Creamy Garlic Cauliflower Soup

                             Before....                                                              After! :)

Ok, wisdom teeth out = a little brutal.  The teeth themselves were fine (black as they were).  I virtually had no pain during or after, just the intense discomfort of knowing that there were sizable bloody holes in my mouth, but I was so paranoid about keeping them clean and free of food that I wouldn’t chew anything for over a week.  Even with yogurt and ice cream I kept it contained inside my teeth for fear the it would do damage to the tender areas.

My sweetie’s mom saved my butt more than once (and my stomach) by sending me home with potato soup, and fixing super soft meals that I could eat in less than graceful smooshing fashion.  Left on my own though I was pretty much eating yogurt with maple syrup, and miso soup, and going seriously hungry.

I was reading an article about how the recommended daily amount of sugar is not to exceed 20 grams, and realizing three things: 1) that’s impossibly low, 2) the actual average stated (100-something) was also impossibly low (2 cans of soda--or anything else and you’re there) and 3) I had blown that number out of the sugar soaked water that day (maple syrup has 53 grams per 3 tablespoons or something insane like that).

Short story: I was craving vegetables, for God’s sake something healthy.  I figured the blender was a good place to start.

I steamed some cauliflower (cut into bite sized florets) for a bit longer than I normally would until they were soft under a fork and put them into the blender along with an avocado, a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt, apparently enough garlic to kill a horse (I did not realize this at the time), a few spoonfuls of Mama’s Miracle Dressing, some fresh basil and a small amount of water (just enough to make it blend).

This turned out so absolutely, splendidly delicious.  I mean, we’re talking fancy restaurant soup that you pay $8 a bowl for (ok, so those are the fancy restaurants I go to....$10 a bowl?...twelve??....)  I ate it both warm and cold and both were wonderful.  I bet a garnish would be nice too, which I can eat next time I make it :)

Creamy Garlic Cauliflower Soup

Approximate price: $5

Egg Drop Soup

For Christmas last year I made an Egg cookbook for Will (which I was very, very proud of, despite the fact that the messy, wrinkly properties of Elmer’s glue left it looking like a kindergarten art project).  Our four (very much grown up :) babies produce, on average, an egg per day each, and I figured we would need to start getting creative in that department or we’d either be sick of fried eggs or buried under a mound of fresh ones.  

I looked in the cookbook the other night, just for ideas (as we all know the anticipated stress of following a recipe is enough to break me out in hives) and found Egg Drop Soup, which couldn’t possibly be that hard......

I used the ingredients we had (or something close enough....) and simply left out the others.  For most kinds of cooking, this is really ok.  Baking, as far as I’m concerned, is a science that looms well over my head, but most of the rest of cooking adventures are just a mixture of one kind or another.

The recipe called for 4 cups of chicken stock, I used ___?___ cups of veggie broth.  It called for cornstarch; we had none.  It called for mushrooms, instead I threw in a healthy dose of minced garlic.  The only important part of the process was stirring in the lightly beaten eggs while the liquid boiled.  And man is that ever cool.

I added a few spoonfuls of organic soy sauce, a splash of Sriracha (just for kicks--pun very much intended) and a handful of chopped green onions from the backporch.

Can’t go wong with this one!

Approximate Price: $5 

Broccoli Parmesan Pasta

It was definitely a pasta night.  It was pretty much the perfect day, and I couldn’t wait to make the perfect dinner to follow it up.  We had some beautiful organic broccoli, and colored veggie spiral pasta.  No sauce to speak of, but that’s no trouble at all...

I had gotten on a big afternoon song kick, remembering and playing some really old tunes, and by the time Will got home I was excited and just kept on playing, even managing a few he’d never heard before.  After almost two years with someone with whom your first dates consisted almost entirely of song swapping, that’s an impressive feat!  Dinner was cooked largely between songs with a guitar strung over my shoulder.  Fun :)

I put the pasta water on to boil, and sauteed half an onion in the large pan.  I chopped up a couple cups worth of broccoli and placed it in the colander on top of the pasta water.  (Probably not as clever as I think it is, but I get a small thrill from my resourcefulness ;)  After 7-10 minutes of steaming I transferred the broccoli into the pan with the onions.

