Another Soup

Here’s one more from Dad.

Quick Veggie Soup

• 2 cups distilled water
• 1 large onion, peeled
• 1 cup white beans, cooked and drained
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded
• 2 carrots
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

Chop all vegetables very small. Bring water to boil; add vegges and beans. Boil for 20 minutes, adding more water if necessary.

Enjoy!

Raw Veggie Soup

OK, here’s the soup to go with the burritos.

• 4 cups distilled water, heated but not to boiling
• 1 medium carrot, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 chopped green scallions or some chopped sweet onion
• 2 cups fresh or frozen cherry tomatoes
• herb seasoning to taste
• sea salt or sea vegetables (dulse, kelp, etc.) to taste

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until creamy.

Option: chop some of the vegetables into bite size pieces and place them in the serving bowls. Blend the remaining ingredients and fill the bowl with the blended liquid for a crunchy delightful warm soup.

Option: during warm weather, use cold water and chill soup for a refreshing cold soup.

Note from Dad: I tried this soup and it was very tasty.  However I made the mistake of adding a red bell pepper.  It added great flavor but I should have peeled it first as skin didn’t chop up very well.  I strained it out but also lost the pulp of some of the other vegies.  Give it a try.  If you don’t like the raw flavor you can put it on the stove and simmer it for 20 to 30 minutes.  Let me know what you think.

Raw Veggie Burritos

This is a recipe from my dad. They’re into the raw food/vegan thing. I haven’t tried this yet. According to my dad, these are good with a raw veggie soup. I’ll post that one next.

• 1/4 cup fresh mint
• 2 cups ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced
• 1/2 small ripe tomato, finely chopped
• 2 scallions, minced, or 2 tbsp. red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp. sweet bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt (optional)
• 1 tbsp. fresh cilantro, minced, or 1/2 tsp. dried
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. powdered kelp (optional)
• 1/4 cup lemon or lime juice
• 4 large Napa Cabbage leaves (or Romaine lettuce)

Mix all but cabbage or romaine in a bowl. To make burritos, spoon equal portions of the avocado mixture into the cabbage (or  lettuce) leaves. Wrap around the mixure, secure with a toothpick and serve with a raw soup.

Hmmm. I don’t know about the lettuce leaves. I might be more inclined to use sprouted grain tortillas, instead. I’ll let you know.

Quick Hive Update

I did finally get an appointment about those hives. The doctor agreed it was quite a mystery what was causing them. She prescribed Atarax, a stronger antihistamine for me to take each night at bedtime. It works, as long as I take it.

Sunday and Monday this week, I decided to experiment to find out if I still needed to take it. I don’t like to take medication if it’s not absolutely necessary. Well, like last time I did that, after the second dose skipped, I awoke in the middle of the night with hives. I couldn’t go back to sleep, so took the Atarax. That was about 2:30 a.m., or so. I was pretty tired this morning, but was able to function. Whew! I don’t think I’ll do that again. I’ll just keep taking the medication until we get this figured out.

I was supposed to get a call regarding an appointment with an allergist. But that never came. So, I’ll have to call the insurance and track it down. In the meantime, I guess I’ll have to do more research on my own. Any suggestions?

Breakfast for Dinner

It was another one of those “What on earth am I going to do for dinner?” kind of nights. This time I decided to have “Breakfast Night.” Pancakes and eggs sounded good. But not just plain old pancakes. Last time I sent my husband to Costco, he came home with Krusteaz Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread Mix. I wondered if that could be used to make pancakes.

The first thing I did was check their website. Nope, there were no recipes or even mention of the possibility of using that mix for pancakes. There was a time in my life when that would have been that. I would have gone no further and we would have had plain old pancakes. But, I guess I’ve grown – in the kitchen, anyway. I decided to give it a go.

I started out with one cup of the mix and one cup of milk, and added 1 tablespoon of canola oil and one egg. Well, that was too much milk, the batter was way too thin. So I had to add a few more spoonfulls of the mix. I probably should have started with 2/3 cup of milk and worked it from there.

Ultimately I had to make the batter thicker than my usual pancake batter for the pancakes to turn out just right. But, it worked! We had delicious pumpkin pancakes for dinner along with fried eggs, over easy, and maple bacon. OK, so this would not go into the healthy, whole food category. But it was a nice treat. I think it’s the first time we’ve had “Breakfast Night” for dinner since the three year old has been around. He got a big kick out of it.

I did pick up a couple of pumpkins yesterday to cook with. I’ll post on that probably next week. I’ll see how much pumpkin meat I come up with and then decide what to make. heh, heh, heh. Stay tuned.

Winging It

Here’s my all too typical way of handling dinner. I usually remember to take something out of the freezer, but with no plan of what to do with it. Then there are those days that I realize about 4 or 5 that afternoon that I forgot! So, here’s how tonight went:

Hm-mm, we had beef last night, how about fish – no chicken. The husband just cut up a pineapple, how about pineapple chicken. Nah, that usually goes with rice and we had rice yesterday. Oh, how about pasta. [Thumb through a couple of cook books for some inspiration; go through fridge to see what I have to work with.]

