Red Lentil Soup

It snowed this week.  A LOT.  Winter has arrived aggressively and without warning this year -- it went from sneakers and puffy vest weather to boots and parka weather overnight!  Gah!  How to respond?  It is Minnesota, after all -- winter lasts for nearly half the year here.  Might as well embrace it!  Pull on the boots, don the parka and head out into the winter wonderland; later, when you get home, make soup.

Red lentil soup, to be precise.  In my opinion, red lentil soup is one of those meals that is so complex, flavorful, and warming you forget how HEALTHY it is -- warm spices, lentils, greens, veggies, and just enough coconut milk to smooth things out.  Red lentil soup is delicious after a day spent out in cold, blustery, wet weather, or after a day (or several days) of too much indulgence (ahem, Donut Crawl!)  This would be a welcome post-holiday-indulgence meal to jump-start healthier eating, or a post-snow-shoeing meal, or any time you need warmth and nourishment all in one tasty package.

Red Lentil Soup

serves 4

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 c finely chopped onion

1 c finely chopped celery

1 c finely chopped carrot

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp brown mustard seeds

1 tsp anise or fennel seeds

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp salt

2 to 4 dried chilis

4 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 c red lentils, rinsed

14 oz light coconut milk

2 c water

1 bunch swiss chard, stemmed and sliced thinly

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a 3 1/2 to 4-quart soup pot over medium-high heat.  Add the onion, celery, carrot, garlic, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, turmeric, salt, dried chilis, and ginger.  Cooking, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and beginning to brown.
2. Add the lentils, coconut milk, and water.  Bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, cover, and simmer the soup for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove the chilis from the soup and stir in the chard.  Heat through just until the chard is wilted.  Serve with buttered naan or toast for dunking.

Bundt success, and suppers

I have always kind of hated my Bundt pan.  Why?  Well . . . I had all of these images of beautiful, lobed cakes in my head, and every cake I'd ever made in that damn pan stuck like glue, and turned into a crumbled, broken mess.

That is, until this past weekend!

Bundt success!  How did I do it?  Two key items: spray oil, and a LOT of flour.  Like so much flour, you can kind of see a thin layer all over the top of the cake.  Oh well.  I'll figure out a better balance next time, right?

The cake is delicious, by the way.  :)  This Real Simple recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Cake caught my eye a while back,  and I'm delighted I finally had a chance to try it!  Of course, I can't ever follow a recipe as written -- I subbed a combination of olive, canola, and coconut oils for the butter, and used whole-wheat pastry flour instead of AP flour.  (I love whole-wheat flour in pumpkin baked goods -- it's so much more nutty and dense!  Mmm.)  The only drawback?  It's dense, rich, moist, and kind of a calorie-bomb, so I'd recommend smaller slices than the recipe suggests.

And since we cannot live on cake alone . . .

Winter Lentil Soup:
 

I have been a huge fan of this recipe, since the first time we tried it.  The soup is barely more than leeks, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, kale, and lentils, but it is so delicious!  Light yet filling, slightly sweet, and containing two of my most favorite veggies, (kale and sweet potatoes,) which happen to pair beautifully.

Fried Rice:

Fried rice is one of those meals I tend to forget about, and then when I remember, I get so excited!  I love being able to clean out my crisper and get something so darn delicious for dinner.  In this batch, the purple cabbage dyed the egg a lovely shade of pale blue -- hilarious, if you ask me.

And, Jamaican-Style Black Bean and Coconut Cornbread Bake:

Isn't it funny how certain things trigger meals?  For example, I always seem to remember this recipe when I have a partial can of coconut milk to use up, since the cornbread topping calls for only 2/3 cup coconut milk.  Delicious, incredibly simple, and healthy, too!

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We'll be living off these leftovers for the rest of the week, and we might be eating more convenience foods than I'd like next week, as the move is approaching quickly!  I'll blog again soon, once I've unpacked enough to find the kitchen and make something -- until then!

we're back!