I drained the pasta and added butter, garlic, olive oil, soy sauce, nutritional yeast (to help the liquids actually stick to the noodles), and flaxseed (for texture and color), spooning only what I needed to properly fill out the broccoli and onions.  (Sometimes I get overzealous and add too many noodles to not enough “good stuff,” which is always a bit of a shame.)

I like to cook noodles in a pan for a few minutes with their toppings, so they can soak up  more of the flavor, and if I’m patient enough they’ll get a bit of a flavor crust around the edges....me = total pasta junkie.

A little parmesan cheese and a side salad (I’ve grown to accept the “lazy salad” and can get away with organic salad mix and Mama’s Miracle Dressing with no one missing anything) and we had a rather delicious meal!  I commented to Will just how much like my mother I am when I exclaimed excitedly from the kitchen, “Oh this is gonna be goooooood...”   love, love, love my mama :)

Broccoli Parmesan Pasta

Approximate price: $3

leftover turkey soup

oh my GOODNESS did we have thanksgiving leftovers!  bless the wallaces’ hearts, it took five days just to get it all under control.  i am most certainly grateful for such abundance (as things are still making their way into smaller containers and into the freezer! :)

there were two turkeys that had been carved down and i volunteered to keep one of them to try my hand at making soup stock.  i didn’t want to let it go to waste if i could help it, though getting a large turkey carcass to fit in a pot with two inches of water covering it was trying indeed!  

*i’m not a strict vegetarian.  i don’t eat a lot of meat either, and like to know where it came from and how it lived before i put it into my body.  i run into some moral trouble when it comes to things like processing a turkey carcass.  if i’m going to eat it i feel i should darn well be able to deal with it in its less than romantic state (not to mention be able to face its life--and death--before it was presented to me as food).  and this endeavor was definitely less than romantic.  

that said, i brought the pot to a boil and then turned it down to simmer, leaving it for several hours.  if the water level got too low i added a bit more in and stirred it occasionally.  it went into the fridge overnight and the next day i heated it enough to liquify it again, then had to dig through and pull out all of the bones and less than desirable bits.

i gotta say, this kinda tripped out a bit.  i mean, nature doesn’t skimp out.  there were a million and a half parts to that bird and every bone, tendon and muscle served a very specific purpose.  what an absolute work of art, what a perfect being of beauty, and what a thing of awe that we can be nourished by it.  i have never felt so much respect for an animal that was my food before, and i think that has become difficult with such a separation between us and the process.  meat lines the grocery store coolers and we don’t have to think any more about it than that.  

i feel that a close connection to our food is important regardless of what we eat or don’t eat.  i have the most amazing chickens in the world running around my backyard and i am blessed with incredibly beautiful and nutritious eggs every morning.  i get to go out in my bare feet (with my babies clucking behind me every step) and pull cherry tomatoes from an accidental plant that now needs a fourth cage to hold it up, clip okra from a tiny forest, and break chard and collard leaves from their plants with a crisp and unparalleled satisfaction.  it’s an awe inspiring thing, and i love and respect it as such.

so.  back to my miracle soup.  i heated it up a third night, finally ready to “finish” it, and added several cups of water to mellow out the richness.  really, it didn’t feel like it was lacking much of anything.  it smelled divine and was thick and beautiful.  i cooked up some spiral noodles to throw in and minced 3 or 4 cloves of garlic.  there was the last of a sad looking head of fennel in the bottom drawer so i added that for a bit of green.  

that was really all.  there's enough for half a dozen meals and then some.  i’m glad i took the time and energy to make something wonderful out of something that would’ve been easy to deem disgusting and throw away.

leftover turkey soup

approximate price: if you’ve already got a turkey, then free!+a half bag of pasta

*it is never my intention to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat, and i'm not advocating for any kind of diet, other than creativity and using what you have.  this adventure happened to involve some emotion, so i have shared that as part of my process.

