Vegan Cajun Chickpeas and Sauteed Vegetables

As you can all tell thus far, I am NOT a food blogger... Not. Even. Close!

But, I am a mom and cooking comes with the territory and making something that is MOSTLY healthy and my toddlers will eat is a HUGE WIN in my book. So I am going to share this creation of yummy vegetables and chickpeas (or garbanzo beans) that I put together for lunch. My husband said it was good but it wasn't his favorite (who cares what he thinks right??? ), my kiddos liked and ate it just fine, but I wouldn't mind eating this for a week!

I recently began transitioning into a vegan-like diet. I am still very skeptical of calling myself vegan, because in all honesty, I am nowhere close. Did you know as a vegan, you can't have honey? Honey is an animal product! DUH! (Yea, this is some of the stuff I didn't think about when I went into this.) The point of me blabbing on and on is that this is a vegan dish, but adding some grilled chicken seasoned with Cajun spices would be sooooooo bomb!

So before I start, I'm going to warn you all.

1. Not a food blogger, so don't expect things like pretty looking food and nutritional facts.

2. I do not measure seasoning, it doesn't make sense to me. My sister is diabetic, and according to her doc, she should be weary of salt. So I can't give her this recipe and have her make it with the amount of seasonings I used. I always say add as much or as little seasoning you like. You're going to be eating this food, not me. I've always had a heavy hand when it comes to salt. #NotSorry

3. I make a lot of food. My husband is usually at work when I cook, and I don't want to be up making him fresh food at 3 AM. I make enough that me and the girls eat, hubby eats after work and usually has enough to take to work for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas, drained

1 sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 9oz bag of brussel sprouts, roughly chopped (I bought this on clearance at my smiths but you can replace this with cabbage if that's what you have available)

2 bell peppers, diced (any color will do, I used red and orange)

1/4 purple onion, diced (I'm not a big fan of onion, but if you are, add more or any kind of onion)

Olive Oil

Vegan Butter (Or Butter, or Margarine)

Cajun Seasoning

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Powder

Hot Wing Sauce (Optional)

Preheat convection/toaster oven to 425 degrees. Sweet potatoes take a while to cook, so first thing I do is peel and dice the sweet potato. I put them on the baking pan that came with my toaster oven, drizzle them with olive oil, salt, pepper and dig in with both hands. I like to rub everything together and make sure it's all evenly coated and flat on the pan. Stick in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

In the mean time, start prepping your veggies. Wash everything first and start chopping and dicing the brussel sprouts, bell peppers and onions.

Heat some olive oil while draining the chickpeas. Once the oil is hot, toss in the chickpeas with the Cajun seaoning. I do not like to bite into crunch onions AT ALL! I like onions when they are very very cooked through so I add them in with the chickpeas.

Let this cook for about 8 minutes, or until I see the chickpeas are getting a little crunch on the outside. 

Add about 2 tablespoons of Vegan Butter (of whatever you're using) and add the remaining veggies. i stir this up and add salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. 

Time to check on your sweet potatoes. I use a fork to check them. If they are still a little hard on the inside, I still take them out because they will cook for a bit longer in the pan.

Cook covered for about 6 minutes or so making sure to mix it up every couple of minutes. Remove from heat and let it sit covered for a few minutes.

Serve hot over salt and peppered quinoa or brown rice. I'm a bit of a weirdo and LOOOOOVVVE hot sauce so I drizzled some hot wing sauce. This would be yummy with Franks Red Hot Sauce or maybe an avocado dressing. (I made a really good one with canned coconut milk, avocado, cilantro and salt.)

Please let me know if you try this out and post pics below for me to see!!! Let me know if you add or remove things from it so I can try it out next time!! 

I didn't know I would be adding this recipe to my blog so next time, I will be taking pictures as I go and definitely make a video for my YouTube Channel!!