Curried Turnip Soup

I don't ever recall in my entire life eating a turnip. I also cannot recall a time where I ever thought I should eat them. Until this week's trip to the grocery store. I try to get new veggies/foods when I can, and these purple and white beauties called out my name. The parsnips nearby also shouted to me, but ultimately I went for the turnips instead. Maybe next week, parsnips.

Not having had them, I blanked on preparation methods. For some reason I've had curry on my mind this week and had to talk myself out of making curried cauiflower soup last night. Good thing I held off as I had a miniscule amount of curry powder left.

Curried Turnip Soup
6 turnips, peeled and chopped
.5 cup uncooked quinoa
1 small yellow onion
2 cups soy milk (I use unsweetened)
curry powder
4 cloves garlic, minced

Steam turnips. Combine quinoa, onion, and 1 cup water in small pot. Bring to a boil then simmer 15-20 minutes or until water is absorbed.

When turnips are soft, place in large pot (I saved about 1/3 of them because I like my soup chunky). Add milk and curry powder (1-2tsp probably works for most people, though I use more). Blend until creamy. Add garlic.

Ladle into bowls and top with quinoa. Makes 2 large servings.

This was so easy to make and absolutely delicious. Who knew I would love turnips? I bet it would be good with a dollop of Better Than Cream Cheese. Tomatoes might somehow make a nice pairing. I can't wait to experiment this fall. Of course I will roast them, assuming my oven is ever fixed. Yes, I cry every day that I don't have the ability to roast everything in my apartment.

Summery Rye Pasta

Since my grocery bill has been low from traveling so much, I decided to splurge a little at the grocery store. I ended up in an aisle I rarely visit and found something amazing- rye pasta. 100% rye. I don't usually eat pasta because it always seems like I get too many calories for not enough filling, but it's nice to have on hand for a quick meal. Today I had some veggies leftover from last week's shopping, so I thought I'd throw most of it together for an easy pasta dish.

Summery Rye Pasta

• .75 c uncooked rye pasta
• 1 small/medium onion, sliced (if you are not a massive onion fan, you may want to use half an onion or a quarter
• 1 small head of broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 large tomato
• 3 cloves garlic, 1 peeled and 2 in skin
• .75 TB olive oil plus extra

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut 1 clove garlic into small pieces, add a touch of salt, and make into a paste by smashing with the flat side of a knife. Add to olive oil and set aside. The longer it sits, the better it will be.

Add pasta to boiling water and cook until tender. Spray onion and broccoli with olive oil and toss to coat; spread on baking sheet. Cut tomato in half, spray with olive oil, and place skin down on baking sheet. Add rest of garlic. Bake until browned, about 20 minutes, stirring once midway thorough (leave tomatoes whole an flip garlic).

Add everything but tomatoes to a large bowl. Put tomatoes on top and gently tear open with knife to mush it up. Add garlic olive oil and toss to coat. Enjoy!

This was perfect for an oppressively hot afternoon- I didn't have to stand in a sweltering kitchen to long. The only thing I would add is some freshly ground pepper. Yum.

Spicy Garlic Sesame Broccoli with Red Beans and Quinoa

Work was less than ideal today so I had to let off some steam by taking a long walk with the dog. When I got home I wanted something relatively simple so I could eat and go straight to bed. I knew the fresh broccoli in my fridge would do the trick.

Ingredients
.5 cup quinoa
1TB sesame oil
Several medium heads of fresh broccoli cut into trees (I had maybe 6 cups?)
4 cloves of garlic (less if you aren't a garlic lover like me)
1 cup light red beans
Red pepper flakes to taste
Salt to taste

Cook quinoa (combine with 1 cup water, bring to the boil, simmer 15 minutes or until all water is absorbed). In a large pan (I wanted to use my wok, but it needs to be retired), heat oil on medium. Add broccoli and garlic. Toss to coat. Cook for 5-7 minutes until broccoli becomes bright green and is your desired level of crispness, stirring regularly. Add beans, salt, and red pepper flakes. Cook another minue. Remove from heat.