nutmeg squash with pomegranate date quinoa, veggie stir fry and fruit salad

well, it’s tour time again!  usually that means that i don’t do much cooking and rely on archived recipes to cover the time, but my good friend and tour mate daisy o’connor has some awesome friends in san francisco that we got to stay with for the first leg of our trip.  and it JUST so happens that they enjoy having traveling house guests cook dinner for them.....oh boy oh boy!  shit in a pot goes on the road!  :)

i was a little intimidated in a new city and a new kitchen (and daisy made sure my reputation preceded me!) but she and i were a team and so i took a deep breath and plunged in!  (why is it anyway that we shy away from our talents for fear that we might mess up this one time even though we’ve proven time and time again that we’re good at what we do??  life lessons everywhere ;)

our compiled pool of ingredients came to:

plain quinoa and red quinoa

an assortment of veggies (mostly green)

2 spaghetti squashes

an assortment of fruit (persimmons among them!)

my first inclination was towards “stuffing” the squash with the quinoa and veggies, but we didn’t start it soon enough to cook it in halves, so we cut it up into smaller chunks to cook it faster, and put them faced down (skin up) on a coconut-oiled* glass baking pan.

we mixed the quinoas together and cooked them in a rice cooker.  (i do it at home in a pan/pot: 2 cups water per 1 cup quinoa.)  we added a few spoonfuls of coconut oil (one of the luxuries of the evening!), a handful of fresh pomegranate seeds, a handful of dried date pieces and a healthy sprinkling of sea salt.

the broccoli, zucchini, kale, green beans, etc got chopped and went into a frying pan (with some coconut oil....) and were super no-fuss.  all we added was a bit of salt and balsamic vinegar.

with squash i’m learning that the rule for how long to cook it is either A) at least an hour, or two.... or B) ‘til your hosts are really hungry.  it was in at 450 for about 45 minutes when B happened.  we scraped it out of the skins into a bowl adding, yes, two or so spoonfuls of coconut oil, a sprinkling of salt, a drizzling of honey and the surprise grand winner: nutmeg.  we only used a small amount, maybe a teaspoon, with a shrug and a “why not?”  that’s the best :)

daisy made a simple fruit salad with apples and persimmons and pomegranate and we presented our gracious hosts with quite the spread!  a little discombobulated with a few confused moments but everyone enjoyed a wonderful meal :)  we put everything out on the table on its own for people to serve themselves, and i was told the next day that during a phone call one of our buddies was still talking about our squash!  (i definitely call that a success ;)

nutmeg spaghetti squash with pomegranate date quinoa and veggie stir fry

approximate price: pooled resources are harder to calculate, but this was probably around $15 worth of food for 5 people, only using what we already had!  :) 

*coconut oil is pricey, but supposedly is very good for you!  it’s the GOOD kind of fat, and very stable so it has a high heat tolerance and is slow to oxidize (i.e. become rancid).  it has a subtle flavor which can be very tasty in place of other oils (or butter....as this IS shit in a pot! ;)

egg and beet hash browns

woah, surprise winner!

will doesn’t like beets so unfortunately we had a bunch from the farm share go bad while i was out of town (i hate admitting to things like that!), so i was determined not to let that happen this week.  my mom’s been telling me that beets are one of the best things you can eat and i do like them, but i’m never excited to cook with them for some reason.  they take a while i suppose, and they kind of have to stay by themselves or else everything they touch turns a bright unappetizing pink.

it was actually on my to-do list to eat the last beet in the fridge (i’m a strange and happy creature :) and my thought to save on cooking time was to grate it into a pan (and decide what to do with it later).  well grating takes forever....so much for the time saving idea, but the task was getting done nonetheless. 

i put in a little butter and bragg’s (liquid amino acids for anyone who doesn’t know this vegan staple!) and after ten or so minutes of intermittent stirring (low heat) i added a couple cloves of minced garlic.  they started to look a little dry so i covered them and also added about a quarter cup of water.