Oh my, was that a long illness.  Just as soon as I started feeling better, John took a turn for the worse.  Consequently, I haven't been doing much cooking these past couple of weeks!  However, come Sunday, we both finally had appetites.  Hurry up, Catherine -- cook something!

Dinner Sunday night was a simple, nutritious, and flavorful lentil soup:

Is anyone else as obsessed with Real Simple's recipes as I am?  Winter Lentil Soup has made it onto my list of all-time favorite soups.  Check out this recipe, seriously . . . I know that it doesn't look like much, but sometimes simple is better, right?  John and I both love kale and sweet potatoes, John loves lentils, (although I'm not a fan, there aren't many in this soup, and they are not the dominant flavor,) and I've come to realize I don't cook with leeks nearly often enough.  I even skimped and used dried thyme instead of fresh, then tried to make up for that switch by using half vegetable broth and half water, instead of all water like the recipe called for.  Slurp!  Plenty of leftovers -- some for the fridge, some for the freezer!

On the side -- buttermilk biscuits!

Buttermilk might be my new favorite baking ingredient.  Every recipe I've used it in bakes up light, fluffy, and tender, and has just the slightest sour tang.  Yum!  If you are interested in learning how to serially culture buttermilk, let me know -- I'll do a post.  It's so easy it almost doesn't merit a post, but I'd be happy to oblige!

More baking . . .

Treats for John's house:

Peanut Butter Banana Bread
(By the way, I subbed sour cream for the yogurt called for in the recipe, as that was what John had on hand -- success!)  John doesn't much care for banana bread, but thought he might be able to enjoy it more if it was infused with peanut butter, one of his favorite flavors.  I think it's a hit, and I managed to use up all of the overripe bananas littering up his kitchen.  :)

And treats for my house:

Pumpkin Molasses Spice Cookies . . . thank you, Mama Pea, for introducing the world to the softest, doughiest, chewiest, best molasses cookie EVER . . . let's just say I'm glad this recipe only made 24 cookies, because they are incredibly addictive.  These may be making a repeat appearance around the holidays at my house!

Let's hope we are able to keep the germs at bay for a while!  More cooking, please!

dairy-riffic

I picked up a copy of The Complete Guide to Making Cheese, Butter, and Yogurt at Home at the library a couple of weeks ago, and I finally got around to trying out a few basic recipes!

First, homemade butter:

Even though this required considerable time invested in shaking up the heavy cream, I can't believe how easy it was to make homemade butter!  (Should I be surprised, though?  Probably not.  I vaguely remember making butter in kindergarten as a class project.)  It was kind of remarkable, watching the transformation the cream went through -- liquid, to whipped cream, to a thick paste, and then the final separation of the butterfat from the buttermilk, which was just WEIRD.  But fun!

We enjoyed the butter on some homemade "Broa" from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day, alongside a bowl of "Red Lentil Soup with Greens" from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers.  Fantastic!

Please take notice of the chard in the soup . . . John grew that!  :)

Anyone who knows me well at all knows a meal isn't complete at my house without dessert:

Smooth & Creamy Vanilla Ice Cream topped with Hot Fudge Sauce and salted mixed nuts!  Wow.  Neither recipe took all that much time, and both turned out fabulously!  I love the subtle tanginess of the ice cream, (the base contains a considerable amount of Greek yogurt,) and the hot fudge sauce?  Words can't describe.  Tastes NOTHING like store-bought sauce, in every best possible way.  Heck yeah.

I also have some homemade yogurt in my fridge, but haven't found a photo-worthy way to serve it quite yet.  Stay tuned . . . .

back in the kitchen again!

After a long hiatus from cooking much of anything, (thank you, 90+ degree heat and high humidity,) I decided I had had enough salads, and got back in my kitchen this weekend.  :)  It's still hot, but I managed to sweat my way through several meal's worth of stovetop cooking and/or baking/roasting in the oven, and boy, was it worth it!

