Creamy Tahini Caesar Dressing

Hello friends! Hope everyone had a good weekend. If you follow me on Instagram you know it was a harder weekend for me. I can’t say that each year the weekend gets easier for me but I can say that I’m learning how to honor it, how I respond to it, and what I need to get me through it. It’s certainly a process but I’m learning and it is nice to be able to be honest with myself and allow myself the time and the space to reflect and fill my mind and time with things that nurture and continue to help me heal. For anyone who has lost someone close to them, I know we all have a different journey. This is part of mine and I just wanted to share a little of that with you this morning as it is a part of what makes me who I am today.

TODAY, however, is the start of a new week and I want to share with you a dressing that I have been loving lately. I typically always make my salad dressing from scratch because, with the right ingredients, you can make a dressing yourself better than anything you can buy off the shelf! My husband and I tend to like simpler dressings and my usual go-tos are a balsamic vinaigrette, a honey Dijon vinaigrette, or a champagne vinaigrette. Which dressing we use depends on the items in our salads. I’ve really never been a huge Caesar dressing girl and my experimenting with making homemade Caesar dressings has left me with the same final conclusion - just not a huge fan. HOWEVER, I discovered this Tahini Caesar dressing in my Cookie + Kate cookbook a few weeks ago and it has quickly become a staple on my lunch salads that I take to work! I’m sure it could also make a great addition to other entrees or side dishes or to my Vegetarian Sweet Potato that I published a while back. I highly recommend you visit her blog, which I have linked below. I believe you can find this dressing there (not positive b/c I got it from her cookbook). I really wanted to have the recipe in this space and be able to share it with you and so I have included it below. I talk about this cookbook a bunch because it’s another one of my go-tos when I want a hearty vegetarian option for dinner or lunch. I highly recommend you visit her blog or get her cookbook (this is not sponsored, I just really like her cookbook)!

I’ll be enjoying this dressing later today, but before I head out to the office, I’m sharing this dressing with you here.

Happy Fueling!

Taylor

Tahini Caesar Dressing

By Kathryn Taylor (Cookie and Kate blog)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup tahini

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (from 1 to 1 1/2 lemons)

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

• 2 tablespoons water

• Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a small bowl, combine the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, mustard, and salt.

2. Whisk until blended, then add the water and whisk until you have a smooth, blended tahini sauce.

3. Season generously with black pepper (about 10 twists).

4. The dressing should be tangy, like classic Caesar dressings. If it’s overwhelmingly tart or too think to pour, whisk in an additional tablespoon of water. Mine was pretty thick so I ended up whisking in probably about 2 more tablespoons of water.

Nine - Ingredient Yummy Stuffed Sweet Potato: A Vegetarian Prep-Ahead Meal

Hi there! So, last week was a busy one! Lot’s of projects due and presentations and program wrap-ups and then we went to Scottsdale for one of my best friend’s wedding. I’m so glad that I did my meal planning the weekend before because there certainly wasn’t lots of brain space left to figure out dinner. One thing to note about my meal planning - there is nothing cookie cutter or perfect about them. I have a general plan that I could follow, but most weeks I actually go off course. This week my stuffed sweet potato was on the menu but I had actually planned to use slightly different ingredients. Then, when Monday came around, I had leftovers from dinner with friends the night before and, with that, a new idea. That is how this recipe came about that I’m sharing with you all today. It’s so SIMPLE!!! And it’s super tasty. It uses ingredients that, years ago, I would not have normally put together. However, after our trip to Israel this year I have become a little more adventurous with food and flavor combos.

This dish is a vegetarian option. However, it’s still packed with great stuff like complex carbs, vitamin A, iron, magnesium, some healthy fats and protein. I talk to so many people who think you have to eat meat to get your protein. Newsflash, you don’t! There are lots' of ways to get protein without eating meat. You may have to eat a little bit more of those foods because plant protein is not as easily absorbed in the body as animal protein, but, it can be done! For example, the 1/2 cup of chickpeas here provides about 7 grams of protein. then there are a couple of grams in the dressing and a gram or two in the potato. So, here is the recipe for my Mediterranean Stuffed Sweet Potato.

Happy Fueling!

Taylor

NINE-INGREDIENT YUMMY STUFFED SWEET POTATO

Serves 1

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 medium sweet potato

• 1/2 cup of Prepared Slaw (see recipe below)

• 1/2 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained

• 2 tbsp hummus

• 1 tbsp water

• 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

SLAW INGREDIENTS (from Ina Garten):

• One 10 oz. package of cabbage slaw

• 2 tbsp fresh chopped dill

• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Poke holes in the sweet potato with a knife or tongs of a fork and place on a baking sheet. I usually use a fork and poke the holes in a line down the center (longways) of the potato, where I will end up slicing it once cooked.

3. In a large bowl mix together the slaw, fresh dill and white wine vinegar. Cover and let sit, allowing all of the flavors to meld together. This can be done a day in advance. And for any of you who read my previous posts, this is from Ina Garten’s DELICIOUS salmon taco recipe.

4. When the oven is preheated, place the sweet potato in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour, until when you poke the potato with a fork, the tongs come out easily and clean.

5. You can either allow the potatoes to cool at this point and then wrap in foil and store in the refrigerator, or go ahead and prep them to eat.

6. To continue prepping, whisk together the hummus, water and lemon juice in a small bowl.

7. Open the potato so that there is room to pile the toppings on top.

8. Add about half of the humus dressing followed by about a 1/2 cup of the slaw followed by the chickpeas followed by drizzles of the remaining hummus dressing. Serve and enjoy!

9. If serving this later in the week, I prep my potato the night before or morning of, opening it and adding the slaw and chickpeas. I package the hummus dressing separately. At the office, I heat up the potato and then add the dressing once heated through. Easy peazy!

NUTRITION NOTES:

Sweet potato: vitamin A

Chickpeas: protein, folate, B vitamins, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese

Hummus: protein, healthy fats…

Slaw: fiber