i cracked two eggs into the pan (too lazy to dirty a dish to mix them first....) and mixed them in evenly before flattening everything into an even layer.  i wasn’t sure if the egg-to-beet ratio was high enough it to stick together, but when i came back ten or so minutes later it definitely had.  i separated it down the middle in order to flip both halves and was pleased to find a delicious golden shade to the undersides.

i grated a little sharp cheddar on top and sprinkled cracked salt and green onions from the pot outside (i’m lucky that the chickens don’t like them, now that the back porch is apparently the cool place to hang out!) 

egg and beet hash browns

approximate price: $2

baked butternut squash stuffed with cheese and wild rice

well, i’ve never made stuffed squash before, but i really didn’t think it could be very hard.  that’s my story and i’m sticking to it :)

i admit, i don’t really know how long squash takes to bake in the oven.  i figured too long would be better than not long enough so i gave it around two hours.  butternuts can be tricky to cut because they are so solid, so just be careful!  i cut it in half once lengthwise, so as to have two nice big circles to fill.  i rubbed the fleshy sides with olive oil and put them facedown on a baking pan.  (i used an aluminum one, though i’m sure glass or otherwise would be fine too.)

we had some leftover broth from will’s mom’s delicious bacon collard greens, which we used to supplement cooking water for wild rice (1:2 rice/water ratio).  

i sauteed up a medium yellow onion with a little butter, and when the rice was tender i added in the onion, along with a few cloves of minced garlic, another couple tablespoons of butter* and a sprinkling of cracked salt.

for the sake of having some veggies, i boiled some baby carrots for about 10 minutes (depends on how soft you want them).  after draining them i added enough olive oil to flavor and a clove of minced garlic.

two hours was plenty long enough to make the squash soft and delicious (and our house smell like heaven! :)  i flipped over the halves, filling up the holes with rice and covering them neatly with cheese.  (i used slices of muenster, but i’m certain any kind will do!  it’s hard to go wrong with cheese :)

baked butternut squash stuffed with cheese and wild rice 

approximate price: $6

butternut squash and spicy quinoa tostadas

i wasn’t sure where dinner was going when i began, so i baked the butternut squash the same way i did for stuffing them (halved lengthwise, rubbed with olive oil, facedown on a baking sheet).

there was nothing too special about the quinoa (1:2 grain/water), tho we have more spicy peppers than we could possibly know what to do with, so i got a little bold and added five small minced jalapenos (no seeds!), along with the standard butter, garlic and salt (what oh what would life be like without them??).

i also added a medium sauteed yellow onion (also the standard in my kitchen! ;)

i still wasn’t sure what i was doing by the time the squash came out of the oven, but realized we’d payed $6 for buttermilk tortillas at the store earlier--mistake or not, they sure as heck weren’t gonna last very long so i figured i better get them in there somehow!  :)

i put four on a baking sheet (we have a round one we use for pizzas) and shredded cheese on top, putting them in the still hot oven ‘til the cheese got melty.  i then added layers of quinoa and squash spooned out of the skin, another layer of cheese, and a sprinkling of green onions.  i put them back in the oven long just enough to melt the cheese (we were hungry!). 

we’re waiting on our own fresh corn to get big enough to feast on, but in the meantime we got organic ears from the store.  i’ve always heard people swear on either boiling or steaming for ten minutes.  works for me.

butternut squash and spicy quinoa tostadas

approximate price: $7

blue potato hash browns with grilled zucchini

we’ve been getting blue potatoes from our farm share and they’re just fun to cook with.  i don’t know that many things to do with potatoes, but hashbrowns have been a fairly recent discovery :)

there’s probably an easier way to do it but i just grate the potatoes on a cheese grater (i don’t mind working a little bit! ;)  i use my medium pan instead of the big one ‘cause it would take a heck of a lot of potatoes to fill the bottom of that one!  i put a little butter in the pan on low heat, ‘cause potatoes tend to burn and get stuck to the pan, usually in the middle.