Dinner Friday night:

A simple meal of whole-wheat pasta tossed with homemade marinara and parmesan, with roasted pattypan squash on the side.

Bunch Saturday:

Breakfast burritos!  A whole-wheat tortilla stuffed with homemade refried beans, cheese, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.  This is one of those meals that if eaten after 10 am, will keep you full until dinner.  :)  Mmm.

Dinner Saturday:

Sloppy lentils piled on a whole-wheat bun, dilly beans, cherries, and Spud Puppies.

Dinner Sunday:

 

Tofu Steak with Miso and Ginger, Steamed Baby Carrots with Orange-Dill Butter, cucumbers with sour cream and dill, and Zucchini Fritters.  This meal was a LOT of work, (and generated a lot of dishes -- shout out to John, who washed nearly all of them!), but it was so worth it!  I had a blast finding new ways to make some seasonal produce shine.

My life is incomplete without dessert:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake!  Between the cake and the fritters, I have managed to take down about 2/3 of the ginormous zucchini John brought home from volunteering last week.  I still have about a pound left . . . muffins?  Bread?  Cookies?  What's your vote?

seasonless soup

We are having unseasonably warm, spring-like weather lately -- and I love it! I wasn't prepared for this gorgeousness, however, as I had soup on the meal plan this week . . .

"Red Lentil Soup with Greens," from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers. I think this might be one of those few seasonless soups, because this made an awesome dinner last night! Thick and protein-rich, but not heavy, I could see myself enjoying this soup almost any time of year. (And I received a text message during choir practice from John that read, "Holy smokes, I love this soup." Must be a good one!) I love the strong ginger and anise flavors, the addition of lots of chard, and the subtle coconut undertone. Good thing there's just enough left for my lunch today!

one cannot live on eggs alone

I'm back! After a couple of long bus rides, (and a lot of nose-blowing . . . traveling with a massive head cold isn't much fun, let me tell you,) and some quality time spent with grandpa in the middle, it's good to be home. :)

John picked me up from the bus on Monday afternoon; by dinnertime, we were both massively hungry, but I was so sick and tired and cranky that I couldn't come up with anything that possibly resembled dinner. And I needed to hit the store . . . desperately. John's suggestion? "I'll make eggs."

There we go. Dinner/breakfast is served. :)

And, since one cannot live on eggs alone . . .

"French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme," from Veganomicon:

I stuck pretty tight to the recipe this time around, although I didn't use all French green lentils, as I wanted to use up the mixture of lentils I had on hand. So . . . the soup has a blend of green, brown, and red lentils -- and what an amazing soup this turned out to be! I also cut back on the salt a bit, as I thought it would probably be too salty as writ. (I think I was right, at least for my palate!)

I was due another baking project -- Apple-Molasses Spice Cake:

I cannot say enough good things about this cake . . . moist, flavorful, intensely-spiced, warm, and just plain cozy. A perfect "ordinary" dessert, in my opinion!

Last, rice bowls with peanut sauce:

This is one of those amazingly-tasty, super-healthy dinners that come together in seconds if all of the ingredients are prepped ahead of time. I cooked up a bunch of brown rice, fried up some tofu, prepped a bunch of veggies, and made a batch of peanut sauce from Vegan with a Vengeance. Ta-da! Pile it all in a bowl, re-warm (or not, if that's your thing,) and dig in. Mmmmmmm. Peanut sauce is the BEST.

nutrition be damned

As I'm sure you know if you've read my blog more than once, I tend to like healthy food -- certain vegetables make me jump for joy, (asparagus, artichokes, and broccoli all come to mind immediately,) I generally eat a largely vegan diet, love beans and whole grains, and don't eat too much sugar.

However, there are a few key foods out there that I REALLY don't care for.

