parmesan lentil soup

Tonight I made one of my final "eat through the kitchen" meals.  I'm about ready to say the challenge is done.  Mainly because I haven't bought meat in a month and half and all I have left is a ham.  My appetite and pallet is screaming for beef and I'm going to give in this weekend. I'm also out of pasta sauce, ingredients to make pasta sauce, and some other items.  Last night's dinner was mini tortilla pizzas:  BBQ chicken and pepperoni.

The following recipe, which isn't my own, was made using ingredients I had on hand.  The only thing I had to buy was the Parmesan rind, which was inexpensive.

It was easy to make and it tasted good.  It was more like a stew, though.  Very thick.  I added another cup of water and that helped a little bit.  Not sure why it was so thick, since I followed the directions to the letter.  The picture in the original recipe shows a thinner soup.

If you don't eat pasta as a post-op, just scoop around it.  I don't eat pasta anymore, so that's what I did.

Parmesan Lentil Soup

Serves 6

Recipe by Carlene Thomas, RDN, LD (Link to recipe)
Adapted from The Best Vegetarian Recipes by Martha Rose Shulman

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small white onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped into rounds
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 14-ounce can tomatoes with juice, seeded and chopped (or 2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes)
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups water
1½ cup lentils
1 chunk Parmesan rind
1 bay leaf
Salt
Black pepper
½ cup small pasta
Garnishes: lemon thyme, grated Parmesan (optional, I didn't use the thyme)

Directions

1. Over medium heat in a large pot, add onion, carrot and garlic with oil. Cook and stir until everything is tender for about five minutes.
2. Add in tomatoes, turn heat to medium and bring to a simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Stir in the lentils with chicken stock and water. Bring to a boil.
4. Add Parmesan rind and bay leaf and reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
5. Add salt and cook for another 15 to 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender.
6. Add pasta and cook until pasta is done.
7. Top with more cheese, black pepper, salt and lemon thyme. (Optional)

a new kitty in the house

It's official:  this little lady is ours!  We signed the adoption papers yesterday.

Her name is Leia and she's about two years old.  She came to the Stratford Cat Project with her brother in 2013; she and her brother were found next to a dumpster as kittens.  Due to her rough start in the world, she has a bit of a food obsession.  Although, it's not as bad as it used to be.  What that means is that she hangs around during our mealtimes much more than the normal cat does. And she occasionally steals the butter if it's not covered properly. Pork rinds, too.  She was overlooked by potential adopters because of her obsession with food and her initial shyness.  Actually, one family adopted her and then returned her after two days because she was so shy. Come on! Two days?!  Guess they didn't want to deal with letting her get acclimated.

We recently lost one of our cats, Riley, very suddenly and were looking for another cat.  We decided we would foster Leia and see how it goes.  The first week was tough since she pretty much stayed under the bed and seemed very scared; I was skeptical.  But eventually she opened up.  It took her a good two weeks to really get comfortable with hanging around the house.  And now she's just a peach and totally at home, especially when it's the humans' bedtime.

Her favorite pastime is to sit on the recycling bin in the kitchen and watch while I cook or do the dishes. Sometimes she likes to "help," which really means that she's on the counter in front of me while I'm trying to reach around her to wash the dishes.

We're so happy to have her.  Welcome to the family, Leia!

Leia, the ladybug hunter.

Peek-a-boo!

 Here's her favorite spot.

This is how she "helps" with the dishes.

homemade marinara sauce

I made homemade marinara sauce a couple weeks ago and just haven't had time to post it.  I made this sauce because I didn't have any pasta sauce, but knew I most likely had all the ingredients for a simple homemade sauce.  Also, it keeps in line with my Eat Through the Kitchen Challenge (still going!).  I found this recipe on on the internet (The Frugal Cafe).

It was pretty easy and it used up all the canned tomatoes I had on hand.  It tasted really good, also. The recipe calls for pureeing, but I couldn't be bothered with that.  Instead I broke up the stewed tomatoes while they were cooking.  The result was a very chunky sauce.  I threw in some Italian sausages after partially frying them.  They finsihed cooking in the sauce.

