Abundant

Carrot Soup

Our carrot soup is nearly pure carrot -- it has carrots and water with salt and pepper.  Just before serving it gets a dollop (2 tsp?) of butter and some dill for garnish.  It tasted great and it was very pleasing to the eye.

Variation on Oatmeal

For a change of pace, I varied the oatmeal recipe.  This one calls for grated apple to be cooked along with the oatmeal and to make a very creamy oatmeal.  We used a golden delicious apple, which resulted in the subtle yellow appearance.  Next time I'll add a pinch or two of cinnamon.

Baked Apple

An attractive and simple fruit dish!  The Golden Delicious apple is baked at a low temperature on a cabbage leaf after being oh-so-lightly sprinkled with lemon juice and cinnamon-sugar.  The apple remained crisp and crunchy and was infused with the sweetness and flavor of the topping.

Risotto - tomato & zucchini

Here is another view of the risotto with zucchini, garlic, and tomato.  I loved it so decided to include it again (even though you could see it in the Redux -- Component dinner.

Redux - Component Dinner

The black-eyed peas were heated up with serrano pepper and flavored with onion and mushroom.  Zucchine, garlic, and tomato were added to the pressure-cooked risotto and the carrots were glazed with veggie stock and then a dash of milk.  Turnips were cooked in water, veggie stock, a bit of butter, and some soy sauce.  We got our leafy greens in the blackberry salad (shown yesterday).  I really enjoyed this meal immensely!  The carrots were a treat since I made the choice of recipe, especially to try a new one!

Blackberry Salad

We dressed this salad with a combination of blackberry juice, oil, and honey.  The greens were topped with blackberries (frozen), slivered almonds, and a few chives for garnish.  Lovely, eh?

Cheeseburger Lunch

For lunch recently I had a Morningstar Farms Griller with cheese, carrots, applesauce (not shown), and cottage cheese.  Quite a classic kid-friendly meal! 

Angel food cake

A week or so ago, we had this for a special dessert.  We had angel food cake (naturally fat free by the way), with whipped cream  (not fat free...) and raspberries.  Yum!

Sandwich with basil, roasted vegetables, and goat cheese

A winter variation on a summer sandwich...  Instead of grilling we roasted the veggies for the sandwiches.  Whole basil leaves provided luscious aroma and flavor and the chévre blended in amazing ways with the other ingredients.  Another find from the Everyday Greens cookbook!

Quesadillas Norteñas

These quesadillas have epazote and ground ancho pepper spicing up the Chihuahua cheese filling.  If I have my history correct, Mennonites were the first to introduce cheese-making techniques to the Chihuahua region of Mexico.  In this lunch, salsa cruda and slaw spiced with Mexican oregano were the side dishes.  Quesadillas are a great quick meal and comfort food -- much like my beloved grilled cheese!

Garlic Spaghetti

This one is not for those shy about garlic!  We added 7 cloves of garlic to the food processor with  butter, parmesan, basil, one egg, and salt and pepper.  The pungent paste was amazing as it melted over the hot pasta.  Writing of garlic reminds me of a book which influenced us greatly; we read [most all of]  Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl aloud and were amazed at her ability to make the tastes of food so compelling sounding.  Imagine a massage with garlic aioli! 

Treats for Staff meeting

At work we have a list where we're assigned to bring treats for the monthly staff meeting.  It only comes around once or twice a year, for which some people are very happy even though it is fine to buy something.  I decided to bake!  Here are raspberry breakfast bars from Nancy Silverton's Pastries from the La Brea Bakery and Meltaways with Lemon Curd from The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts.  Smashing!

Tagine served with cherry-almond couscous

This tagine, or stew, has complex flavors originating with the spice combination of roasted and ground cumin and coriander seeds with cloves, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, and allspice which were in a tomato-onion sauce. It has fennel, carrots, peas, chickpeas, and potato over a couscous cooked in vegetable broth with dried cherries, currants, and toasted chopped almonds.  We found this recipe in the Everyday Greens cookbook. 

Asparagus-Orange Velouté

Our Sunday Night Soup was based on a velouté (a white sauce made with a liquid other than milk) using the stock created by the asparagus as its base.  The gorgeous orange taste came from OJ added at the end.

Breakfast Migas

For breakfast, a favorite option is breakfast Migas -- scrambled eggs with salsa, jalapeno, red pepper, onion and torilla chips.  The first time I ate these was in Texas at a dear friend's wedding celebration weekend.

Coleslaw with a bit of pineapple

To dress up coleslaw, I tried adding some crushed pineapple.  I was looking for pineapple tidbits but couldn't find any at the store.  It was a fun experiment; I remembered having some delicious coleslaw with pineapple at my grandmother's a few years ago.  My attempt was okay but not great.

An easy breakfast

We eat local, organic eggs nearly exclusively.   Recently we joined a new CSA (community sustained agriculture) endeavor and are glad to be supporting a farmer who is just starting out!

Breakfast oatmeal

Since childhood I have loved to have oatmeal for breakfast.  My mom would "hide" the brown sugar on the bottom and we'd stir it in ourselves -- loving the moment the sweet brown liquid would be visible.

Slice of cake

Well, this looks better than it tasted unfortunately.  I'm not sure why it turned out so dry...  It was immensely helped by the mascarpone frosting and the raspberry sauce.

Homemade Pizza

We tried veggie pepperoni for the first time and piled on lots of cheese, green peppers, mushrooms, (and on my half) onions on our pizza.  I wouldn't miss the pepperoni but it did add some spicing to have the veggie-substitute. 

Country Mushroom and Sour Cream Soup

For our Sunday Night Soup, we combined sauteed thinly sliced onion rings, julienned carrots, a red potato, and a pound of chopped mushrooms in a vegetable broth.  After simmering for thirty minutes, we added tofu sour cream, salt, and paprika just before garnishing with mushroom slices and chives.  We mark the recipes we want to make again; this one definitely got a marker!

Burrito served enchilada style

Filled with spiced pinto beans, this burrito quickly proved itself as a fantastic lunch.  It looks elegant on the glass plate atop the lace tablecloth, doesn't it?! ;)

One-egg omelette

This veggie-sausage and Gruyere cheese omelette paired nicely with a homemade biscuit for a great weekend breakfast.