Cauliflower? Ew. (Which is so weird, because I love all other brassicas.)

Carrots? No thank you! (Again, weird, as I love beets and parsnips.)

And possibly the weirdest? Lentils.

Now, red lentils are excluded from my lentil-hatred, for obvious reasons. :) However, brown lentils? Ugh. French green lentils? Hm. Every once in a while, I get a craving for lentil soup, but never seem to make my way through an entire pot, before I want to chuck the leftovers out the window.

What is it about lentils, you ask? To me, they just sort of taste like . . . dirt. Metallic and earthy. Not something I want to put in my mouth.

I've discovered over the years that the trick to getting myself to eat just about anything -- whether it be leftovers I'm tired of, a recipe that just didn't turn out quite right, or something that I'm just not partial to, (where did that huge jar of lentils come from, anyway? whose bright idea was it to buy so many tasty morsels of dirt flavor?), is to cover it in cheese. :)

Last night, I discovered that covering lentils in cheese AND stuffing them in a crepe works even better! :)

Nutrition be damned, I enjoyed my lentils!

THIS time. ;)

mushy, but tasty

I tried out a new veggie burger recipe last night -- Red-Lentil Burgers With Aioli. I must be spoiled rotten by the black bean burger recipe from VCON, and Melody's All-American Burgers, because I felt this Cooking Light recipe left a little to be desired. Alas.

Why is it that recipe developers think it's OK to create mushy, falling-apart veggie burgers? Who wants to eat a veggie burger that disintegrates the second you try and take a bite out of it? Sigh. While I found the flavor of these burgers excellent, they need help, big time, in the structure department. I'm thinking I'll add some vital wheat gluten, a spoonful at a time, to the remaining base and see if that helps. Any other suggestions?

And, sorry to those of you who are appalled that I let my cat on the table, but really, this is just too hilarious to pass up:

Here's what I think he's thinking:
"Um, excuse me please, but why is it that you get to eat right now, and I DON'T???? Hmmm??"

dal on a rainy night

We're having kind of gross weather in the Twin Cities today -- grey, drizzly, rainy, and cool -- in the 40s. Don't get me wrong . . . I'm delighted that it's not SNOWING, but still, it's been kind of a blah day. I did force myself out and run some errands today, but have been home since about 3:00, twiddling my thumbs and wondering what to do to occupy myself! Now, I caught up on my reading for yoga class, did a load of laundry, talked to a friend on the phone . . . and then decided a medium-scale cooking project was in order. :)

I have mountains and mountains of "staples" on hand right now, and I'm trying very hard not to buy new stuff, and just use up what I have. (Produce and cold items like tofu, cheese, and eggs are still requirements, and coffee is always a must, but in general, I'm trying to avoid adding more rice, more lentils, more dry goods to my already packed cupboards!) My freezer is also pretty loaded, so anything I can pull out of there and incorporate into a meal is a bonus, too!

Looking around, my jar of red lentils caught my eye . . . and I remembered I had frozen samosas left! Dal on a rainy night it was:

Spinach and tomato dal, (I loosely follow the recipe in Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant, although I add WAY more spices than they call for,) over brown Basmati rice, with some samosas and mint chutney on the side. Mmmmmmmmm!

I really didn't NEED to buy brown Basmati rice, since I have the hugest sack of white Basmati rice in the closet, but I feel like I haven't been doing so well with the whole grains lately, so I picked some up today. Silly me. :)

"Supermarket" Success!

I checked The Supermarket Vegan out from the library a week or so ago, and have just gotten around to cooking from it a little bit this week. What a great little gem of a cookbook! All of the recipes seem simple and relatively quick to prepare, which is a plus in my house on busy weeknights! Too bad it's too late to let Santa know about this one! :)

I made . . .
Hummus Soup:

Now, I liked how EASY this recipe sounded, but I was wowwed by how tasty the finished product was! I ended up using about a teaspoon of harissa in the soup (instead of the suggested cayenne,) and finished the soup with some of the harissa-infused oil Anna and Langdon shared with us when we were in Milwaukee. MMMMMM! This was an incredibly satisfying lunch on my snow day yesterday, with a crisp green salad and some lightly toasted pita. Yum yum yum!

