Once again, we're back from a hiatus due to a business trip. Chip spent 9 days in Calpe, Spain, as well as Mallorca. I went home to Maryland while he was away, since I hadn't seen my family over Christmas.
As usual, I made soup while he was gone. I bought some celery, which we both absolutely hate raw. We don't mind it in soup, but rarely does one recipe of soup require an entire package of celery. So I found two soup recipes that would use up the celery, and both turned out so well!
Here is the tofu noodle soup. I found the recipe on the side of a jar of Better Than Bouillon No-Chicken Base, which is a vegan soup base. It is so delicious...I've never tasted anything (vegetarian) quite like it. This tofu noodle soup is a lot like chicken noodle, which is something I'd venture to guess that most vegetarians miss.
Tofu noodle soup with organic spinach noodles, organic tofu, organic carrots, and organic celery, banana, organic Sultana golden raisins, and a whole wheat roll with margarine.
Another vegan lunch! I didn't even mean to this time...it just kinda happened. This lunch includes a few things we got today through our new membership at CostCo. We've been on the fence about joining for a while and today we just bit the bullet and did it. We did it mainly because we needed dog beds (they are crazy expensive most places; at CostCo we got 2 giant beds for $17.50 each), but we made sure to take full advantage of our new membership. In this lunch you'll see a few of the things we picked up today: Flatout wraps, organic quinoa, and Nature Valley granola bars.
Homemade vegan vegetable chowder (I froze this when I first made it, so this is a leftover), PB&J on a Flatout multigrain wrap, Nature Valley granola bar, plain steamed broccoli, and organic quinoa with organic carrot, cumin, garlic, vegetable bouillon, and chili powder.
Tonight marked my first foray into preparing Indian food. I came across this recipe the other day and decided it wouldn't be too hard to make. In true Katie fashion, I added all kinds of stuff (1/2 cup chopped carrots, 1/2 cup chopped celery, a dash of cinnamon) and made it vegan (I made the mashed potatoes with Smart Balance and soymilk) and organic (organic peas, carrots, potatoes, soymilk, and curry powder). Chip even tried (and liked!) the spicy mango chutney. I was floored! I did buy the pie crusts at the store; I think next time I'll make the crust myself. Overall, I was really pleased with the results; the potatoes and crust have carbs, the peas have protein, and the celery, carrots, and peas are veggies.
Homemade vegan samosas, spicy mango chutney, organic honey nut O's, dark chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and half of a Jonagold apple.
Chip finally made it home from Spain! I'll spare you the details, save to say that he arrived here in Ohio about 27 hours later than scheduled. Tomorrow is back to work for him!
While he was gone, I spent a lot of time looking up recipes and cooking. The soup shown below is from this recipe. I absolutely love it. It's thick and hearty, and has a great sweetness to it. I added some crushed red pepper for a touch of heat, and some garlic. I like that it's a really flexible recipe; you can add anything you want, really! I also like that it includes beans and soy milk, for plenty of protein. It also includes carrots, but I made sure to slice them really small. It looks kind of gray in the photo, but I promise it's more of a golden color. The sweet potatoes are made from this recipe. We're not huge sweet potato eaters (neither of us grew up eating them), but I'm trying to buy them on occasion so I can stop being scared of them. This recipe turned out really well; the sweetness of the potatoes is a nice contrast with the salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary.
Homemade vegan vegetable chowder, half of a honeycrisp apple, dark chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, roasted sweet potatoes, and a peanut butter and banana sandwich with honey on local organic 10-grain bread.
