Simple Soup with Quinoa

Today is the definition of exasperation. Well, a nearly two year old is actually the definition of exasperation, but today she is a little bit sick and my patience is a little extra thin and so, augh. As she "naps" and goodness bars are in the oven for a post-nap treat, I wanted to write about the soup I have been making lately, and my quinoa realization.

Simple Soup, with quinoa
Cook chopped onion, carrots and celery in bit of olive oil on large soup pot.
Add frozen peas, corn, and can worth of rinsed garbanzo beans.
Stir over heat a moment then fill the pot up with stock - veggie or chicken, boxed or homemade, whatever you have.
Add about 1/4 cup of well-rinsed Quinoa.
Bring to boil, reduce to simmer.
About 10 minutes before serving time add some wide egg noodles. Or, if using homemade fresh noodles, a real treat, add only minutes before serving.

Quinoa: apparently all sorts of healthy. Not a grain but related to beets? Though I have had this in my cupboard and used it in some recipes before, I have just realized how great it is in pretty much any soup. Particularly the brothy variety. Just a little something special. So, quinoa is now on my "toss into stuff" list along with flax and wheat germ for baking.

cookies cookies cookies

Today I mailed my baby brother cookies. Because he is in college now! So I sent him a care package of cookies. I didnt send all of them and I am trying to not eat the rest all at once. Good enough to share the recipe - with applesauce, and oats, flax, wheat germ and nuts...yumyum!

Best Cookies
1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
t2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chocolate chips
good sprinkling of ground flax
good sprinkling of wheat germ

cream butter applesauce and sugar
beat in eggs one at a time
stir in vanilla
in separate bowl combine flour, soda, salt, flax and germ
stir four mix into creamed mix blend well
add oats, nuts, chips

Bake 325 until slightly browned. this took me longer than expected. my notes from last year said 325 12 minutes, but that wasnt nearly enough this time, im guessing because i replaced half the butter with applesauce (more moisture). peek on them. 12-15 with convection, maybe 18ish without.

housekeeping note: i havent been using the labels function properly and im sad about it. this would be so much more organized were i doing so. perhaps i will go back and fix it. seems like a good procrastination project. but i vow to myself do better starting now.

goodness bars

Interns work so hard that they do not have time for meals, so we have been buying all kinds of power bars lately to keep him going through the long call nights. Today I tried my hand at making some. Yum! This is fun because you can alter it however - nuts fruits etc. Whatever is on hand. Can switch out the yogurt for applesauce, or just add the sauce in addition. They have not been tested through an oncall night, so I cant yet say if they are as satisfying as the kinds you can buy, but z. likes them and I just had some with trader joes banilla, or vannana, or whatever its called yogurt and they are a good snack, for sure! yumyum. I changed up a recipe from allrecipes. here it is:

2 cups quick oats
1/3 cup brown sugar (loose)
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup ground flax
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract

preheat oven to 350, grease up a 9x13
in a large bowl (or k.a. mixer) mix all the dry stuff
in a bowl, or something, mix all wet stuff
add the wet to the dry
mixmix
smooth it into the pan, but dont let it fill up the whole pan - leave about 1 inch on one short side so that the bars are a little fatter - it will stay put while baking.
bake just until the edges begin to brown. took mine just over 20 minutes.
cool. cut. eat.

they are chewy and also good right out of the freezer.

----------
tonight z. accidentally slammed her head into the side of my nose. ughhouch. come to think of it, i should really have ice on this thing. fear big bruising. and i did not need another un-motivator. ive been too lazy lately. cant get myself to do much of anything during naps or after bedtime. and there is plenty, PlEnty to do. but i really only want to eat these goodness bars and ice my nose.