OK, I have a frozen chicken breast – par-boiled that. Melted some butter and pressed some garlic into that. Chopped the chicken and threw that into the butter/garlic. Oh, better use up this asparagus – threw that in with the chicken. Seasoned with salt, pepper, and basil (my favorite herb). I then added some milk (covered the bottom of the pan) and mixed a tablespoon of flour with milk. Mixed in the flour/milk – a little too thick, added more milk (sorry, didn’t measure here). I boiled some pasta and mixed my chicken mix in with the pasta and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. I tossed up a salad and, whew! Dinner!

That actually turned out pretty good. And that’s two nights in a row! I threw together some beef with broccoli yesterday. But I must say that’s a bit of a stressful way to go. Some nights I have a harder time figuring out what to make out of what I have and dinner winds up a little late. Sometimes what I come up with isn’t so hot. But, tonight, even the three year old liked it, and it was on the table a little after six.

I know I can make my life easier in the kitchen if I’ll do a little planning. But I’m such a slow poke that the planning takes longer than it probably should, so I have trouble fitting that in, too. I’ve managed it a few times, for about a week or two. It would probably help with the nutrition and health quality, too. So, I’ll keep trying. Maybe by the time kids are all grown up I’ll have it down. Yeah, maybe I’ll be exercising regularly, too. . .

Mediterranean Black Olive Bread

Oh, wow, is it next week already? Well, here is the bread I mentioned that goes well with the Mediterranean Veggie Stew. I don’t know if anyone really cares, but a promise is a promise. I also have the recipes I mentioned from my dad. But I downloaded them to our laptop, which then decided to go to school with my husband each day since. I know I’ll get it back eventually. But, now for the bread.

If you have a bread-maker and want to go that route, put the wet ingredients in first:

• 1 1/4 cup warm water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped black olives

Then add the dry on top:

• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Set the bread-maker according to it’s instructions and enjoy that baking bread smell while you go do other things.

Here are the directions for making the bread if you’re into that sort of thing.

1. In a large bowl, ix together flour, yeast, sugar, salt, black olives, olive oil, and water.
2. Turn out dough onto a floured board. Knead until smooth and elastic, 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside and let rise about 45 minutes, until it doubles in size. Punch down. Knead well again, for about 5 to 10 minutes. Let rise for about 30 minutes, until it doubles in size.
3. Round the dough on kneading board. Place upside down in a bowl lined with a lint-free, well floured towel. Let rise until double in size.
4. While the bread is rising for the third time, put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).
5. Gently turn loaf onto a sheet pan that has been lightly oiled and dusted with cornmeal.
6. Bake loaf at 500 degrees F (260 degrees C) for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake for 30 more minutes, until done.

I found this several years ago on allrecipes.com. Apparently it had been submitted by someone named Holly. Thanks Holly, whoever you are.

Mediterranean Stew (Veggie)

OK, I’m on the phone now attempting to make that doctor appointment. Average wait time, I’m told by the electronic voice, is 20 minutes. I hope my cell phone battery is up for it. So, while I’m waiting, here is the crock pot veggie stew that I made for my folks this past weekend:

• 1 eggplant, chopped
• 2 zucchini, chopped
• 1 red or green bell pepper, seeded/chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 large tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cans garbanzo beans, drained/rinsed
• 1 can artichoke hearts packed in water, drained/quartered
• 1 tbsp oregano
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt
• crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 box Couscous

Add all ingredients except for couscous to the crock pot and stir well. Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve over the cooked couscous.

This takes a large crockpot. If you have a smaller one, decrease the ingredients, like 1 zuccini instead of 2, 1 can garbanzo beans, etc. The hardest thing about this recipe is the amount of chopping. But once you chop it, just throw it in the crock pot and let it do the cooking. As I mentioned previously, I like to serve this with the Easy Greek Salad and some olive bread made in my breadmaker.  I’ll post that one later.

Well, my position in the que has gone up to 5. Should be able to talk to someone soon and make that appointment.

ABOUT THAT APPOINTMENT: No appointments were available in the system. I was told to try again tomorrow. Any clue why I’ve been putting it off? sigh.

Coming soon . . .

I have my in-laws visiting until Tuesday, but plan to jot some things here in the coming week, or so.

• I really have to do something about those blasted hives! Nope, still haven’t made an appointment with the doctor. I suppose that should be my first step – really need to quit ignoring it. Some nights they seem to come on earlier . . . Any other suggestions?
• More recipes! I made a veggie stew this weekend that I hadn’t made in a while that is pretty easy (crock-pot) and is always enjoyed. It is Mediterranean. My usual routine is to have that along with the easy Greek salad, posted earlier, and some olive bread made in the bread maker. Oh, had to make the Greek salad without spinach – none in the stores yet. But it was still delicious.
• Still need to get that raw veggie recipe from my dad. He mentioned it on a recent visit – sounded good and pretty easy, which is always a plus in my book. My step-mom also made a quick and easy desert that is also relatively healthy. I’ve got to get the topping recipe, then I’ll post it here.

I’d love to hear from folks about your favorite quick, easy, healthy recipes. You can post in comments here or send me an email: journeytomom@yahoo.com.