Recovering



I think that we are all on the mend over here. I wanted to include this soup that I made Sunday night for us, as we began to eat again, but didn’t have the energy to post last week. I love, love, love this soup. It’s not that the taste is so incredible (it is very good), it’s that it reminds me of my Memère. I’m not sure if she made a soup like this often or what it is exactly, but I immediately think of her when I taste it. The first thing I think of when I think of here is her shoes, strange I know, but when we would arrive at their house we would enter by the back door and there were a few steps to go up to the kitchen where she would be standing. I would see here shoes first, usually a tan colour high heel, then the bottom of her skirt, covered by an apron, and then her smiling face. This is definitely one of my ultimate comfort foods.

Lentil Soup

I vary the quantities when we’re sick to make it a thinner soup.

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 onions, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery sticks

2 cloves garlic

1 cup brown lentils, rinsed

¾ cup small past

1 bay leaf

10 cups water

2 tsp salt

Heat olive oil in a soup pot over medium low heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, garlic to pot, stir to coat veggies cover with lid slightly ajar and sweat veggies over low heat until soft. Once veggies are soft add water, bay leaf, lentils and salt and bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add pasta and cook until pasta and lentils are tender (about another 10 minutes). Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Menu

Monday: Savoury Bread and Cheese Bake with Fruit

Tuesday: Chickpea Salad with Lemon Potatoes in Pitas with Tziki

Wednesday: Shortcut Chilli with Chips and Guacamole

Thursday: Broccoli Tofu Stir Fry over Noodles

Friday: Pizza with Salad

Saturday: We’re going out – may I suggest Fish Tacos*

Sunday: Veggie Lasagne, Caesar Salad, Bread with Apple Pie and Ice Cream*

* These are not on the pantry or grocery lists

Weekly Pantry List

Salt, pepper, milk, butter, Dijon mustard, vegetable oil, olive oil, rosemary, fresh garlic, chilli spice, cumin, hoisin sauce, sherry, rice vinegar or white vinegar, soy sauce, cornstarch

Grocery List

Eggs

Cheddar cheese

Feta cheese

Plain Greek yogurt

Tofu, firm or extra firm

Sour cream

2 Avocados

Scallions

Cucumber

Olives

1 tomato

Cherry tomatoes (2 cups or 2 or 3 vine ripe tomatoes)

2 red peppers

Cilantro

Fresh mint

Fresh basil

2 yellow onions

Red onion

4 Potatoes

Green Onions

1 or 2 fresh red chillies

2 lemons

1 lime

Fruit

Canned chipotles in adobo sauce (or you can use chilli spice)

1 19oz can of red kidney beans

1 19oz can of lentils

1 28 oz can tomatoes

1 19 oz can chickpeas

Tortilla chips

Baguette (or any other crusty bread)

Whole wheat foil

Savoury Bread and Cheese Bake with Fruit

Coming out of a ‘family flu’ is like a whole new lease on life or something. I spent the day scrubbing the house, laundry and children (husband scrubbed himself) as well as feeding them all leftover soup, eggs and fruit. It’s like a fresh new start where I promise to seize the days; by only eating healthy good things, not skipping runs or trips to the gym, keeping a clean house and keeping up with the laundry. Instead of reading the newspaper in the morning I’m going to organize crafts for the girls and take them for a walk in the snow to admire the beauty of it all….Well, perhaps I will put all the clean laundry away tomorrow…maybe, we’ll see how the day goes. But, it does make me excited to eat again and this egg dish was a nice easy way back to real suppers. Dave and I agreed that it would be really good with jalapeños added into the mix and are going to try that next time (maybe with a dash of salsa too).

Recipe

The recipe is from Moosewood: Simple Suppers.

3 Tbsp butter

12 ounces of crusty bread, cut in 1 inch cubes (about 6 cups loosely packed)

1 cup grated cheese (cheddar, swiss, or Monterey Jack)

1 cup chopped green onions

6 eggs

2 cups milk

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 generous Tbsp Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 375F. Put the butter in a 2 quart baking dish and place in the oven to melt. When the butter is melted swirl it around to coat the dish. Put the bread cubes in the dish and sprinkle evenly with cheese and onions.

Beat the eggs and then add in the milk, salt, pepper and mustard. Pour the custard over the bread and use a spatula to push the bread down into the custard. Cover with foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes (depending on the shape of your dish). Remove foil and bake until puffy and golden brown, about 5 minutes.

*You can really use any stale bread you have on hand.

*You can keep this in the fridge for up to a day unbaked – allow for more baking time.