I ate the broccoli and quinoa side by side, but you could mix them all together or eat the broccoli atop the quinoa. It made 2 large servings (I used a LOT of broccoli). This was so easy and tasty. The sesame oil gave it a nice, unexpected flavor (since I rarely use it). It would have been even better with sesame seeds, but I've never bought them in my life. Maybe next time.

Sweet Potato Supreme

I spent a ridiculous amount of time and energy going grocery shopping today, despite the fact that I'm leaving for 10 days on Saturday. So when I got home it was already 3 and I was starving. I wanted something quick that I could get going while I cooked lunch and I remembered my favorite go-to veggie for quick- the sweet potato.

I nuked a medium/large sweet potato for about 12 minutes while I chopped up some fresh cilantro and chives from my up-until-this-point-sort-of-disappointing Aerogarden as well as 1 clove of garlic. When the potato was done, I cut it in half and cut out a small hole from the middle of each half to which I added some Earth Balance margarine, garlic, herbs, and salt and pepper. I meant to add chili powder but forgot.

I smushed it all up and ate it on 2 pieces of whole wheat toast. Perfect quick afternoon meal.

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup with Quinoa

I've been eating leftover soups this week as well as going with my fallback of barley and split peas, so tonight I thought I'd get a little exciting with my food choices. I had a lot of good ingredients sitting around so I came up with this soup, which is a variation of of sweet potato soup I've made before.

I cut 2 medium sweet potatoes into small wedges and boiled them until soft. I also added about 1tst of fresh ginger. When the potatoes were done I added another 1tsp or so of fresh ginger, some chipotle powder, chili powder, and salt. I blended with the immersion blender and added 1 cup of soy milk and 2 TB of red wine vinegar. I'm pretty sure I should have added the vinegar in before the milk, but oh well.

In another pan I sauteed 4 cloves of garlic in a little bit of olive oil and then added 1c water and .5cup quinoa. Once that was done, I added 6 chopped scallions, salt, and juice from 1/2 of a lime. I scooped the soup in a bowl and, surprise, surprise, added the quinoa mixture to it.

It was pretty spicy but delicious.

Save the Vegetables! Soup

Evidently I overpurchased on veggies last week, which means that I didn't need to buy much this week, but I had to come up with a way to use them up because the thought of throwing out food makes me want to cry. So I did what I love to do- threw it all in a pot to make a soup.



On hand:

1 medium onion

6 cloves garlic (I had to buy a giant pack of garlic becuase I needed it one day and the only nearby place tht had it sold it in 6 bulb packages)

3 large yellow squashes

4 plum tomatoes

4 cups of green beans

1 medium head of cauliflower

1 cup frozen corn



1 can light kidney beans



.5 cup barley (my favorite grain)

.25 cup each quinoa and bulgur



Simply seasoned with seasalt and pepper. If it was topped with avocado, it would contain all essential food groups! It's a nice summery soup and should feed me the rest of the week- it made 5 gigantic servings.

Cauliflower with Tomato Basil Tofu Sauce

It's basically what it sounds like. I steamed some cauliflower and, again using my fantabulous attachment to my immersion blender, blended together a plum tomato, 1 clove of garlic, .25 block silken tofu, salt, basil, and randomly some nutritional yeast (though I'm fairly certain it didn't add anything to it).

Tofu sauces are amazing. Thank you jennilicious for introducing me to tofu, once my nemesis, ironically because of jennilicious' failed attempt back in undergrad. This is a quick, tasty dish. And I'd definitely lick the sauce up off the floor. I may have licked the plate clean, too.

I tried taking pictures for about 10 minutes, but I was ultimately unsuccessful for whatever reason.

Spinach Chickpea Goodness

The past few weeks have been hectic with board meetings, travel 2 weekends in a row, and my workload picking up significantly. So, I haven't had the time to cook, much less blog about what I'm eating. Sadly, 2 days last week I had to settle for (don't take it the wrong way, I love it, but it's no homemade treat) peanut butter sandwiches. But I did go to a "Tex Mex" place (as you'd suspect, DC "Tex Mex" doesn't even come close...) and was proud of myself for avoiding the chips and then only eating half of my veggie burrito. I brought the leftovers back with me, but decided they weren't worth my time.

