Leek and Thyme Soup...

I love potatoes and I love leeks so this soup, I felt was an excellent way for me to get two of the things I love in one meal.  I really REALLY struggled with adding mushrooms to this recipe since I love those as well.  There's something about the combination of leeks and mushrooms that's...I don't know.  Just so very tasty and I could probably eat that all day everyday.  So since I was trying to stick to the recipe I chose to saute mushrooms and put them on the side so I could see what the recipe was supposed to taste like.  Of course after I tasted it I added the mushrooms anyway.  Oh the woes of following a recipe to the letter!!!  I don't know why that's such a difficult thing for me to do.  Lol

So this recipe was fairly simple and only requires 7 ingredients, all are kitchen staples with the exception of the leeks, mushrooms and fresh thyme.  That is unless you're one of those people or families that keep potatoes on hand like we USED to.  I know that potatoes aren't the healthiest and I notice after I eat anything with them I tend to feel a little sluggish.  Actually down right tired.  I took a half hour nap shortly after eating dinner even though I'm still tired and wanted to sleep much longer.  After reading a book by the fabulous Leah Salmon  called The Ultimate You I began to be more conscious about how I felt after eating certain foods.  It's amazing how your body tells you what's good for you and what's not.  Potatoes taste SOOO delicious, fried, baked, mashed...yum!!!  But my body tells me differently.  Lol  I've been pretty good about not overindulging in them like I used to.  Now if I could just kick my bread and sugar habit I'll be good.  Ok...looks like I got sidetracked a tad bit...back to the point.

So the whole family loved the soup which, of course makes me feel good.  They even enjoyed the addition of the mushrooms as much as I did.  I also though the recipe was rather delicious and am sitting here thinking I would mind have more as I type.  I love creamy hearty type soups which is exactly what this soup is.  It's funny how much flavor leeks add to a recipe and what's funnier is that I had never cooked with a year ago....I didn't even know what they were.  Strange. This soup didn't take long to make.  It took about 20 minutes to chop up potatoes and leeks and maybe a little over and hour to cook.

Chopped leeks, thyme and butter

Chopped potatoes

Sauteed and water added 

Milk added to soup mixture

Sauteed mushrooms...I couldn't resist 

Fresh fruit.  Yum!

Finished meal

Soup close up 

The one thing I dislike is the way soy milk looks when you're cooking it.  I don't think it really blends quite right.  It may be that I need to reduce the heat so that it's not as hot before adding the milk.  I'm not quite sure.  It boils and just looks kind of weird, but it does absolutely nothing to the taste.  I think I'm in love with this soup.  Definitely one that will be added to our rotation of meals.  

So that's it folks...be back tomorrow with another

Peace and Blessings!!!!

and we round out the week with......

Chiang Mai Noodle Soup is what I chose to cook along with a Chinese Chicken Salad.  I've been literally waiting all week to cook this particular soup.  I'm a big fan of Thai food and I was certain that this would be full of flavor and it would be one that I would be a fan of.  Well....I was right.  It had a very distinct flavor and was amazingly good.

I considered using a different noodle instead of the egg noodles that the recipe called for but chose to stick with the recipe....somewhat.  Since I absolutely hated the texture of the vegan chicken in the chicken noodle soup I chose not to use it like the recipe suggests.  I opted for vegan meat crumbles instead because I wanted to have some type of texture in the soup and to make it a little more filling.  Daughter didn't care for the soup...I was SO surprised.  Hubby liked it but said that the flavor was a little sweet which wasn't really appealing to him, but he really liked it overall and said that he would like to have it again.  Part of the way I judge how good meals are is by  whether or not it's something the family would get excited about having again...Silly huh?

Oh and don't let me forget the salad.  It came from the salad book I blogged about several weeks back.  I was a little skeptical...again with the chicken texture, but I stuck to the recipe on this one, using vegan chicken of course.  I seasoned the chicken lightly and stir fried it in olive oil and then tossed it in the salad.  It was so good.  I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  I'm glad I chose this one because, to me, it complimented the soup perfectly.

boiling the coconut milk so that it separates

coconut milk with remaining ingredient combined

garnish for the soup

Chinese Chicken Salad

Finished Meal

Close up of soup.  Delicious!!!

So folks...there you have it.  A perfect end to an almost perfect week.  Glad I saved this one for today.  I'll most likely be back tomorrow with a new soup since we have NO leftovers.  I was kind of looking forward to a break this weekend but it doesn't appear I'll get one.  Oh well.  Wishing everyone a fun filled enjoyable weekend.  

Peace and Blessings!!!

Now I'm on the soup mission....

I am so fond of soup...especially in the winter months since I'm one of those people that are CONSTANTLY cold.  And when I say constantly I mean always and forever cold.  It was 65 degrees out side and to the average person (especially my family members) this is ideal for February.  For me...I was shivering.  I had a scarf, winter gloves AND a hat on and was still on the chilly side.  Sorry...I digressed there for a sec.