i don’t have a great estimate on how long they take to cook....but after ten or so minutes they should be stuck together enough on the bottom that you can flip them like a pancake.  it might be a little messy but just flatten them down again and distract yourself for long enough to let them cook some more (not one of my strong suits in the kitchen! :)  i put in a little bragg’s for flavoring, and hopefully a browning effect, but no other seasonings.  (i bet garlic would have been delicious...next time! :)

while that was happening i grilled some zucchini in the big pan.  depending on the size i usually quarter them lengthwise, unless they’re ginormous and then i’ll cut them in half and third the bigger end.  doesn’t really matter :)  low heat with a little butter, and again, leave them alone long enough to actually grill a little!  that’s the best part: a little charred on the outside and soft and juicy on the inside.

a little ketchup and fresh cilantro on the hashbrowns, a banana and a few strawberries and we were good to go!  i had a good friend in town for a night so i was making us a late breakfast.  he didn’t know about my blog so i got to give him a proper introduction!  :) 

blue potato hashbrowns and grilled zucchini

approximate price: $5 

(cheeseless!) eggplant pesto pizza

so will has been doing pretty darn good in the kitchen since i've been gone!  i've asked him to be a guest writer for the month, so hopefully for the next few weeks you'll be getting an archive from me and a recent creation from him :)  i'm so proud ;)

for now:

i was going to stop by the store after work to get cheese for pizza, but a seriously apocalyptic looking storm was coming in so we skipped it.  cheese free pizza: i’ve faced bigger challenges.

we got a few different kinds of eggplant in our farm share this week.  one that looked like what i’m used to, a couple that were long and slender in a lavender shade, and one sort of in the middle.  i chose that one, slicing it into circles about 1/3 inch thick.  (for anything other than pizza i make them a bit heftier but wanted these to be easily bitable.)  i put them on medium low in the large pan with a bit o’ butter.

now that i’m thinking about it i remember hearing that it’s good to have your pan already heated up when eggplant goes in, or else it will just soak up all of the oil.  (but maybe that’s ok!)

i got the idea to make pesto for the sauce, and braved the torrential rain for a few chard leaves (AND to check on the babies, whom i had closed up in their roost in preparation of the storm...mama was terrified, but i think they were more annoyed at being cooped up before twilight! :)  

while the chard was getting a few long minutes in boiling water i chopped up a good handful of basil, a big clove of garlic, and grated two small yellow zucchinis into the blender.  i thought it would thicken the sauce up (regardless of knowing that anything in the blender has to have a certain amount of liquid or it won’t work!  stubborn :)

i also began heating up (though hardly necessary, since it was going into the oven) the small amount of okra tomato bean leftovers.  i didn’t want the beans, but it was a package deal.

i added the chard, along with a bit of the water to the blender, and gave it a go, adding olive oil and liquid ‘til it would blend (also stirring it with a spoon between whirls).

between all this the eggplant received all sorts of tender flips, a splash of bragg’s, and about 1/3-1/2 cup of water to make sure it softened up properly (enough to have a small layer in the pan).

oven was preheated and onto the pizza went pesto, okra tomato bean stuff, and eggplant rounds, placed strategically to minimize needing to cut through them.  i cracked some salt over the top and sprinkled ground flaxseed, which really made it look beautiful!  very rustic ;)

(cheeseless!) eggplant pesto pizza

i confessed to will later that i kind of wish he had walked in on me earlier, as those beans i didn’t want on my pizza got eaten off one by one as soon as they were spread on it.  it was a silly moment :)

approximate price: $7  

salsa-cooked quinoa with tofu and garlic spinach sauce

needed to use: a bowl of too-watery-to-actually-dip-chips-into homemade tomatillo salsa

well....it was slim pickin’s this night (as you can perhaps guess from the text above!).  our farm delivery was coming in the morning so i hadn’t bulked our produce back up.  no matter, i am not swayed.  i had the idea to cook some sort of grain in the salsa, so i went with quinoa (as opposed to a wild rice mix).  quinoa is a 1:2 ratio of grain to water, so i measured 2 cups of the salsa and still had a bit left, so i downsized the container and put it back in the fridge.  (downsizing is just fun, no matter what it’s pertaining to ;)

i wasn’t sure if the quinoa would cook properly in a liquid thicker than water, but i was prepared to add some extra H2O if necessary.  i brought it to a boil and then brought it down to low heat with the lid on to retain as much liquid as possible.

