coconut lentil soup · 5 January 2010, 11:58
This turned out quite well for us (adapted from a recipe at allrecipes.com):
1 1/2 cups lentils, sorted and rinsed
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 an onion
1 clove garlic (or garlic powder)
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger root, chopped (or use some powdered ginger)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup coconut milk
curry powder to taste
broccoli
crushed pineapple
1 tsp black pepper
Bring the lentils and water to a boil. Add onion, garlic, and ginger, and simmer for 30 min or until lentils are tender. Add broccoli and cook until cooked. Blend coconut and coconut milk, and add to the soup. Add curry and pepper, and heat for another 15 min.
The recipe calls for 1 tbsp of curry powder, but I used much much less — we were given some fabulous curry powders from India, and they are a great deal stronger than the usual “curry powder” you buy here at the grocery store.
Serve over rice. Sri Racha hot sauce goes really well with it.
Lentils are such a great bean. I need to make them more often. The variety of soups alone — from lemon lentil soup, to lentil curry, to basic lentil vegetable soup — all are yummy.
— Jennifer
granola recipe · 16 September 2009, 16:28
I finally got around to making granola the other day, for the first time in over a year! I used to make it every week. But then the oven went crazy and burnt an entire batch, and then I made one batch in the new oven, and then Caleb was born.
Here’s my recipe:
In a large bowl, mix the following:
Most of a canister of oatmeal
1 c. wheat germ
1 c. nuts (I usually use peanuts, but pecans are fabulous)
1 c. shredded unsweetened coconut
2 c. flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
In a separate bowl, mix these:
1 1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
Mix and pour over the dry ingredients. Mix the whole thing thoroughly. Spread it across 4 baking sheets and bake at 275 degrees for 1 hour, stirring 2 – 3 times.
Sprinkle raisins on the granola after you take it out of the oven, let it cool, then store in a container.
— Jennifer
veggie sandwich · 9 June 2009, 09:28
I was doing errands the other day and stopped by Panera for a sandwich. I tried the Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich, and it was really good. It costs $6, though. So I stopped by Meijer the next day and bought stuff to make my own. My version goes like this:
-hummus (I made my own regular hummus; Panera’s is cilantro-jalapeno hummus)
-cucumber (one)
-tomato (two)
-lettuce (I have some conveniently growing in a window box outside)
-bread (I used wheat; Panera’s is tomato-basil)
-onion (Panera uses red onion)
-red pepper (2) (I think Panera makes a sort of relish out of red pepper; I just sliced them up)
-crumbled feta cheese
Spread hummus on both sides of the bread. Sprinkle feta onto one side. Slice all the other veggies and layer onto the bread. Quick and yummy! The ingredients cost about $13, and I got lots of yummy sandwiches out of it.
— Jennifer
homemade peanut butter · 23 March 2009, 10:11
We are always running out of peanut butter. I go to the local health food store, armed with empty jars, only to find myself scraping the bottom of the peanut butter bucket and filling up only half of the jars I came with. No more. Our food processor’s lid recently cracked, and, while a replacement lid doesn’t cost all that much, the motor had been struggling when we used it with the food processor. It was a Cuisinart Smartpower Duet — a single base that comes with a blender and a food processor. It handles the blender fine, but the motor was really loud and would smell sometimes when we asked it to process food. It didn’t seem worth it to replace, and we’d never dare ask it to make peanut butter when it can hardly handle hummus.
We ordered 30 pounds of unsalted, roasted peanuts from Country Life Foods (the best deal on peanuts I could find), and a KitchenAid KFP720 food processor. We made 6 cups of peanut butter over the weekend, and it’s quite good. I liked being able to add a little more oil to keep it spreadable even after refrigerating it.
The new food processor is quiet enough that it doesn’t scare Caleb, even when he’s in the same room (the old one scared Caleb even when he was elsewhere in the house, and I resorted to putting earmuffs on him, and using earplugs myself).
— Jennifer
black bean & tomato soup · 10 March 2009, 11:23
I decided to make a gigantic batch of food last night. It went like this:
#10 can of diced tomatoes, undrained
a few onions
a bunch of celery
a lot of carrots
lots of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon oregano
3 tablespoons basil
chili powder
~3.5 pounds of canned black beans
ground beef, cooked
Put everything but beef & beans in a big stockpot and cook until vegetables are done. Add beef & beans. Heat through and serve over rice.
I’m glad I have two stockpots — I accidentally left the heat on too high and it started to scorch. A friend of mine told me what she does is dump it immediately into another pot so it doesn’t keep scorching. It worked, and was pretty good!
— Jennifer