Next, we have Lentil Tacos:

This was another winner with both Dan and I -- we agreed that neither of us really cares much for ordinary lentils, but we like this recipe! (I ended up adding the juice of one lime to the filling, to counteract the over-saltiness I tasted in the finished product -- it helped!) We spooned the fillng into corn tortillas and topped with diced red onion, chopped tomato, sliced avocado, sour cream, some of the salsa verde I made last weekend, and shredded cabbage.

Now, my only complaint about these two recipes is that both tasted over-salted to me, and I didn't even add any salt at all to the first recipe! I'm wondering if it's because I used commercial veggie broth base -- has anyone ever tried "Better than Boullion" before? I picked it up because it was both cheaper and yielded more than the Rapunzel brand, which I used to buy all the time. (I have been making my own veggie broth base for years now, but needed broth and didn't have time to make more base last weekend.) Maybe I'm so used to my own version, (which probably has less salt,) that my tastebuds are just overwhelmed? What do you think?

soup and tacos

Even though Dan and I decided to go out for dinner on Tuesday night, (to Saigon! for banh mi!), I did end up cooking a little something so we had plenty of leftovers for lunches throughout the week . . .

"Red Lentil Soup," from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. I added a huge amount of fresh spinach to this recipe, which was an excellent idea, as was more chili flakes than the recipe called for. Mmmmm! I also quickly cooked up a bunch of leftover half whole-wheat Artisan Bread dough into some chewy, flavorful naan.

Last night, it was time again for tacos!

Whole-wheat tortillas stuffed with black beans, cast-iron fried peppers and onions, chipotle gouda, fresh tomatoes, lettuce, homemade guacamole, sour cream, and salsa. MMM! I always think of tacos as kind of an "indulgent" meal, but when I looked at the piles of produce on the counter last night as I was preparing to start cooking, I may slowly be changing my mind! :)

TGIF! We have a quiet weekend planned, which I'm looking forward to. Woo!

yet another "Simple Supper" success!

I made "Red Lentil Soup with Greens" for dinner tonight -- another recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers. It was FANTASTIC!

I, of course, made a few teensie changes to the original recipe, (like using a whole can of coconut milk instead of 3/4 cup, adding a ton more spinach, adding onions and potatoes, and doubling the amount of chili flakes called for,) and the end result was amazing! Delicious and rich without being heavy, and chock-full of nutrients (and plenty of garlic and ginger, which will help Dan -- he seems to have a small cold.) Yum!

On the side, we enjoyed a few Artisan Bread rolls:

There were twice as many . . . but we had already eaten two by the time I decided to snap a photo! Mmmmmmm fresh bread!

just call me a lentil convert

First, let's talk about lentils.

I apologize in advance to lentil-lovers out there, but I've never really been able to get behind lentils . . . now, I love red lentils in all their buttery, golden-orange, lucious splendor, but any other lentil? In my opinion, brown and green lentils kind of taste like dirt. Not an appetizing meal addition!

But, I keep trying -- I know how nutritionally powerful lentils are, and I really WANT to like lentils! So, I made a lentil salad last night:

Ingredients in my lentil salad: 1 1/2 cups cooked regular lentils, 3/4 cup dry orzo pasta (cooked according to the package diretions,) 2 tbsp chopped parsley, 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion, 3 1/2 ounces feta (crumbled,) juice of one lemon, 1 tbsp olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Verdict? I LOVED this! Yum! What a light, yet filling dinner, served over a bed of salad greens. I bet the leftovers are going to be even better, once the flavors have had a chance to marry.