we had two carrots, an onion, some baby spinach, and half a block of tofu.  (we also had celery and jalapeno peppers, but i opted out of those.)  i sliced the carrots and put them in with the cooking quinoa (saved me an extra pan) and started an onion sauteing in a medium frying pan with a little butter.  i crumbled (aka smooshed and tore) the tofu in with the onion and added some bragg’s, both for a little color and flavor.  

i almost burned the quinoa, as it’s very quiet about turning sticky and black at the bottom of the pan while the top looks deliciously light and fluffy.  two good things to do in that moment of discovery: turn of the pan and douse it with a little water.  not enough to drown it, but just enough for the hot dry grains to have a drink.

i sat down and read for a few minutes while everything cooled a bit, then abruptly announced that i had an idea and walked back to the kitchen, ignoring will’s inquiry as to what it was.  (i like to keep him guessing a little....it’s part of the fun :)  

i took the remainder of the salsa back out of the fridge and put it in the blender, along with a few good handfuls of spinach (that appeared to get the unintentionally boot from this meal and still lay quiet and hopeful on the counter) and a minced clove of garlic.

perfect.  bright green things are really fun.  i put down a layer of the spicy quinoa and carrots, followed by the tofu and onions and a generous drizzling of green garlic salsa stuff.

salsa-cooked quinoa with tofu and garlic spinach sauce

despite the fact that will was not sure what he was eating at first he gave it a verbal “thumbs up” and nod of approval.  

approximate price: $5

Garden Pasta Salad

i love pasta salad because it can’t possibly even begin to be limited by a recipe, other than maybe what to use for a dressing (and even then.....)  yup, right up my alley :)

we were still in somewhat of a food coma from spending the fourth of july afternoon with will’s folks (we eat like the gods there, and we eat a lot) so finally by the time dusk was setting in and the chicks were putting themselves up for the night we were ready for something, as long as it was light, “like a salad.”  done.

i have been fighting like mad to reclaim our collard and kale crops from caterpillars (as i push out of my mind both my childhood favorite book “the very hungry caterpillar” and the fact every single one of them will “grow up to be a beautiful butterfly someday,” as long as they feast on every single tender cell of my collards, that is!)  a few weeks of diligence on my part has brought some lovely foliage from these toughies and we had yet to eat a single leaf of their gifts, so i happily plucked a few each of collards and kale and went inside to execute the next crucial step of our sustenance, so joyfully named by yours truly :)

i think any kind of small pasta is ok for this kind of thing.  i opted for the spiral-y kind and put enough water on for half of the pound box (6 cups or so?), as i was not ready to be responsible for a whole pound of cooked pasta again just yet!  the last pound lasted the two of us (in various outfits--both us and the pasta ;) for three dinners, plus my lunches for two days in between; the gift that keeps on giving.  

while the water was boiling and pasta was hitting the jacuzzi, i rounded up all of the veggies i had at my delicious disposal to make an assessment.  baby spinach, red onion, banana pepper, celery, and cilantro (it’s green; it counts), plus the collards and kale from the garden.  sure.  i’ll take ‘em.  normally i would always cook kale and chard (it breaks them down a bit, and makes them more palatable and digestible) but these leaves were rather young so i just chopped them up and started the salad engine (it runs on biodiesel for sure ;)

the rest of the veggies got chopped up and tossed in the bowl.  use your creativity and inspiration (or just best judgement :) on how big or small to cut things.  not to play favorites, but some veggies are just prettier than others, and sometimes i make those ones a little more, uh, visible.  raw onions and garlic, and cilantro if you feel that way about it, ought to be minced pretty finely so certain mouthfuls don’t get dominated by it.