Summer harvest

I have rescued tomato plants that were not properly supported from the start, and i think they are going to recover nicely, and the beans are in full bloom and looking great! gathered a big bag full today and looking forward to tasting them! Our summer squash bounty has proven very easy to keep up with, even though usually the story about zucchini is how hard it is to use it all up. But I have only given away a couple to neighbors and the rest has all been stuffed or made into bread, stew, pizza, veggie burgers and even chocolate cake! delish! The cake was a first time attempt for a little dinner party last night and I dare say it was a success! I found the recipe on this food blog. Also made tomato and corn pie, which I look forward to each season. Just a biscuit-style crust filled with layers of tomatoes, corn, chopped basil and chives, and sharp cheddar cheese, then a drizzling of yogurt (plain) mixed with lemon over all that and topped with more crust. Try it!

yumyum lentil recipe

i highly suggest this recipe for a lentil soupish thing.
Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup
its really tasty and really pretty with the yellow yogurt swirled on top.
I did not have any saffron and used a combo of curry powder and turmeric instead - i know the flavor was different but it was delicious anyhow.

oh yum

i just found a really yummy food blog that i am excited to try recipes from! i am going to start with this one: carmelized tofu. ill report how it goes.

Cake in a Cup

Tonight I wanted a chocolate cake. I remembered I had heard tell of a cake in a coffee mug. Intrigued, I asked Dr. Google, found it, and gave it a try. No kidding, I made cake in a coffee cup in the microwave. Pretty damn good for three minutes in the microwave. Try. By the way, use a very large coffee mug. Or a large bowl. It may overflow a smidge.

Mix these things into the coffee mug:
4 Tbl Flour
4 Tbl Sugar
2 Tbl Cocoa Powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Baking powder

Then mix in:
and egg
3 Tbl buttermilk (milk+splash lemon juice works) or just milk
3 Tbl + a little more Oil
dash vanilla

Then sprinkle the top liberally with chocolate chips

Microwave on high for 3 minutes.

Presto Pesto!

Thanksgiving was beautiful here, very warm and sunny. We took the opportunity of time and nice weather to look at our garden, which had been pretty neglected for a good long while. Once again I failed to grow broccoli. I had high hopes for my fall planting, and they seemed strong and healthy, but no heads developed. shucks. But our herb garden was over flowing with two kinds of parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano...next year we are going to do much better at pruning and using the herbs all year long. But this year we needed to cut down that bounty and not let it go to waste - Presto Pesto to the rescue! We had made gobs of really delicious roasted almond basil pesto earlier, a recipe borrowed from inmykitchengarden, but never before had we tried parsley or rosemary. Pesto is an amazing thing. What a great way to conserve herbs for the winter. We blended parsley pinenutes lemon juice olive oil (i might leave out that lemon juice next time), then rosemary (and some more parsley) walnuts Parmesan cheese and olive oil and froze clumps on sheets of wax paper. Now those clumps are in bags in the freezer, next to the remaining un-pesto'ed herbs waiting to be thrown in winter soups/stews, used as rubs for salmon and chicken and tossed in pots of otherwise boring spaghetti sauce. yay for herb gardens!

Puccini and picnics

Saw Tosca last night, in the very very back row, and it was wonderful. Victoria! chills. I hadnt ever seen it, though the arias were familiar, as I like to listen to Voices of Puccini, and Puccini's Heroins, while i bake. which i precisely what i am doing this morning. i am definetly going to the lyric again, next for Madame Butterfly i think. while we went in my friend joked that we would be the youngest people in the audience, he expected everyone to be like antique teacups, white and frail and expensive. but i saw numerous colors of hair beyond white, including pink and neon red. the people were really interesting and of all sorts. it was fun. and now i am baking muffins to take to an old-fashioned picnic later today. i hope they are delicious. here's the recipe:

brown sugar oat flax cranberry muffins:

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup (soy)milk

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

good sprinkling of ground flax

couple handfulls of dried cranberries

mix dry (minus sugar) and wet (plus sugar) seperate and then together, bake at 400 about 10 minutes. put in cute picnic basket, take to park, enjoy!