Anyone have lentil recipes they love? I want to keep getting to know lentils!

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Summer in Minnesota is very, very short. This is sort of bittersweet for me, because I love being able to shop the farmer's market weekly, stock up on gorgeous produce, and support my local farmers, but at the same time . . . I HATE THE WEATHER. I turn into a lazy, whining pile of sweat in the heat and humidity! So, I try to make the best of it.

My farmer's market has been flooded with gorgeous produce of every color these past few weeks, and I've been trying to pick up something (or a couple somethings) at least weekly to preserve for the coming winter. This week, I grabbed three huge bunches of Chinese water spinach to steam, chop, and freeze, (Dan and I are becoming quite good at sitting around on the couch prepping veggies,) and I also found a good deal on red bell peppers -- 9 gorgeous peppers for $5! They were destined for my broiler. :) Result:

Last year, I read that one could freeze roasted red peppers, and I tried that out, but wasn't terribly happy with my results. The peppers seemed to lose some of their rich, smoky flavor in the freezer, and were also pretty mushy after thawing. Inspired by Liz, I decided to try pickling my peppers. Although I don't have canning skillz, I decided to try a refrigerator pickle with these guys -- they won't last an eternity, but they'll last long enough. I threw in 1/2 teaspoon salt and three chopped cloves of garlic, covered everything with a light vinegar brine (1 part vinegar to three parts water -- I don't want the peppers too sour!), and parked the jar in my fridge. We'll see how this works!

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Last but not least, remember I used to bake bread? Well, the humidity is down and the weather is slightly cooler, so I can do that again!

Our bake-a-long has been on hiatus this summer, (and rightly so -- no one wants to heat the oven up unless they absolutely have to!), and I sort of biffed our last project -- I did make a batch of the "Sunflower Seed Breakfast Loaf," but never really posted about it. So, I made it again! This is a gorgeous, soft, slightly sweet, slightly rich bread that makes INCREDIBLE toast. And I'm a toast girl, so this bread makes me happy! Yum! I used a combination of whole-wheat bread flour and AP flours in this loaf, and it worked beautifully. Hooray nutrition!

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Happy Sunday, everyone!

more yum

Just a couple of dinners from this week . . .

Rice and Dal:

I'm constantly trying to "perfect" my dal recipe, and it's getting closer every time. My theory? "More." More ghee, more spices, more chilis! This was quite a tasty batch, especially over Jasmine rice. I know brown rice is superior nutritionally, but hot damn, white rice just tastes so good!

Huevos Rancheros:

Other than warming up leftovers, this might be the fastest meal I have in my repertoire. Dinner was on the table in less than a half-hour last night! Plus, what's not to like? Tortillas? Beans? Cheese? Eggs? Salsa? Yum all around.

I felt compelled to use up the leftover frosting from my birthday treats:

Yes . . . MORE cupcakes. Chocolate this time, and mighty tasty! :)

oldie but goodie

An oldie but a goodie that I haven't made in ages -- Sloppy Lentils!



I tweaked my recipe a wee bit this time, and it turned out wonderfully! I think I've really nailed the flavor you'd look for in a traditional sloppy joe. Sides of roasted sweet potatoes and roasted broccoli, and that ever-important pickle, rounded things out.

Here's my recipe, in case you're curious:

Saute together:
1 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, (or 1/2 large,) minced
1 green pepper, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning

Add, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 40 - 45 minutes:
15 ounces no-salt added tomato sauce
1 cup apple juice
1 cup green lentils (the "ordinary" kind)

When the lentils are almost done, add and continue simmering:
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp (approx.) salt

Serve on whole-wheat buns or stuffed in pita. Mmmm!

What are some of your "oldie but goodie" greatest hits?

salad #2 this week . . .