Chickpea Salad with Lemon Potatoes in Pitas with Tzitki

I love listening to the girls play together. Hannah always has a plan as to how everything is going to go. She relates her plan to Harper in great detail with extra attention to demonstrate so that Harper will understand, Harper agrees and they begin to play. Once they are playing Harper never follows the plan and Hannah stops the game and the whole thing starts over. It’s really unbelievable the patience that she has in these situations, I would have locked myself in my room and played on my own after the first round if I was her. The power of being an older sister I guess.

Recipe

This is usually one of our summer standards because there’s barely any cooking involved. It’s also so lovely with garden tomatoes (really, what isn’t?).This is a favourite, easy to make and often leaves great leftovers for lunch. The chickpea salad recipe is from Jaime Oliver: Jaime’s Diners.


Whole wheat pitas

Chickpeas

1 19 oz can of chickpeas

2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes (different colours if you have or a couple vine ripe tomatoes in winter)

1 small red onion (I use a quarter of a big one – small red onions are hard to find)

1-2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and chopped (I omit these and it is still yummy)

2 lemons

extra virgin olive oil

1 handful of fresh mint, chopped

1 handful of fresh basil, chopped

7 oz feta cheese

Chop the red onion very fine, chop your tomatoes and mix these both with your chilli. Dress this with the juice of 1 ½ lemons and about 3 times as much olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Heat the chickpeas in a pan, add 90 per cent of them to the bowl and mash up the rest and then add as well. The mashed chickpeas will mix with the dressing and give it a little creamier consistency. Allow to marinate a little while at room temperature.

Just before you are going to serve mix in the basil, mint and feta and adjust seasoning if needed.

*I actually find that there ends up being a little too much dressing and usually use the juice of 1 lemon and 3 times the olive oil.

Potatoes

3-4 potatoes, cut in cubes

¼ cup olive oil

juice of one lemon

1 Tbsp rosemary

Preheat oven to 400F and mix all ingredients in an oven proof dish. Bake for 40 minutes, until potatoes are tender and sides are crispy.

Tzitki

1 ½ cup Greek (or other thick) plain yogurt

1 cup of grated cucumber, seeds removed

1 clove garlic, pressed

1 tsp salt (add more to taste)

Mix all ingredients together and let sit in the fridge for ½ hour or more so the flavours can meld.

Wrap the pitas in foil and warm in oven. I put everything in the pita add a few olives and eat it like that, Dave usually puts his potatoes on the side.

Chilli with Guacamole and Chips

Hannah and I had a very rough hour this morning. Its funny how one little request (like, getting dressed) can escalate into an hour long battle. It was really a ridiculous battle. I was able to maintain my calm throughout, but at one point I was so frustrated that I wanted to cry and because it was just so ridiculous I also wanted to laugh at the same time. It made me think, these battles can be a lot of emotion for one little girl (and one little mama). I forget that for me it was a task, a part of the day that needed to get done so we could carry on but for her, it was so much more. Similarly, it’s funny, once she decided to do it, she went up got dressed, brushed her teeth, washed her face and came downstairs like nothing had happened while I continued to struggle with all this left over frustration.

Recipe

Normally we wouldn’t have tortilla chips at dinner during the week (it’s alright on the weekend for some reason) but I had bought this for last Sunday’s dinner and then we were sick, the avocados were starting to go off so I had to use them. There are millions of chilli recipes out there, I have three or four different ones that I make, and this one is from Moosewood Restaurant: Simple Suppers and it’s so quick and easy that it often wins out. I alter it a little because it calls for 15 oz cans and here we only have 19 oz cans. I don’t like to end up with 4 oz of things left so instead I use 19 oz cans and a 28 oz can of tomatoes with the liquid drained (if you live somewhere you get 15 oz cans, use 15oz cans of everything, even the tomatoes – undrained)

Shortcut Chilli

2 cups of chopped onions

3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 red pepper, diced

1 Tbsp minced canned chipotles in adobo sauce or 3 tsp chilli powder

1 19 oz can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 19 oz can of lentils, undrained

1 28 oz tomatoes, liquid drained

1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (I use more, about ¼ cup)

In a soup pot, sauté the onions, garlic, salt and chilli powder in the oil until soft. Add the chipotles and bell peppers, cover and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the beans, lentils and tomatoes. Cover and simmer on low heat for 5 to 10 minutes or until everything is hot. Stir in cilantro and serve. We top ours with a little sour cream, salsa, grated cheddar and a bit more cilantro.

For guacamole recipe see here.