Homemade Marinara Sauce

1 T. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or crushed
1 sm. onion, diced
1 sm. green or sweet pepper, diced
1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 tsp dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1 tsp. dried fennel seeds
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
Dash black pepper

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, sauté garlic and onion in olive oil on low heat until onion is tender.
2. Stir all remaining ingredients in with sautéd mixture; heat just to boiling; then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally.
3. Optional:  Carefully purée the hot sauce in in a food processor or a blender. (I didn't puree mine.)

eat through the kitchen progress

I think I've finally hit the wall when it comes to eating chicken.  I'm so tired of chicken.  And guess what I still have in the freezer?  Chicken!  It's what I have with me for lunch today, too.  I'm seriously considering running out for a salad.

I'm defrosting ground turkey at the moment, which I plan to use for stuffed peppers either tonight or tomorrow night.  Normally when I make stuffed peppers I use ground beef and beef flavored Rice-a-Roni, but I made a huge batch of my seasoned brown rice a couple weeks ago and froze half of it.  And since I have only ground turkey, I figure the two will go well together for a batch of stuffed peppers.

It's going well for the most part, but I'm starting to run out of pantry items, like pasta sauce.  I made a batch of homemade sauce last week, but that used up the last of the canned tomatoes I had.  I still have lots of lentils and also some wheat berries, so I'll have to get creative with those.  Especially wheat berries; I've never cooked with them before.

I feel like I've saved some money.  I haven't tracked it, but I'm no longer shopping every single week and coming out with 10 bags of nothing.  I go to the store, but it's usually just to grab a few things, like yogurt, lunchmeat, milk and eggs.

I'm looking forward to the day when I finish up what's in the freezer and can finally buy some beef, but has anyone seen the price of beef lately?  Ridiculous!  I'm sure I'll buy some anyway, though.  I'm really missing it right now, but I refuse to buy it until I've eaten all the other meat.

crunchy roasted chickpeas

This weekend I tried my hand at making roasted chickpeas.  I figured it would be a good snack, something different. I happened to come across a recipe by Alton Brown and thought I'd give it a try.

I really wanted to like these.  I followed the recipe; however, the chickpeas lacked flavor and many of them were teeth-breakingly crunchy. I love Alton Brown and most of his recipes are awesome, but this one just didn't come out right.

The recipe calls for dried chickpeas, which are soaked overnight in red vinegar and kosher salt.  You then drain them, dress them with a mixture of red vinegar, dijon mustard, and olive oil.  Then you roast them at 400 degrees for an hour and then salt them.  They're supposed to be a take on salt and vinegar potato chips, but you use chickpeas instead.

After reading the comments, I decided to soak the dried chickpeas for a full 24 hours, rather than overnight like the recipe states.  Most people said they were way too crunchy so I figured 24 hours would help.  Nope.  The ones that were very dark brown were so crunchy I was afraid I'd crack my crown.  The ones that were golden brown were crunchy and just right.  Unfortunately, I just couldn't taste the vinegar.  I ended up tossing them.

If you want to try your hand at them, here's the link to the recipe. Crunchy Chickpeas

swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes

Another Eat Through the Kitchen meal.  I didn't have to buy anything to make this.  I had a big bag of Ikea Swedish meatballs in the freezer; however, I ran out of the gravy packets and had to Google for a recipe for gravy.  I found one and it was good.  Very easy, too.

I made some mashed red potatoes (the last of the buy-one-get-one-free deal, so no waste!).  I made the potatoes with a masher instead of using the beaters and they were great.  I have to say, I make some awesome mashed potatoes.  I find the key is to add a good amount of salt and pepper.  I know, a lot of people don't or can't use salt when they cook, but I find this really makes a difference with mashed potatoes.  Sure, you can always salt them once they're on the plate, but I want mine to taste awesome and for people to think I just have the magic touch, :)

today's breakfast and lunch

Today's breakfast is Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt, the only kind I like; it's lower in sugar and calories than all the rest.  Dry roasted peanuts were mixed in, of course.