This afternoon's meal was not quite what I expected- but pleasantly surprising. I sauteed some onions and garlic in about 1/3TB olive oil. I added 1 cup of chickpeas. There was a moment of panic when I looked in the cupboard and couldn't find them. But after moving every single can of beans out of the cabinet, I found the garbanzos hiding in the back. Whew.

I added an entire bag of fresh spinach, about 2TB of white wine, 1.5TB nutritional yeast, and lots of mustard. And salt (amazingly not too much) and pepper. This is clearly my favorite easy sauce for things.

Once the spinach wilted (5 min), it was ready to be devoured. The only thing I'll do differently next time (and I will be making this again) is to cut up the spinach before dumping it into the pan.

Monochrome Mealtime

The past few days I've been making quick, easy meals. But they have all tended to be very monocrhomatic.

Thursday- Green
I made green split peas with frozen spinach. I then added some balsamic vinegar at the end for a little flavor. By the end of the bowl, I wanted to vomit. I don't like balsamic vinegar. Give me red wine vinegar any day.

Friday- Yellow
I boiled some yellow squash with onions and added yellow split peas. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Quick, easy, and tasty.

No pictures, though.

"Ochazuke"

Since I'm feeling a little sick today and I wasn't sure my leftovers from last night would be that great without a little help, I decided to make "Ochazuke." Traditional Ochazuke is leftover rice and green tea with seasonings on top. Things like seaweed, plum, salmon, etc. I use the quotes because, while my dish and the traditional dish both contain green tea and leftover rice, I'm pretty sure most Japanese people don't add chickpeas, kale, and Tony Chacheries. And they probably use white rice instead of brown.

I don't have a picture since I ate it at work, but all I did was mix last night's food together and add some green tea. Just what the doctor ordered, but could have used a little more of the spices.

Green Bean Pocket

I made this last week but haven't had time to post anything since I ramped up my exercise routine. Maybe I'll post about that later...

I randomly had some whole wheat pita bread and, surprise, surprise, wanted to use it up. So I cooked some green beans in red wine vinegar, my favorite. I then added some soy milk, mustard, and nutritional yeast to make a "cheese" sauce. I let it simmer until the green beans were done and then scooped them into the pita. I put it in the oven for a little bit to get a tad crunchy. It was pretty good, fast, and easy. Should I randomly have pita again, I'll probably to something very similar.

Chocolate Pudding

I saw this recipe awhile ago and vowed to make chocolate pudding. But it wasn't until this week when it somehow popped into my head. The recipe as written is less than 200 calories for a lot of pudding, but I have some Godiva liqueur bottles my mom gave me for Christmas that I have been trying to get rid of. Now, I'm fairly certain they are not vegan, but I can't just throw them out...

So I made the pudding according to the recipe and added one mini bottle of the liqueur after removing from heat. At first, eating it warm appealed to me. But then I thought about it a little more and I don't think it's ok to eat warm pudding. It needs to be cold. So I scooped half of it into my beautiful ramekin from my brother and his fiance and set it in the freezer to cool just in time for me to go to bed. And I definitely left the other half in the pot and brought the pot into the living room with me where I proceeded to get every last drop of it off the pot and into my watering mouth.

Without the alcohol, the recipe is very bland and definitely needs something (as mentioned in the recipe) to pep it up. And I have an aversion to cornstarch after an unfortunate episode with Turkish Delight (but I think all TD is disappointing...), so I got a little grossed out by the cornstarch. The chocolate and alcohol helped me get over that really quickly though :)

Just Peachy

Today was an all around great day, as I knew it would be before I even got out of bed. First, I knowingly slept in. Then I checked my email and found the lecture I was supposed to give at the US Postal Service HQ was cancelled, which was excellent since I didn't actually create a presentation. So I got to work and we got a 1/2 snow day! Score! I came home, ate, no, scarfed down, my leftover green bean delight, and took the dog to play in the snow. I can't feel my toes, but I'm starting to get feeling back in my hands.

When I got back from the park I was famished. I had planned to eat a peach, but the peaches are kind of gross and mushy. And since it was so cold outside, I decided to make warm "peach sauce," which is not a sauce you put on something. It's the same exact thing as applesauce, just with peaches.

