Soup, salad, and bread

Soup

I'll have to post the recipe later. I'm beat and it doesn't appear to be online. But this is Mollie Katzen's Golden Chickpea soup, a lovely, if labor-intensive soup that has been a favorite of ours for a long time. It tastes luxurious, but is low fat and great for you. Briefly: sautee 2 cups of minced onions, a couple tablespoons of garlic, a couple teaspoons of mustard and cumin, and a few threads of saffron for about 10 minutes in about 1 tbs olive oil. Then add 4 cans rinsed and drained chick peas. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Next, add 1/4 cup lemon juice, a couple more cloves of minced garlic, and salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Finally, puree. Top with any combination of sesame oil, chopped tomatoes, or cilantro (this is the garnish pictured above).

Salad

Per Mollie Katzen's suggestion, I served the soup with an arugula and butter lettuce salad with homemade orange vinaigrette. It's basically this recipe, but I didn't add orange sections - that would have made it even better.

Bread

80-Minute Oatmeal Bread from the bread machine, made by my husband, author of Internal Monologue (it turned out beautifully!) It's a recipe that came with the machine, and the one we turn to most often. It's just delicious and quick. You can find it here in the product manual on page 53. We modify the recipe slightly. I do not add dates (just because I like a more versatile bread for sweet or savory purposes) and I use regular rolled oats rather than instant.

Soup, salad, and bread is a favorite meal here, so I'll periodically add more favorite combinations.

Mixed grain recipe from 101 cookbooks - Good even though I screwed it up!

I just made this recipe on 101 Cookbooks, and even though I screwed it up, it's still delicious. I used pearl barley instead of whole barley, and steel cut oats instead of whole oat groats. The result is that this is quite a bit mushier than it otherwise would have been. In the pot after cooking, it did not look at all like the gorgeous picture on the 101 Cookbooks site. It looked like a pot of mush. I was disappointed and thought of throwing it out. But then I took a bit out, added some milk and maple syrup, and now I'm hooked. I'm thinking of having some again for lunch and dinner! And as noted on 101 Cookbooks, I imagine it will be excellent as well with an egg and some steamed greens, perhaps with a little soy sauce, or mixed with some cheese and broccoli or peas (that might even get toddler approval). This made a lot as noted in the original recipe - enough to stock some in the refrigerator and the freezer!

Pumpkin in the Summertime

Well, I guess this is my slacker blogger month. But at least here's a delicious recipe for pumpkin oatmeal. No picture, because frankly it looks weird and orange-y. But it is good, and good for you. And once you've got the can of pumpkin open, you might as well use it up and have nearly instant pumpkin soup or some pumpkin power muffins.

Bonus - canned pumpkin is a food you "should" be eating but are probably not. Ditto for cinnamon, in the oatmeal and muffins.

Updated 8/24 - And don't forget pumpkin pancakes - yum!

Quick Update

It's been awhile since I've posted, but we're still cooking and eating! Highlights include not-too-sweet Carrot-Oat cookies for the Picky Toddler (he loves them!), pumpkin oatmeal, and TWO more recipes from Princess Sianessa - Butternut Squash Soup (vegetarian version) and Potato Zuccini Latkes. Over the weekend I also made more granola and my husband, the Internal Monologuist, made yogurt and lemonade, so we are well stocked.

(Full disclosure - it's fun to make Princess Sianessa's recipes because they are good and easy - but also because I've known her since high school!)

More details on all of the above later.

Sneaky Tomato Sauce

Here is the Picky Toddler eating all his veggies without knowing it! Hehehehe. The veggie-packed pasta sauce is from this recipe by Princess Sianessa. A huge hit - he had seconds! And my husband and I loved it, too. The only change I made was to use fresh basil and oregano at the end of the cooking, rather than dried oregano at the beginning. And yes, the Picky Toddler is learning to use his fork quite well - we spear the food for him, and he has about a 90% success rate now of getting it into his mouth. That is, if he wants to eat it.

Saturday Morning Tofu Scramble

Well with Picky (or Not-So-Picky) Toddler around, we've been doing lots of pancakes for breakfast. Wheat pancakes, oat pancakes, banana pancakes, etc. And I like pancakes, but was definitely ready for a change of pace. So yesterday I made a nice tofu scramble, based on this recipe. Lucky for me it's online so no need to retype, but I found it in my old Vegetarian Times cookbook (circa 1995). I made one change - mixing the tortillas in with the tofu sounded gross, so I served warm tortillas on the side, and we made breakfast burritos. My husband and I liked this a lot, not so much the Picky Toddler, who had Cheerios instead. If you're making this for vegan friends, you can skip the cheese. Also, this makes a lot. We'll have breakfast burritos again tomorrow.