Lunch was turkey and Swiss roll-ups with some Boar's Head Chipotle Gourmaise (love this stuff, but it's got a kick!).

Snack was celery and hummus, a new favorite.  It satisfies my urge for a crunchy snack.

still eating chicken!

Nope, I'm not out of chicken yet.  I've been trying to eat through the kitchen for a month or so and I've still got at least two more family packs of boneless chicken breast, plus boneless thighs.  Sorry, Bob, you're gonna be eating it for awhile.

I made this on the grill and simply added some seasoned salt.  I love seasoned salt!  It tastes great and makes people think I actually put some effort into cooking.  Just shake it on before cooking and that's it. I made some green beans and gave Bob some rice with it.

This is about 3.5 ounces of chicken and a scant 1/4 cup of beans.  I finished it all except two bites of chicken.

I got another two lunches out of it, my friend had a piece, and Bob took some for lunch.  It stretched pretty far.

tea time

Lately I've been trying to find new things to try; the post-op diet can get a little routine sometimes:  eat breakfast, drink a ton of water, pee, eat lunch, pee, drink a ton of water, pee, drink some more water, pee, pee, pee, eat dinner, pee, drink a ton of water, pee, get up during the night to pee...you get the picture.

Now that I'm back on track, I want to stay there. I find that I struggle at work mostly.  It just seems like such a long day at my desk and I keep wanting to eat all my snacks by 10:00 am.  Not because I'm hungry, but because I want something to break up the monotony of work and drinking water all day long.  One thing I've found that helps me through the workday is to add in a couple cups of flavored tea throughout the day.  It gives me something to do (walking to the cafeteria to get the hot water) and I get to enjoy something other than plain old water.  There are virtually no calories, no sugar, and very little caffeine.  Also, it makes me feel like I'm having a treat.

I've been trying different teas in search of one that just does it for me; that's the only way I can explain it.  I'm finding that many flavored teas smell great while brewing, but they just don't taste the way they smell.  And that's disappointing, especially in the case of the chocolate mint tea (below). Gets expensive, too, and money is tight right now.

I've tried several different ones:

• Harney & Sons Chocolate Mint:  This smelled delicious, like Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, but I didn't taste the chocolate in the tea, just mint.  I'd buy it again, though.  Even if it's just to make my office smell like chocolate mint. 
• Harney & Sons Vanilla Comoro:  again, smelled delicious, but I didn't really taste any vanilla at all.  And I was surprised at how much it tasted like black tea.  I wouldn't get this one again.
• Twinings Pure Peppermint: with this one I was trying to find a substitute for Trader's Joe peppermint tea that I'd had years ago and loved.  This fell short.  It's a decent stand-in, but not overly minty.
• Twinings Irish Breakfast:  Because I'm Irish.  This is good, and I like the deep copper color.  I may buy it again if I'm in the mood for it.
• Trader Joe's Peppermint:  There's a Trader Joe's on my way home from work so I decided to stop and see if they had the delicious tea I remember.  It was pretty good, better than Twinings, but I still feel like it could use a bit more mint flavor.  
• London Fruit & Herb Co. Strawberry & Vanilla Fool:  I bought this the other night at Ocean State Job Lot for $2.29.  I was apprehensive; I've never tried fruit teas before.  I was very surprised at the strong strawberry flavor.  I didn't taste much vanilla, but I still enjoyed it.  It actualled tasted like strawberries and not black tea with a hint of strawberry.  I could easily make this into an iced tea and be very happy with it. Plus, look at the pretty color! (below)  I added only 1 packet of Nutrasweet and nothing else.

So, anyone have any suggestions for me for teas to try?  I got some good suggestions from friends, but anything you have for me is welcomed. Just post a comment.

I think the ladybug in the background matches the color of the tea perfectly!  We have swarms of these things right now.

monday's breakfast and lunch

I'm late in publishing this one.  I had this on Monday.

Breakfast was Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt, as usual.  I omitted the peanuts this time in an effort to save calories.

In the spirit of eating through the kitchen, I brought my leftover grilled chicken for lunch.

Snack were celery and hummus, and a hard-boiled egg.