So I boiled some water, tore up 2 peaches (you could use a knife if you're all sophisticated, I guess), and watched it fall apart and become saucy goodness. I added some nutmeg and cinnamon and let it boil until it was the right consistency for me. I poured it into two 1-cup pyrex ramekin's that my brother and his girlfriend bought me for Christmas so it would look pretty. I topped off the one I was going to eat immediately with a tablespoon of ground flax seeds and let the other one cool.

I was scared to actually combine the flax and peach so I initially just spread it on top. But it was hard to keep it from getting in the peach sauce so I just mixed it all together. Yummy.

You can do this same thing with similar fruits like apples, apricots, or plums, any combination will work. You *can* add sugar/other sweetener, but fruits are so sweet, especially when you cook them, that I think it's unnecessary. You can also add lemon or lime juice and whatever spices you prefer. It's way better than storebought crap, and way better for you. Takes less than 15 mintues start to finish.

Tofu Saturday

Jennilicious inspired me to buy tofu a few weeks ago and I was so pleased with the quiches that I decided to branch out. This morning I made scrambled silken tofu (1/2 the box) with green onions, cilantro, chilli powder, and turmeric. After a small mishap with 1/2 the bottle of chilli powder ending up in the pan, I plopped the mixture atop a nice warm piece of toast with Trader Jose's (Trader Joe's) habenero and lime salsa. Yum and only about 250 calories.

Since I still had a half a block of tofu and 2 tomatoes I needed to use today, I thought a creamy tomato basil soup would hit the spot on this freezing (well, below freezing) day. I blended the tomatoes and tofu, put it in a pot, and added salt, pepper, and dried basil. When I have soups, I like to dip bread into it, but today I decided to be a little different and use whole grain couscous. Instead of making the couscous first and then adding the soup, I put 1/3cup couscous in the bowl and topped with the soup and covered. Five long minutes later, I returned to the bowl slightly disappointed. I was hoping for a soupy mixture with couscous sitting on the bottom of the bowl. But, it all sort of mixed together. And the water from the tomato separated a little bit from the rest of the soup so I had to stir it all together again. Which is fine, it all tastes the same!

The soup came out a beautiful pink, and when topped with raw green onions, it looked amazing (if only my camera worked). It tastes even better than it looks. Next time I make it, I might thin it out some with unsweetened soy milk. And I meant to add some roasted garlic (6 cloves) to the blender, but I was famished and couldn't wait for the garlic to roast so I left it out. Only about 400 calories for a giant bowl.

Unrelated to tofu, I decided to make some pear chips. So I used my fancy slicer (otherwise known as a knife) to create somewhat even slices. But since I'm dumb, some of them ended up quite a bit thicker than the others. Oh well. I popped them in a 275ish degree oven and let them cook for an hour, maybe a little longer. I flipped them twice and moved the pan around when I put them back in. The last time I flipped them, I sprinkled cinnamon over them and added a total of .5TB of dark brown sugar to the tops. I let them cook until the brown sugar looked bubbley, then I put them on the rack to cool.

Amazingly I haven't scarfed them down yet, but that's because they were cooling while I was making my soup. I sampled one, though, and they are delightful.

Veggie-Tofu Tacos

I stopped by the store on the way home from running errands and stayed focused enough to just pick out frozen vegetables, salsa, tortillas, toilet paper, and contact solution (aka, the five things I can't live without). This was an amazing feat because my already low blood sugar was encouraging me to buy everything in sight. I was kind of disappointed that they were out of the cheap whole-wheat tortillas, but I really wanted some, so I broke down and got flour.

When I got home, I wanted something quick and good, so tacos sounded like the best option. I chopped up a (surprisingly) small onion and began sauteing it in a little olive oil. I added some frozen green beans and some frozen yellow squash to the onion, along with a little crushed sea salt and a lot of black pepper. I let these cook while I cut up half a block of Mori Nu Silken Firm Tofu into bite-size chunks. I added a little hot water to the pan of vegetables to help them soften and put the other half of the tofu in the fridge to hopefully concoct something good with it tomorrow.

