Dinner - March 22, 2010

Sort of a traditional midwestern meal made with odds and ends from the refrigerator. Starch: Quinoa pilaf with spinach. Protein: A "hamburger helper" like flavored tempeh sauteed with some mushrooms. Vegetable: Simple side of asparagus. Tasted about as unispired as it sounds.

Dinner - February 26, 2010

This is based on Saag Tofu from my Eating Well Ipod Touch Application. You can find the recipe here. I substituted unsweetened soy milk for the yogurt. I would call it more like "not creamed spinach with tofu over rice" but still very good. I accidentally upped the cumin which I liked.

I plan on making this a regular for us. It was super fast. I would serve it to vegetarians but I wouldn't call it saag to prevent expectations of a really rich sauce. I think pan size would limit being able to easily make this for four. I think we ate all of it.

Dinner - February 17, 2010

This is Lemon Lentil Soup with Spinach from Berley's Fresh Food Fast. I am debating on whether to rename this "Instant Soup" or "Pound Soup".

I made a version of this before I had a pressure cooker and liked the results enough to make it again. This time I made it in the pressure cooker and hence the idea for the "Instant Soup" rename. It is not only the quick time on the stove but the fact that there is really no chopping involved either. Peeling the garlic is the most time consuming part of the recipe. I also skipped wrapping up the spices and just pulled them out individually before adding the spinach. This left the rosemary leaves in the pot but I think that was okay.

This time I made about a recipe and half. That kicked the lentils up to a pound. I then rounded the tomatoes up to about a pound which matched the can of diced tomatoes I had. I also used a pound of baby spinach. Hence the idea for the renaming to "Pound Soup". I also used a whole head of garlic because I was close and I just thought that would be cool. Now I have a recipe I can almost remember but I will be checking in to get the spices right.

The soup and bread were not the best combination. I enjoyed the soup greatly as lunches.

Dinner - February 14, 2010

For Valentines Day, I was going to make a fancy meal and serve the last bottle of Italian Barolo that Matt got me several years ago. Instead we did laundry and had pizza and beer. It really was quite good and made the laundry tolerable.

One pizza is caramelizes onions (cooked with thyme and garlic) and sauteed portabello (cooked with garlic). The second pizza is sauteed spinach (blanched and cooked with shallots). The onion and mushroom pizza was the winner but it was nice to have both.

The crust was a recipe and a half of the whole wheat crust in The Healthy Hedonist cooked on a hearth stone (borrowed from my mother). Ten minutes at 500 degrees.

With the hearth stone I can make the crust from scratch and all of the toppings by the time the oven is hot.