Tag Archives: recipes

Gingered Carrot Soup

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Inspired by my zucchini soup experiments a few weeks ago, I decided to try something a little different.  As I walked through the produce isle at the grocery store, I picked up a bag of peeled baby carrots which I like to snack on during the week.  I looked down and saw a 2 lb bag of large carrots and it hit me… Carrot Soup!!  Not only was it insanely easy to make, its very good and, of course, nutritious.
Ingredients: 
  • 2 lb bag of carrots peeled and diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic peeled and smashed
  • vegetable or chicken broth
  • water
  • ¼ tsp ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 oz softened cheese.
Directions:
  1. Place diced carrots in soup pot along with garlic cloves just cover tops of carrots with broth.
  2. Bring to low simmer and cook covered until carrots are soft.
  3. As broth evaporates during the cooking process, continue to replace evaporated broth only to cover carrots.
  4. Once cooked, take immersion blender and blend carrots in the pot.
  5. Add water to create desired thickness.  I added approximately 1 cup to mine.
  6. Add cheese and spices and blend again.
Voila!  Delish!
I was so proud of the way it turned out that I called my mother and asked her to come over for a taste.  The following is the dialogue from that lovely conversation:
Mom: Ooh, spicy. Very good, but don’t eat too much of this. (as she puts another spoonful in her mouth)

Me: Why? It’s healthy. 

Mom: (pointing to my face) It’s going to make you turn orange!
Me: (shaking my head and smirking)
Mom: (smiling now but trying to be serious) Fine! Don’t listen to your mother.

Lentil Soup with (or without) Ham

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lentil soup

I love making a big pot of soup at the beginning of the week and having it for dinner a few nights in a row.  This saves me the hassle of having to prepare myself dinner mid-week and deters me from eating pre-packaged or processed foods if I’m too tired to cook something from scratch when I get home from a long day.  Lentil soup is very nutritious and low in fat so it makes a great choice for weeknight meal.

Ingredients:

lentil soup ingredients

  • 16 oz package of lentils (your color of choice)
  • 8 oz package of cubed ham (optional)
  • 1 vegetable or chicken bouillon cube
  • 1 envelop of Sazon Goya seasoning (found in the ethnic aisle of the grocery store.  I use the version that has saffron for both coloring and flavor.)
  • 6-7 cloves of garlic (trust me, once it boils for a while, it mellows out and is not strong at all)
  • 1 small onion or 1/2 a large onion
  • 1 package of baby carrots diced or 2 large carrots
  • 2-3 stalks of celery
  • 1-2 bay leaves
  • 5 small sweet peppers or 1 regular sized sweet pepper (yellow, orange or red)

Directions:

  1. Rinse lentils and pick out any pebbles, etc.  Fill pot with water about 2 inches above lentils.
  2. add bouillon cube, seasoning packet, bay leaves and all diced vegetables
  3. Let come to rolling boil
  4. Add ham cubes if desired.
  5. lower to simmer and cover.  Boil for 40 minutes stirring frequently and adding water if it thickens more than you would like.
  6. Taste and adjust seasoning if desired.

For more info on the health benefits of lentils, check out these links!

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-eating-lentils-4547.html

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=52

http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Oz-The-Best-Anti-Aging-Superfoods-Red-Lentils-Amaranth

Spinach Balls with Pine nuts

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Spinach Balls:
These are a delicious (but due to the high butter and bread content, not so nutritious) appetizer for any party.  We usually serve these along-side bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, a big ol’ plate of stinky cheeses with French bread, olives, charcuterie and other similarly amazing things that fill you up before you even sit down for the main show.
We’ve been making these for years.  The recipe was originally given to us by my Aunt Lynne who swears she doesn’t remember where she got it from.  Possibly a newspaper clipping or an index card from a relative… regardless the source, they’re great. 
The original recipe didn’t include pine nuts.  This is a little Mediterranean spin my mom added but has become an integral part of the recipe ever since.  Trust me, you NEED the nutty crunch it adds.
Ingredients:
2 boxes of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of all its moisture
3 cups of herbed stuffing
6 eggs
1 tsp garlic powder
1 small chopped onion (half a regular sized onion)
1 1/2 sticks of melted butter (3/4 cup)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup pinenuts
If butter is unsalted, add about 1 tsp of salt.  Omit if using salted butter.
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and roll into walnut sized balls and place on a foil lined sheet.
bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
At this point you can either serve or freeze for later use.
Simply thaw out the day of your party and heat through.  Delish!!

Irish Creme Berry Trifle… Let the holidays begin!!

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The Holidays are a time for being with family, enjoying your friends and… eating. A LOT. And, as much as I love eating, I have to say that I almost enjoy baking and preparing holiday foods even more. I always loved helping my mom in the kitchen when I was younger and some of my fondest memories are those that include the amazing smells of certain dishes that MUST be served yearly in our household. Now, I love making those recipes myself (or heading over to mom’s and helping her out like the good old days).

Although I have been sworn to secrecy and have promised my mother to never divulge the details of our most prized recipes, there are some yummy things I can share with you. Namely, those things that I have created myself and have become NEW traditions. I’ll be honest, I can bake a mean cake from scratch by following a recipe but, I’m not a chemist so I’m no good at coming up with recipes on my own. I take recipes that already exist, add a few things, omit others and put my spin on them. A lot of times, they are “semi-homemade” but they are never “semi-good”… They’re always totally amazing 😉

The first yummy recipe I’m going to share with you is almost not a recipe at all. Its more like a set of directions on how to put together something that is both gorgeous and delicious: Irish Crème Berry Trifle. You are guaranteed “ooooohs and aaaaaahs” every time you bring this to the table and it is the desert that inspired my friend Kris to name me her “most Martha Stewart-y friend I know.”

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Ingredients:
1 box of prepared yellow cake mix (follow directions of your favorite brand)
Irish crème
I pint each: Blue berries, raspberries and strawberries
Small cool whip
1 box of vanilla Jello pudding prepared (I add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to make it special)
Raspberry jam

Directions:
1. Slice the prepared cake into rectangular pieces and place one layer on the bottom of your trifle dish. (yes, you need to invest in a trifle dish to make this recipe. They’re really inexpensive and easy to find at discount stores like Marshalls, TJ Max, Homegoods or Ross.)
2. Drizzle ¼-1/2 cup of Irish crème over the cake so that it gets absorbed.
3. Spoon and spread raspberry jam over cake.
4. Carefully spoon pudding on top, making sure that the layer is clean at edges of trifle dish.
5. Layer berry mix
6. Layer of cool whip
7. Repeat until you are at the top!
8. On top of your last layer of cool whip, decoratively place some berries.

Let set over night so that the irish crème has time to absorb and the flavors meld.
Gorgeous!!

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Let the holidays begin!! More festive recipes to follow.