Day 9...Cream of Mushroom Soup and Tuna wraps

I know we've already had mushroom soup.  I think it was one of the first ones we had but this one is a little different.  The first one had mushroom chunks in it and this one is creamed...so, same soup, but different.  What can I say?  I love mushrooms.  

This was another soup that required very few ingredients.  You could make this soup for under well under $15...actually less than that since everything but the mushrooms are you're basic kitchen staples.   Most of the ingredients we already had so really all I had to do was buy mushrooms, and we already had those since we knew ahead of time that'd I'd be making this soup.  This one I will definitely say, without hesitation, was EASY.  All you really had to do was cut, saute, simmer and process. Simple!

I actually really enjoyed this soup.  I've always loved mushroom soup and have always been fond of creamy soups....especially on warm days.  I had a mushroom bisque that I used to always get from Panera until I found out it had a beef base.  UGH!!!!  I think I'll have to find a recipe for that because it was one of my favorites.

Not to much to say about this soup other than it was delicious and everyone really enjoyed it.  The soups this week have been going pretty quick so there hasn't been much leftovers which is good.  Leftovers are great but I hate when the fridge gets a little too crowded.  Guess this means I'll be blogging this weekend since we don't have leftovers to last us through the weekend.  It would actually be an excellent time to repeat a few of the recipes that I've really loved so far, although part of me feels it's a little too soon for repeats.  We'll see.

Mushrooms and onions

Satueed in sunflower oil and butter 

Soy milk, vegetable broth, basil salt and pepper simmering

Finished soup after being pureed with whole wheat tuna wrap

So there you have it...todays soup.  Another hit.  You cant really go wrong with tuna wraps and todays weather was perfect for it.  As it starts to warm up salads and sandwiches or wraps become more and more appealing.  Maybe I'll have a 30 day sandwich/wrap challenge this summer...Although I seriously doubt it.  lol So far we've only had one soup fail...and I don't know that it was necessarily a fail since some of the family liked it.  I think I just didn't suit MY tastes.  

That's it for me this evening.  Check back tomorrow to see what soup wraps up the week....

Peace and blessings!!!

Wednesday's Soup

I planned on having leftovers from yesterday's great soup but then thought...I cant really do the same soup back to back so soon.  Gotta have variety right?  Plus it didn't help that Hubby said it was the best soup he's ever had in his life and had seconds and then later in the evening had more.  I had plans (which didn't quite pan out) on having some for lunch today so....so much for left overs....but lets not dwell on the past and move on to today's soup shall we?  But it really was delicious!!!  Lol

Todays soup was a Tortilla Soup/Mexican Gumbo.  I actually got the idea from Q'doba and had been saying for some time that I would try to make it.  Today was the day.  My father in law (amazing cook by the way) makes a Chicken chili and before we gave up meat we used to LOVE it.  The Tortilla soup somewhat reminds me of his Chicken Chili but not anywhere near as good.  I should have used his recipe and left out the chicken.  That'll be one of my later recipes.

Soup simmerrng

Finished meal...told ya there would be fruit today

Topped with Vegan Cheese (Daiya)

The soup consisted of a vegetable/tomato base, black beans, green chili's, rice and corn.  It was seasoned with Chili powder, paprika, cumin, garlic, onion, oregano, cilantro salt and cayenne pepper.  Another easy one pot soup/meal.  I actually ended up adding a green chili sauce to it that I didn't particularly care for, but that's what I get for always trying to do something that's not called for in the recipe.  It was OK.  The family liked it and I would do it again...definitely without adding the green chili of course.

I'm not going to pretend I shucked corn, ground corn or soaked beans overnight.  I took the easy way out and did canned black beans and the corn that you steam in the bag.  I did cut up all the veggies (you know how I love that) and added fresh cilantro.  It was a long day and I didn't have the desire to spend hours in the kitchen so I did what would save me the most time.

We did fruit like I promised but I threw in the tortilla chips which is just as bad as doing bread.  Lol  I only ate a few... but they're really good.  Tostitos makes these really good Artisian tortilla chips...we had the black bean but they also have a fire roasted chipotle that I really love as well.

So that was it.  Nothing as great as yesterdays soup, which I didn't happen to have for lunch today but tomorrow I'll definitely be having it.  Lol.

Happy Humpday people!!!!  Enjoy the remainder of your week and 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.  

Pasta and veggies....

Ok...So our next meal (or my entry rather) was supposed to be soup but we had some peppers that we bought for this meal and wanted to use them before they went bad.  We have this habit of going to the store and buying too many veggies because that ends up being a bulk of our meal but often end up throwing a lot of them out.  The solution:  We only buy what we need for about two days, but the downside is we end up having to go to the grocery store several times a week which is a pain in the butt.