After most of the water steamed off, I tossed in the tofu chunks. To this, I added a palmful of cumin and a few shakes of less-sodium soy sauce, crushed red pepper, chili powder, turmeric, garlic powder, and paprika. I sauteed this for a little less than 10 minutes, until the tofu looked like it was a little browned and the vegetables looked soft and cooked through.

I pulled out two of the taquito-size tortillas and sprinkled the last of my shredded cheese on both. I piled a couple scoops of the cooked mixture on each and topped them both off with a generous amount of El Pinto Medium Salsa, which is one of my faves because it has NO CILANTRO and tastes really fresh.

These were, dare I say, crumbelievable! The only downpoint was that, by the time I had taken some pictures of them, the tortillas had soaked up a lot of the juice and were hard to keep together. They tasted amazing though, and that's all that matters. I still have enough left to add to some quinoa or couscous tomorrow (to make up for the flour tonight) for lunch.

Polenta! Glorious Polenta!

Being from Southern influence*, I grew up eating and liking grits. Being a health-conscious eater, however, I know that grits are not a whole grain so they are of little value to me. Good thing I stumbled upon Yankee Grits, aka polenta. It's so easy to make and absolutely delicious. I eat it at least once a week (I believe today makes the 3rd time I've had it this week), usually before heading out to door to trivia because it's fast, filling, and fantastic. The best part about it is that you can do whatever you want to it and it's always yummy.

*While I grew up in Texas, I don't define it as "The South," especially having spent a great deal of time in Atlanta and going to graduate school in Auburn, Alabama. My southern influence is attributable more to the fact that my dad is from Alabama and my mom from Georgia. Texas is, well, Texas.

The basic recipe is simple:
1-2 cups boiliing water
.5 cup cold water
.5 cup cornmeal

My cornmeal is actually cornmeal mix that has a bit of wheat flour added to it. I like this much better than regular cornmeal, but go with what you've got.

When I first started making polenta, I always went with the 2 cups of boiling water and it was great. One day I was an idiot and only put it 1 or 1.5 cups of water...and created an even better version that I would probably lick off the floor. 2 cups make a nice polenta with a slightly liquidy consistency (can't think of something to compare it to at this moment). 1.5 cups makes a thick, creamy mixture that is heavenly.

To make polenta, while water is boiling, mix cold water and cornmeal together in a bowl to get all the lumps out. Add to boiling water and stir like crazy until it looks tasty, 5 minutes? I like to turn the heat down to medium low just before adding the cornmeal so it doesn't stick to the bottom at much. It makes a large serving that has just 200 calories. That's it.

My favorite polenta is made by adding some (2?) cut up canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and 2/3 cup corn. I adore chipotle peppers and put them in pretty much anything. Watch out, though, they pack a punch. So you've added an extra 120ish calories- about 320 total for a filling meal. Last time I made it, I added dried dill, a big squirt of regular mustard, and a small spoonful of Gray Poupon, which I would never have except a friend willed it to me when she moved away. It was quite tasty. I've also made it by mixing in some dried Italian herbs. It's also good with black beans, cumin, and chili powder. The possiblities are endless and I love mixing it up.

If you let it cool, the polenta congeals and becomes sliceable. From what I gather, it's pretty common to slice it up and fry it. I suck at pan-frying, so a few times I have put it on a sprayed baking sheet (I use Olive Oil nock-off Pam) and cooked it on 400ish until it gets crispy, 30 minutes? I'm not sure on the time because I always get impacient and take it out before it gets really nice and golden on the outside. It tends to spread out, too, which scares me and I'm pretty sure I'm not doing it right.

Today I got a little whacky and sauteed 3 cloved of garlic (if I could bathe in it I would) in about .5teaspoon of olive oil. When it was brown I added the water. While that was going, I put some seeds rescued from my butternut squash 2 days before on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Well, first I tossed them with .5teaspoon of olive oil and a little salt. Ok, I added a lot of salt, but that's ok, I learned a lesson (that I seem to keep learning). The seeds cooked on 250ish for 15ish minutes until they were nice and crunchy. Then I tried to remove all the excess salt and dumped them into my steaming bowl of garlic polenta. Delicious.

I tried taking a photo, but before the seeds were out of the oven, the camera batteries died and I couldn't find anymore.