Acai Bowls - Healthy Vegan Fridays

**Linking up to Healthy Vegan Fridays this week with a fast, easy summer meal!**

Living in California means that I am very up-to-date on the latest hipster health and foodie trends.  I've seen the kabocha squash phase, the chia seed craze, the brief foray into offal and bacon (blech!!), and the kale revival.  San Francisco hipsters love to find a "superfood" from another culture and promptly overhype it, jack up the price and eat it at every meal.

The latest mainstream superfood is the acai berry from Brazil.  This is mostly seen in the form of the acai bowl, which is the newest breakfast craze.  Which is basically a smoothie in a bowl topped with granola, fruit and other goodies.

Me at Samba Rock Cafe in Santa Cruz

Alleged health benefits, according to Samba Rock.

How to eat it! 

From Vitality Bowls in Redwood City

Acai bowls are so simple, but I was intimidated to try making them at home.  That was silly of me- they are so simple and come together in ten minutes!  

The nice part about acai bowls is that, in my opinion, the acai part is optional.  If you can't get your hands on the special berry, substitute blueberries and you're still down to clown.

Basic Acai Bowl (Serves Two)

1/2 cup milk (I use vanilla soy)

1 frozen banana

1 packet frozen acai (or sub 1/3 cup frozen blueberries)

3/4 cup frozen strawberries (or any combo of strawberries plus raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc.)

Combine everything in a food processor or high speed blender until smooth. the mixture should be very thick.  Layer with granola (I make my own) and fruit in a bowl, and gobble up!

The brand of frozen acai I use.

Keep it nice and thick like ice cream!

Layer 1: fruit and granola

Layer 2: acai smoothie

Layer 3: toppings! I used granola, bananas, strawberries, blueberries and a dollop of peanut butter.

Here's out breakfast this morning; this recipe makes two regular sized servings, or one small serving and one jumbo serving if you're a pair like us.  You can top it with whatever you like; a dollop of nut butter is a delicious addition.  I actually prefer mine with just peanut butter and bananas, but that looks boring so for this tutorial I added in more fruit to keep it colorful.

His and hers acai bowls.

None for Pups, but I did toss him some fruit while I was chopping, so he was a happy camper.

Ready and waiting in case a rogue banana slice drops on the floor.

These aren't just for breakfast- they are great for any time you want a light meal!  We don't have air conditioning, so these bowls are becoming a quick and easy dinner on days where it's just too hot to cook.

Healthy Vegan Fridays- Crockpot Curried Potatoes with Chickpeas

Ok let's be real, it's hard to take a picture of curry and have it look appetizing.  I mean, if you are lazy like me.  I'm sure if you used a fancy camera and spend 40 minutes poking at the food  and added a sprig of rosemary or whatever, it would looks awesome.  But that's not my style.

I made this last Sunday and have been eating it for lunch all week.  It's not a fancy curry, and it's definitely not meant to be authentic to any cuisine.  It's a light, mild version that even people who hate curry would be able to enjoy.  I ate it as-is but it would be nice as a side dish, maybe alongside salad and some grilled tofu.

I'm also linking up this week for Healthy Vegan Fridays with Rock My Vegan Socks!

Basic Crockpot Curried Potatoes with Chickpeas

3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1/2 onion, diced

1 can chickpeas, drained

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

1 can coconut milk (I used light)

1/2 tablespoon garam masala

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon coarse group pepper (or to taste)

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

dash of cayenne if you like it hot

Mix everything in the crockpot and let it go on low for 4-6 hours, stirring occasionally.  It will be watery when you pump everything in, but the sauce will thicken from the potato starch.  Don't let it overcook or else you'll end up with potato puree.

Adjust the seasonings before you serve; the potatoes will soak up a lot of salt so you may need to add more. You can add more garam masala if you want to pump up the flavor as well.

Serves 4-6.

Looks weird, tastes yum!

Healthy Vegan Friday- Sloppy Lentils

Kimmy at Rock my Vegan Socks does a link-up each Friday for healthy vegan recipes, and I wanted to share one of AP's favorites, sloppy lentils.  It's based on Robin Robertson's recipe from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, and he will eat it for days, happily.  He actually did just that this week, we ate them twice for dinner and he had them for lunch every day.  The original recipe says 4-6 servings but it's 8 servings, easily.

Sloppy Lentils

1 onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced fine

1 carrot, diced fine

1.5 cups brown lentils (not red, they will disintegrate!)

1 can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup tamari

1 T chili powder

2 tsp garlic powder

2 T italian seasoning

2 T brown sugar

squirt of mustard

3 cups water

Directions: Dump it all in the slow cooker, let it go on low for 8 hours. Boom. Forget about pre-cooking the veggies, it turns out awesome regardless.

All my ingredients, except the carrot, just pretend he's in there.

I like to stir it every hours or so starting at hour 4.  We like them a bit overdone, with the lentils nice and squishy.  

YUM. Let them go a little longer than you think you need- they get smokey as they break down.

Our favorite way to eat them is on buns with coleslaw. Healthy, easy comfort food for days.

So nice to come home to this after a long day.

We ate ours with sides of curry roasted Brussels sprouts.  Chop up a crapload of sprouts, toss them in some EVOO, curry powder, salt and pepper, roast them at 400 for 20 minutes, then stir in a handful of chopped cashews and let it go for another 10 minutes. 

I love the crispy little loose leaves.

Be sure to check out Healthy Vegan Fridays for more recipes!