simple dinners

a nutritious dinner can be so simple. like last night, for example, was leftover shabbos soup, whole wheat shell noodles, and chicken pieces (served all together in one bowl). do yourself a favor and say goodbye to white flour noodles.

i have lots of chicken to spare! tonight i served chicken that was baked with whole foods' "herbes de provence" spice. it's a mix of savory, thyme, rosemary, basil, tarragon, and lavendar. i served it with "tru roots" organic sprouted rice and quinoa blend. this is an amazing product you can buy at...COSTCO! (my favorite place, lol!) i also also served costco's frozen organic foursome (corn, carrots, peas, green beans). i love costco! i hope YOUR costco has as many nice, healthy selections as mine.

disclaimer: i don't do vegetables every night - not worth the fight. i didn't mean for that to be a rhymed couplet, but it cheers me that it is. :-)

creamy carrot soup

i based this recipe from the kosher palette.

3 tbsp olive oil
3-4 cloves minced garlic
1 diced onion
tamari
1 lb peeled/cut up carrots
6 c water
1/3c brown rice
1c soy milk

sautee garlic and onion in olive oil. add cut up carrots and continue to sautee. splash in some tamari. add 6c water and the brown rice.  simmer on low until carrots are tender and brown rice is cooked. use an immersion blender and blend ingredients until creamy. or transfer soup into the food processor a few cups at a time and do the same. when soup is blended, add 1c soy milk. i spiced it with salt, cumin, and italian seasoning.

i served this soup with whole wheat rotini and chicken pieces, all in one bowl. yum yum!

(meal was pareve until i added the chicken)

BMT lasagna

Broccoli meat and tofu lasagna - don't get scared, it's awesome:

 Healthy harvest lasagna noodles
 Large can or jar of tomato sauce
 1/4 bag bodek frozen broccoli
 3 packages nasoya firm tofu
 2 eggs
 2 lbs ground meat

prep the tofu by draining the 3 packs and emptying it into a bowl. mush it all up with two hands. mush mush mush! (this is a great activity for a kid who's into sensory stuff. well, a kid who's into sensory stuff who happens to have VERY CLEAN HANDS - just sayin'.) juice in a whole lemon and generously sprinkle in nutritional yeast. less generously with salt. go slow and taste as you go - the goal is to have the tofu mush taste "cheesy." (in fact, that should be the tofu's texture: cottage cheesy.)

take the frozen broccoli and put it into your food processor. grind very very fine. add a little water to make the grinding easier! use as much frozen broccoli as you think you can get away with! (i should have used even more myself.)

put the meat in a bowl and add two eggs. spice it up with whatever you like (i used italian seasoning, salt, onion and garlic powders.) put in the ground up broccoli. mix mix mix!

Take a 9x13 and sauce the bottom well. Place 3 UNCOOKED lasagne noodles in the sauce (if your 9x13 base is larger use 4). then add half the tofu mush. place another UNCOOKED noodle layer on top. add the entire brocco-meat mixture. add another UNCOOKED noodle layer. then add the other half of the tofu mush. put your last layer of UNCOOKED (am i being redundant?) noodles on top and then add the rest of the sauce. don't be skimpy on the sauce, lady, cause that's what's cooking the noodles! make an aluminum foil "tent" on top and bake at 350 for 2 hours.

how good was this dinner? my 10 year old said, "mommy, you finally made something normal. it's not too healthy and there are NO VEGETABLES." lol!!

don't get mental ... leftover lentils

So 2 nights ago I made tofu lentil something or other and I had lots of leftover lentils. Reinventing/recycling leftovers is one way to honor G-d's food gifts. So anyway I made a saffron rice. Then in a separate saucepan I sautéed onions and the lentils in toasted sesame oil. Then I added costco's fabulous frozen organic veggie 4-some (carrots corn green beans peas). I added some shabbos chicken soup and then 1 package of chicken breasts, cut up. I served the chicken lentil veggie extravaganza over the saffron rice and it was delish!

shortcuts (quick fleishig supper)

tonight's repast will be the usual healthy and kosher, but simple is the magic word. i'm falling on my face with exhaustion so i took some shortcuts.

let's talk about a great product: imagine food's creamy mushroom soup. this food seriously rocks the casbah. i was going to make a creamy white sauce from scratch when this product literally jumped off the shelf into my waiting shopping cart. that's shortcut #1.

shortcut #2 was frozen veggies: heimishe brand broccoli, yellow squash, yada yada. less chopping.

i sauteed some onions in olive oil and tamari, and then dumped the whole container of thick mushroom soup in. added all the veggies, and it's happily simmering away as we speak.

oh yeah, i put in chicken. lots of leftover pesach chicken. i pulled it off the bone into strips.

the only question is, do i serve it over whole wheat noodles or rice pasta?