Lentil Soup Time

Lunch

For lunch I made a simple sandwich with Tofurkey, homemade guac, hummus, and yellow mustard. On the side I had some cucumber slices, carrots, blue corn flaxseed chips, and a pickle spear. Oh and salsa for dipping. Also, while I was at the co-op I saw that these Chai Colas were on sale so that was my excuse for splurging on them. It was so good! It tasted like a chai root beer float.

Speaking of the Co-op, while I was there I had a serendipitous run in with the coordinator of a cooking competition called Green Chef. I decided to go ahead and enter, why not?! The contest will be held on Tuesday in the Multi Cultural Center at 5:30. All I have to do is come up with a dish that uses the mystery ingredient which this year is carrots. I have to have 40 bite sized samples and I will be judged on creativity, taste, and appearance. I am so excited! My Dad and I had a mad collaborative phone sesh and bounced ideas off each other until finally deciding on a dish. No, I won't tell! It has to be a surprise till Tuesday! Don't worry though, I will documenting everything :)

I decided to get on with it and start soaking these garbanzos so I can sprout them. These will soak overnight.

Dinner

For dinner I decided to make lentil soup. I got my recipe from one of my all time favorite chefs on Food Network: Alton Brown! The only thing I did differently was that I couldn't find spice of paradise and I used more celery than the recipe called for. First I sweated the onions with a little safflower oil along with the carrots, celery, salt and pepper.
Next I added a can of stewed tomatoes, 2 quarts of vegetable broth, a pound of lentils, coriander, and cumin. I let this simmer for at least 40 minutes then blended half for a smooth/ chunky blend.
I grilled up a vegan italian sausage and tossed it right on top of my soup.
Served with the left over roasted broccoli. Dinner!!

Dessert

For dessert I indulged in a little dark chocolate coconut milk ice cream with cherries and strawberries. Yum!!! The strawberries were sweet and the cherries were tangy, both a perfect compliment to the creamy semi-sweet ice cream.
I am one tired girl. I have dishes to do (blah). But then I'm going straight to bed!

Good Night!

Soup for Sicky

I made it to choir feeling fine but as the rehearsal went on my throat started feeling worse and worse. I decided to be my own Jewish mother and make Matzo Ball Soup! hahaha. The impromptu recipe was:

• less than 1/4 cup chopped celery
• about 7 baby carrots
• less than 1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
• 1 cup Wolfgang Puck vegetable broth (all I had left!)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 vegetable bullion cube
• 4 matzo balls made by the directions on the package

The matzo balls called for egg so I used egg replacer. Seems logical! I was nervous that it wouldn't be the same texture or something weird would happen but it actually worked out fine. This is what a replaced egg looks like.
I've never made matzo balls before. I was pretty pleased with myself!
A mug of throat coat and Jewish penicillin (minus the chicken). Just what I need!
I was only going to have half the batch but it really wasn't much so I just went ahead and had the rest.
I love this ring! It deserves a shot of its own. It was a gift from my lovely roomie Kelsey.
My throat was calling for something cold! This chocolate ice cream is made out of coconut milk yuuummm!
I microwaved some frozen berries for a minute as a sauce.


I was dying to try this my new granola. Dark chocolate almond granola, who can imagine a better combo??
I approve :)
It's way past my bed time now, see you in the AM!