You all saw the curry soup in the last entry that turned out just about perfect right?  Well this time I tried French Onion.  Very simple...but slicing onions....Not so much fun.  We have a food processor that's SUPPOSED to slice, but for some reason it doesn't seem to do the job quite right.  I was stuck slicing 4 really large onions by hand and now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I didn't initiate some help.  It may have something to do with our kitchen been a tad on the small side.  I really need a HUGE kitchen something like this:

Not necessarily this style at ALL but yes, this large.  Maybe a bigger island, a little more counter space and a butlers pantry.  HEAVEN!!!   I'd be a very happy person. So if there is anyone out there that would like to contribute to my new house with the dream kitchen....feel free.  Lol  I would do some serious cooking in a kitchen this size.  Ok...here I go again.... Not what this entry was supposed to be about.  Lol

Anyway, I decided to make French Onion Soup...which I love but haven't had in a long time because most soups at restaurants have a beef base which of course we don't do.  Ewww!!!!  So minus the cutting of the onions which had my eyes tearing and burning like I was in a smoke filled room for hours, preparing the soup wasn't very time consuming and didn't require much work at all.  I'll be making this one often.  I love quick and easy meal....especially when they taste good.  

So this is how it turned out:

Simmering onions 

Finished meal.  Soup topped with Ciabatta bread and vegan mozeralla cheese,  Caesar salad with homemade dressing.  Yummy!!!  The soup was so good we had it for left overs the next day and then the following day Hubby ate the remainder for lunch.   Stay tuned for my next soup.  Smile!!!!

Have a great week.....Peace and Blessings all.  

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Lol

So my last entry I had intended on posting my latest meal creation.  Ok...not really a creation since I didn't come up with the dish, but still.  It's interesting because I was doing school work with the little one and was trying to find an image of SOMETHING, I don't recall what and came across a food blog to my surprise.  I know what ever I was looking for it had absolutely nothing to do with food so I was shocked that I happened upon this particular recipe.  It was for this Curry Soup with Garlic Naan.  So again here I go with the bread...one of my many weaknesses.  We keep going back and forth over whether or not to get a bread maker because of our families love for bread and feel it'd be healthier if we made it ourselves.  Although I'm still not quite convinced because I could literally see myself making bread on a daily basis which would do NOTHING to keep off these unwanted pounds.

So, like I often do I added my own little spin on the recipe and will probably tweak it a little more next time I make it but here's how it turned out:

 
So it was Curry Soup from scratch mind you :) , Basmati Rice, Cinnamon squash (didn't like it) and Broccoli.  Again with the broccoli, I know.  Lol.  The Garlic Naan I bought from Whole Foods because I was too hungry lazy to make it from scratch.  I'm definitely going to give it a try next time because it didn't seem to complicated.  The soup was so delicious and everyone enjoyed it which, of course, made me happy.  I love making new foods especially when they turn out just about perfect the first go round.   The soup called for lemon grass and I think next time I'll have to use have the amount because it was just a tad bit too potent for me.  But still good nevertheless.

Well people...that's my food post for the day, I'm sure you all are surprised there was no salad right?  If anyone wants the recipe let me know and I'll be happy to get it to you.  In the meantime and as always....Peace and Blessings

The Pie Experiment....

*EDIT* THE LINK FOR THE PIE AND FOR THE CRUST FOR THOSE THAT ASKED. DOUBLE THE CRUST RECIPE FOR TOP AND BOTTOM CRUST.

So I've never been much of a baker...well let me take that back I've never really had the desire to try my hand at baking with the exception of pre-made cookies and boxed cakes. I've made cookies from scratch and have become quite good at that but that's been the extent of my baking skills.

On our journey as we've begun to change our diet and our eating habits I think what I've missed most are desserts; My evil nemesis if you will and my downfall when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight...that and pasta and bread...Ok well food period, but that's another story. Smile!!!! I'm exaggerating a tad bit, but you all get my point right? I LOVE, ADORE, and have quite the love affair with food, desserts especially

So being almost Vegan (we still eat fish) it's been difficult..no down right impossible to find desserts without animal products in them. We had some pears in the kitchen that no one seemed to be eating and I thought to myself 'Hmmm....what kind of sweet treat can I make with these?' After searching sites online I came across a recipe for a pear pie. I decided I would try my hand at it and was So very surprised at the results. It was SO very good. I made the crust from scratch also and substituted the ingredients in the recipe. Instead of all purpose flour I used Spelt Flour, Earth Balance butter, and Agave honey to replace the sugar. I was a little disappointed because I didn't make quite enough crust for the top and bottom layers so I had to make due as best I could. I'm not really a crust person anyway. I added a little honey and cinnamon to the crust as well and the family loved it. I didn't get a picture of the finished product but I did get a picture of part of the process:



Then after the success with that pie I decided I'd try apple...and OH MY GOODNESS!!!! That one was just as good so now I'm thinking I'm a baking mad woman. Lol

The crust was brushed with a honey and butter mixture. I learned in this process that you shouldn't brush the crust until the baking has almost finished because the crust got a little darker than I would have liked. But hey that's just aesthetics because AGAIN let me remind you I'm not really a crust person...I like the soft crust underneath but that's about it.






The Apple pie was like heaven with this ice cream...YUM