So before we gave up dairy I used to make this meal using 4 cheese ravioli chicken, peppers, fresh basil, garlic, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes.  Now that we no longer eat dairy, although I've been seriously craving the raviolli, I made it changing it up just a tad bit.  I made a spicy cream sauce with all the other ingredients and substituted the ravioli for a quinoa angel hair pasta.  We had Caesar salad and fruit as well.

 I would love to do like a 30 day soup and salad challenge but I don't know if I'd be able to last 30.  I should just try it and see how long I can (and the family) can last.  What do you all think?  I sitting here now as I type planning my next meal/soup.  What's on your menu this week and what are your food challenges and goals?

Well that's it for me...until next time Peace and Blessings.

Seeing changes

Greetings all!!!

As this week comes to a close I reflect back on how hectic it's been. It seems like I haven't had a free moment to myself all week. Not that that's anything new, but it prompted me to take a look my health (emotional included) and recent changes we've made.

I'm up every morning by 5 and although I'm typically in bed by 11 I usually only get a few hours of sleep because of my back, with the exception of when I take medication. If I take medication I sleep like a ROCK, and I do mean rock, but I'm trying to get away from doing that. This week was extremely busy and I just noticed I've had an tremendous amount of energy for the amount of rest I'm actually getting every shadow hours. I've even, to my surprise noticed that I've actually lost a few pounds as well. Hooray Me! Not anything that's going to make me run out and buy a new wardrobe, as much as I would love to do that but a few pounds is better than no pounds and even better than weight GAIN. So if anyone wants to fund that shopping spree please let me know. :o)

I have NO choice but to attribute these things to the changes we've made in our diet. I mentioned these changes a few blog entries back. If you didn't read about it we'll all hold while you go back and catch up...... All caught up? Great! Let's move on.

We (Hubby and I) had initially decided we were going to fast during the day. The plan was that we were going to drink our green concoction (juiced green veggies) during the day, water and then only eat dinner. The juiced greens would provide us with the energy and the vitamins we need during the day, or that was the plan at least. I just couldn't do it. That crap was soooo nasty. Maybe we just haven't found the right combination of veggies, I don't know, but it just makes me nauseous thinking about it. So we've resorted to drinking water with lime.

I'm proud of myself because I'm not a big water drinker and am surprised that I've never been chronically dehydrated. I think I have the worlds tiniest bladder because I would drink a cup of water and literally be in the bathroom 5 times within an hour. I'm not exaggerating either. And don't let me drink water before bed. I may as well plan on being up for the night. So for that reason I would rarely drink water which is SO unhealthy, I know.

So all this to say pretty much all we've been drinking over the past 3 weeks is A LOT of water. We've had fresh squeezed lemonade with Agave Honey and strawberries or raspberries but that's been it. We haven't had any bread, which is good for us because in the past we would typically have bread with every meal. We've had no white flour, refined sugar, candy or heavy starches (that convert to sugar). We haven't had any dairy in about a year I think, or close to it, which has made a big difference also. More that 80% of our dinner is vegetables (that are high in alkaline) and we haven't had anything processed. A majority of our foods we've eaten and prepared, for quite some time has been from scratch.

Six months ago I would have been exhausted and ready for bed by 6 or 7. I'm usually a little tired when I first wake up, but then after a few minutes I'm ok, where as in the past I would have felt sooo fatigued and hit my snooze button so many times that I end up rushing trying to get my daughter to the bus on time. I'm not mentally and physically drained by the end of the day and I feel like I have more patience. I usually just go to bed because it's getting late and I know I have to get up in the morning, but it hasn't been me going to bed due to lack of energy.

I all know is FACTUALLY we've made some changes in our diet and I've seen a big difference in how I feel physically. There haven't been any other changes that have been made so you do the math. What's YOUR conclusion? Uh Oh! I sound like Hubby relating life to math, Go me!!!

I chose to share this, because, hey it's what I do. Lol. Know seriously though. I've had people question me about why we chose to become vegetarian and then vegan. I caught flack for YEARS from people for not eating beef or pork. I still get people looking at me sideways when I say we don't eat meat, like it's something totally foreign. It seems like whenever we do something that will benefit US and our health in positive way there's always someone that has something negative to say. They act as if we're crazy for eating the way we do or choosing not to eat foods we feel are unhealthy. There MUST be something wrong with us!! We are just choosing what we fell is a healthier lifestyle and you don't have to like it or respect it. It's what WE do over here and you don't have to be a part of that if you don't choose to.

A sister on FB shared a video of Dr. Sebi. He speaks a lot about electric foods and uses herbs for natural healing and it's actually documented that he's cured numerous people of various dis-eases. She mentioned trying to share this information with people and how often they just aren't trying to hear her. It got me to thinking how in the past I've often felt the exact same way. My response was, all you can do is to provide the information. So this is me sharing and hoping that someone, if only one person, finds something in this that may be as helpful to them as it has been for me.

So with all that being said..... I'm wishing everyone a very blessed and beautiful weekend.

Peace and Blessings!!!