Broccoli Tofu Stir Fry over Noodles

We made cookies today. Regular chocolate chip cookies except we put a few M&Ms in them as well. The girls were so excited about the cookies. You have to understand, we don’t make cookies or keep any kind of sweets in the house because I monitor and ration it with the kids and then they go to bed and there’s nobody to monitor and ration it for me, it’s a problem. But I really wanted to bake today and Hannah wanted to bake cookies so we went to the store and bought the goods and baked. We were smart and only made half a batch because, seriously, they last the same amount of time if it’s a whole batch or half. When I was putting Hannah to bed tonight, we were all cuddled up together and she asked me if there were any cookies left. I told her I wasn’t sure because Dave had been the one to dish them out after supper. She said, “Well, if there are any then I’m going to have one tomorrow, and if there aren’t any left then I’ll eat the little crumbs out of the tin.” I thought, “Oh dear God let there be some cookies left for her, I can’t bare to watch her lick the tin because her parents have no will power!” So far there are still some left for her, although we haven’t gone to bed yet.

Recipe

This recipe comes from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. We all like it, Hannah loves it – but not for her birthday dinner.

Sauce 

3 Tbsp hoisin sauce

2/3 cup water

3 Tbsp rice vinegar or white vinegar

3 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp cornstarch

3-4 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, pressed

1 small fresh chile, seeded and minced

1 ½ cakes tofu (18 oz), cut into 1 inch cubes

1 large head broccoli, cut in 1 inch pieces

1/3 cup sherry

1 bunch scallions, cut in 1 inch pieces

1 red bell pepper, cut in strips

Combine sauce ingredients and set aside. Before beginning to stir fry prepare vegetables and have them all on hand.

In a wok or large skillet heat 2 Tbsp of the oil over medium heat. Stir fry the garlic and chile for 30 seconds and then add the tofu and stir fry until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove tofu and set aside. Add another Tbsp of oil to the wok, heat for a few seconds and then add the broccoli. Stir fry for a minute and then add the sherry, stir fry for 3 minutes (if the broccoli begins to scorch add a tablespoon of water). Add the scallions and peppers and stir fry for another minute, then add the tofu and sauce. Stir carefully and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 3 or 4 minutes, until sauce thickens.

Serve over rice or noodles.

Pizza with Salad

In our house everyone’s involved in my morning coffee. We have one of those machines where it grinds the coffee beans and so it’s very loud. When Hannah was little she liked to press the button and make the loud noise. Things like this, you never really think much about it, never seemed like a big deal but it has become a huge part of my life. I’m one of those people who loves their coffee in the morning, it’s not that I can’t function without it, I just don’t want to and I’m a much more pleasant person if I don’t have to. The problem is that when baby number two came along I was suddenly up before Hannah and if I started the coffee she would hear, run downstairs crying that she wanted to start it and be a very grumpy bear for the rest of the morning. If I didn’t start it, then I was a grumpy bear. Harper has recently demanded to be a part of the whole thing and now I have to remember whose turn it is. I’m seriously thinking of giving up coffee – this simple pleasure has become too complicated.

Recipe

I’ve been trying to change Friday night dinner up a little but, to be honest we love pizza and it’s always a little disappointing when we don’t have it on Friday. If you need a recipe see here.

Out for Dinner

I have the winter blahs. I’m not even interested in going outside when the weather is mild, I’m just done. I refuse to shovel the driveway anymore; we are now just driving over it with the car to pack it down. The weather is getting nicer (not -35 during the day), I could play outside with the kids during the day - I don’t care. I want to see the grass, not even poking through the snow, all grass. I think that March is going to be a very long month around here. Dave finally pulled me out of my blahs today by suggesting we go shopping to check out new doors and trim for our house; this has shifted my focus and pepped me up a little.

We have had this gift card that Dave got from work over Christmas, which we have been trying to use. It’s to one of those chain restaurants where the food isn’t actually very good but it’s not bad enough discard the $50 card. So after shopping we took the kids out for supper. Hannah had a pasta dish off the kids menu with fries and Harper had the grill cheese which I ordered with the veggie option, much to her chagrin. The guilt of the nutritional value of their meals wore off when they were so well behaved and excited to be eating out. The not so great food was also made up for with excellent service, I think there must be a bell they ring to tell the cooks to bump a table with kids to the front of the line before they start running around the restaurant and knocking servers over because it was actually a little worrisome how quickly we got our food.

I don’t have a meal entry for today but may I suggest fish tacos that you can find here.

Veggie Lasagne with Caesar Salad, Bread and Apple Pie and Ice Cream

Oh Sunday dinners, how I have missed thee. Mom and Dad are home and so we all wondered down for Sunday dinner with them and my Grandma tonight. It was the perfect end to a very relaxing day. I’m still in my I’m done with winter funk and stayed inside all day. I was even bitter about the two minute walk to mom and dad’s tonight. Let’s hope this funk passes quickly. Today was one of those great days where the girls played together all day long. Dave and I actually sat and read our books together at the same time for about an hour this morning, it was so relaxing. Ending the day with dinner at my parents makes me feel safe and warm and like all is right with the world (except for the fact that it’s still winter – I know, get over it). I don’t have a recipe to share because I didn’t cook but it was delicious. I hope you have a great week!