Foodie-Hiatus: Red Potato-Spinach Mash Up

I know, I know, I have been absent from the vegan interwebs for quite some time. I finished my dissertation and then pretty much dropped off the cyber-planet. Well, those of you out there who have had the exquisite pleasure of finishing a project that essentially dominated your life for a few (or more!) years will understand my truancy. For the rest, well, I am not sure how to explain the particular paradox of finding yourself on the finished side of a massively time-consuming project with less time on your hands than before. The only way that I can explain it is to perhaps say that for the first time in years I found myself actually present and able to enjoy things, which, of course, led to wanting to do more things. That the doing more consisted of eating, exercising and videogaming (all, I might add to extremes) shouldn't really concern you (although the food part kinda does involve you lovely readers of my blog). Rest assured that even though I have been playing hookey from my computer, I have been accumulating photos of some delectable dining over the past months.

First up, I have already praised the benefits of Kimberly Snyder's Beauty Detox Solution, more specifically, the power of the Glowing Green Smoothie (GGS), but I also really liked the philosophy and began to incorporate copious amounts of greens into my diet. This is a photo of one dinner made Kimberly Snyder style with large salad with lots of sprouts, quinoa and squash bisque, yum!




I have made many meals from her book and anxiously await her new cookbook to be released next year. Some favs: GGS, Raw Chickpea-less Hummus (zucchini based!), Delish Squash Bisque, Ganesha's Sweet Potatoes, Veggie-Tumeric Quinoa, and the best are the Raw Cacao Truffles. If I have learned anything from this book it is that most of the time food tastes better when you don't do anything fancy to ruin it.

Though I would like to have been able to maintain Snyder's diet, I really craved some more variety and branched out a bit. Here is a quick recipe for Red Potato-Spinach Mash Up.

Ingredients:
2 C small red potatoes quartered
1 T vegan butter
1/4 C rice milk
1 small bunch of baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place potatoes in a small pot and cover with water. Cover with lid and bring to boil, cook until you can easily pierce a chunk with fork - the softer the better.

2. Use a potato-masher or just a strong utensil (I've used a mallet, fork and wooden spoon to varied results) to gently mash potatoes. The softer your potatoes the easier the mashing. They should be rustic and chunky.

3. Add butter and rice milk and let sit until butter begins to melt. Stir together. Add more water for creamier potatoes.

4. Stir in half of the spinach bit by bit, incorporating it into the mash.

5. Cover mash and let sit a few minutes to wilt the spinach.

6. Scoop out onto a bed of sweet baby spinach and salt and pepper to taste!

I basically ate this for dinner, but you can use this as a side to some more protein-rich main course.