This has by far been our standout new dinner recipe. We absolutely love it! (It is based off my sister in law’s Falafal Recipe from her fabulous cooking blog. So a huge shout out to Kara and her relentless pursuit of making healthy foods taste great!) I took Kara’s recipe and swapped out the Mediterranean ingredients with their Mexican flavored equivalent. Sensational results! Especially if you love spicy.

3 cups white beans, cooked and drained

1 onion, roughly chopped

½ cup chopped cilantro

1/8 – ¼ c chopped roasted red peppers (the kind from a jar)

2 cloves garlic, pressed

2 eggs

3 tsp cumin

1 -2 tsps chili powder

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp baking powder

1 to 1 ½ cups bread crumbs

olive oil for frying

(That sounds like a lot of ingredients, but these really didn’t seem to hard to me.)

Mash your beans up with a potato masher (blender makes them too pasty). But put the rest of your ingredients (minus the bread crumbs and oil) into the blender and pulse a few times to incorporate them and chop up the onion finer. Then add this blended onion/cilantro mixture to the beans and stir. Next sprinkle in your bread crumbs. Start with a cup and see if you need up to a ½ cup more to get your desired consistency, which is not too sticky and able to hold together in a small patty shape.

I make up these little patties—golf ball sized that I’ve flattened into a chubby little disk--and set them on a paper towel until its their turn for the frying. Heat your oil up in a wide skillet. About 1 inch worth should do. I try to get my oil to 375 degrees (yes, I use a thermometer, but you don’t have to). When the oil is hot enough, then less oil is absorbed into your food. (little tip: I find the best way to flip these patties in the hot oil is with a slotted spoon and scoop them up against the side of the pan to turn over. Tongs were much messier).

We eat these scrumptiously tasty gems in tortillas with spinach, lettuce and some of Kara’s fish taco sauce for extra punch. So divine! Please, if you're going to the trouble of making homemade falafal, you must put some of this special sauce on it. It's hot pizazz will put a serious spark in anything it touches.

Chipotle Yogurt Sauce:
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (buy it in a small can in the Mexican food section)
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons honey
1 cup yogurt
2 tablespoons mayo
1 teaspoon salt

Place all ingredients in blender on high, blend well. Store in a air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Makes a great salad dressing for Southwestern salads.