Another fantastic salad, courtesy of Eating Well, tonight:



"Spiced Eggplant-Lentil Salad with Mango" was fantastic! Top a bed of romaine with a spicy, sweet, tangy mixture of roasted eggplant and lentils, then garnish with diced mango, chopped cashews, and cilantro . . . mmmmm! Dan mentioned that this salad tasted extremely healthy to him, but also very delicious! (As all healthy food should taste, right?)

I paired our salads with a few homemade pita chips, which were a perfect accompaniment. I'm really looking forward to eating leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Woot!

bread & more whole grains!

I've been on a "more whole grains" mission lately -- resultingly, a lot of oatmeal for breakfast. Oatmeal never does look like much, does it?

This was an awesome bowl yesterday morning, despite its appearance -- regular ol' rolled oats made with soymilk, containing ground flax seeds, unsweetened coconut, and chopped dried apricots! Yum.

Mysterious sideways naan:

I promise blogger did this for me. :) Not a whole grain, but damn tasty! Lump #3 of the "Olive Oil Dough," and even though we smoked the heck out of the apartment and set off the fire alarm, a tasty use for the dough!

We served the naan with some potato, tomato, and spinach dal:

ANOTHER shout out to Dan's Aunt Mary! Last time we saw them, she forced us into an Indian grocery store and bought us curry leaves, asafoetida, (I just know I didn't spell that correctly,) and a couple of spice mixtures to lend more authenticity to my homemade dal. Thanks, Mary! This was the best batch yet!! (I'm all for "forced" shopping any time!)

AND, more bread baking this afternoon:

Sometimes, you just need a basic sandwich loaf. I've made this recipe before with good results, and was pleasantly surprised that it even froze well! (Hence, two loaves.) I used agave this time instead of honey, and smartly turned the oven down 25 degrees to prevent over-browning. Success! I'm trying really hard NOT to hack into one of these loaves right now while they are still warm . . . !!!!!!

loads of food

Sorry for the delay . . . I had three nights in a row of busy-ness this week, which means not a lot of cooking. :) Here are some meals from this past week, in no particular order:

A simple polenta dish, topped with black beans and spinach, and queso fresco:

An old Cooking Light recipe, I believe, and a winner! The only changes I would make would be to double the polenta and triple the topping -- we polished off the entire recipe in one sitting! We ate some of the polenta with the topping for dinner, then each had a bowl of the polenta with maple syrup and milk for dessert. :) Yum!

Curried tofu with roased sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts, and couscous:

Very yummy, and very easy to make ahead. I prepped all of the veggies and marinaded the tofu over the weekend, so all I had to do when I got home from work was throw everything in the oven/skillet!

French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme:

A recipe I got off the PPK originally, (but I think the recipe may have found its way into VCON,) totally easy and totally delicious. This time, I threw all of the ingredients into my Crock Pot and let it cook away while working on other things last Sunday -- best lentil soup to date, in my opinion!

Cranberry-Orange Sour Cream Coffee Cake:

Thought we needed a fun breakfast treat this week, and this has fit the bill. I followed the basic sour cream coffee cake recipe from Betty Crocker, omiting the cinnamon streusel layer and instead adding orange juice (in place of some of the sour cream,) orange zest, and a 2-cup bag of fresh cranberries. Delicious holiday flavors!

And last but not least, Tuscan Poached Eggs with Parmesan:

A VERY easy meal, and when you add sides of greens and homemade Artisan Bread, extremely nutritious, too! We really don't eat eggs all that often, (I don't really care for them,) but this is one recipe that I LOVE!

Not pictured was a batch of Black Bean and Chipotle Soup, from Moosewood. The soup turned out just okay, (I was really disappointed -- I've made this soup in the past and LOVED it!), and photographed horribly. I think this is one bean soup recipe that doesn't translate well to the Crock Pot. (That, or I added too much water, and should stir the OJ in at the end next time!) Oh well! Hasn't stopped us from eating leftovers for lunches this week. :)

What kinds of recipes/foods serve you well during very busy weeks?