in went the noodles, and then came decisions for dressing.  the only organic mayo i had been able to find at the neighborhood grocery store was roasted garlic, which i figured couldn’t hurt anything (least of all the evening’s pasta salad!) so i dropped in a large spoonful, along with a bit of juice leftover from our last olive indulgence, and a few good drizzles of bragg’s and olive oil, as well as a dusting of cracked salt, and mixed it all together.  mayo will hide in clumps in you aren’t careful, especially in the hide-and-seek folds of durum wheat spirals, so mix well.

garden pasta salad

approximate price: $5

Egg and Flax Quinoa with Stir Fried Veggies, Stuffed Peppers and Kale Chips

i swear it seems the nights when i’m either the least motivated, or i’m not expecting very much, end up with the most amazing meals.  this one just so happened to blow my mind just a little bit.  as i handed will his plate i let him know that i very much expected praise for this one (based on looks and execution alone; i hadn’t tasted anything yet.  have i mentioned that will’s first rule of cooking is to never serve anything to anybody that you haven’t made before? :)

i had some veggie stir fry leftover from lunch (made with some leftover rice from the night before....y’all know how i roll).  i had asked will to look through the kitchen while i showered to see what he thought needed to be used.  he found some quinoa.  good.  

i was thinking about peppers, ‘cause i do that these days.  we had done a taste test with our farm share bag, ‘cause some of them sure looked like they could set some things on fire, and discovered that what we thought might be habaneros were actually amazingly sweet mini bells.  i was glad for that ‘cause there are only so many hot peppers a gal (and a guy) can use.  the other two unidentified frying objects were indeed, um, hot.  we’re planning for a chili dinner party tomorrow night ;)

i preheated the oven to 250, and cut the sweet mini bells and the banana peppers in half, removing the seeds and saving them in containers on the side.  we’re on a planting kick, and after we had fresh watermelon seeds sprout a few days ago we just can’t resist.  growing shit is just really, really cool.

i made a “stuffing” from finely grated cheese, a little olive oil, and minced garlic and basil.  this was a rather lazy attempt, but i really couldn’t think of anything else to add to it.  it’s ok, because honestly the pepper is the best part of stuffed peppers (and really, you aren’t going to go wrong with cheese and garlic and basil ;)  i used my fingers to get a good portion into each pepper half and put them uncovered on an aluminum pie pan in the oven.  (my other baking pans are bigger than what i needed.)

next i put the veggie stir fry in a pan on low to heat up and measured out the quinoa, using up the rest of what we had.  it’s a 1:2 water ratio, so it didn’t matter that i didn’t have an even measurement.  i just doubled it for the water.  i put it on to boil, then covered it and let it simmer.  i think it’s a pretty safe bet that quinoa is done cooking when all the water is soaked up.  just keep stirring it every few minutes and keep an eye on the water, ‘cause it will quickly start to burn when it has dried up.

i had finally pulled our kale plants from the garden today, with reverence and respect.  they just weren’t doing well.  the colors looked sickly and withered (and EATEN!) and the aphid kingdom had come to conquer some time ago.  i brought all the plants inside though because i wanted to salvage anything from them that i could.  that was how i could really show my respect.  i got a handful of small leaves, and half leaves.  just enough to make some chips :)  the times i’ve done this before i think i used too much oil and they didn’t crisp up, so i was careful of that.  i realized that the bowl harboring the remnants of my pepper stuffing would be perfect.  i took the back (spine side) of the leaves and rubbed them in the cheesy, garlicky, basily goodness and lay them oil side up on a cookie sheet with a light sprinkling of cracked salt, putting them in the oven next to the peppers.

when the quinoa water had disappeared i put some in a small frying pan with a little butter and cracked a couple eggs in in (as per will’s nonspecific request :)  i then added some ground flaxseed and cracked salt and called for the boy!

a scoop of stir fry went over a scoop of quinoa, and with it two each of the two kinds of stuffed peppers and an elegant pile of kale chips.  it was beautiful, and the kale chips were crunchy enough that i had to take a video of them being consumed.  my eyes were wide and i was a tad speechless.....a lovely meal indeed ;)

egg and flax quinoa with stir fried veggies, stuffed peppers and kale chips

approximate price: $6