Our good friend, Karen, had come out for her massage and had asked if it was okay if she brought a friend, who would sit in our living room while she waited for her. They were going to go out to a little town west of us when her massage was done. I love to meet new people, so I eagerly agreed.

It was a great pleasure to make the acquaintance of Marie, Karen’s friend, and now ours. We had a great chat about food, of course, and she spent some time looking at my favorite cookbook, “Passionate Vegetarian” by Crescent Dragonwagon. I just absolutely love that book, and if you are looking to do some different things from all kinds of cultures, buy this book. There is a link to it on the left under “We Recommend”.

Before they arrived, I was trying to figure out what I was going to make for dinner for Ken and I, and had decided that I was going to take the vegetables out of my refrigerator and use them before I ended up putting them in the compost pile! Good idea, right?

I began to put everything together and realized I had a bunch of green vegetables and some red-skinned new potatoes and some “pink” beans. I started thinking about this month’s “No Crouton’s Required” from Holler over at “Tinned Tomatoes”. This month they are asking you to make a vegetarian soup or salad showcasing a favorite herb or experimenting with one you haven’t used before. I took a trip over to my huge spice rack and found “savory”. I’ve never used savory before, so I thought it might work. I asked Ken to do a search for savory and what it was used for. One thing he found was that it is used to flavor soups and “green” vegetables! How convenient since I was making a soup out of green vegetables! YEAH! So this is also my entry to the “No Crouton’s Required” contest this month.

Savory is kind of woody in appearance, but not so much in taste. I didn’t really use much oil in this recipe, however, the broth that developed was so intensely rich and flavorful. I have a feeling it was from the savory.

Here are the pictures:

Here is the recipe:

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
6 small red skinned potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
1 medium leek, use white part and tender part of green, sliced in circles
1 medium zucchini, sliced into approximately 1/2″ thick rounds, then halved
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cubanelle pepper, seeded and chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 15 ounce can pink beans, drained
2 15 ounce cans low-sodium veggie broth (or use “Better Than Bouillion” with pure water)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried savory
Salt and Pepper to taste

Put olive oil into soup pot and bring to heat. Add all the vegetables and stir to coat with olive oil. Let cook, while stirring, for about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium if your veggies begin to stick to the pot. Add savory, salt and pepper. Stir to coat veggies. Add beans and then add veggie broth.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and let simmer until veggies are tender. I probably let my soup simmer for about an hour, then I turned the heat off for another hour and let it set on the stove, then reheated it.

I served this dish with sweet, vegan cornbread (using white cornmeal), and a small, simple salad of romaine lettuce with carrots and raisins. We used blood orange vinegar and black fig vinegar for the salad. I called it a “Peasant Soup Pot” because I love those peasant type of foods that you serve with cornbread or crusty breads. It reminds me of when Ken and I were young marrieds and we used to go to this place called JoJo’s and have their peasant lunch which was French Onion Soup, sliced apples and cheese and crusty bread. We absolutely loved this meal!

I invited Karen and Marie to stay and eat with us after Karen’s massage and they did.

When Ken took his first bite, his head popped up and it scared me. My first thought was, oh my gosh, is it not good and here I am feeding it to our friends? He said to me, “Jackie, this is absolutely the best soup I have ever tasted!” YES! It was really good. I enjoyed it very much as did our guests. But I think what I loved more than anything, was the happy feelings going around my supper table. Good friends, good food…..it reminded me why I love to cook and have people over.

This year has been kind of tough, but I’m hoping the worst is behind me and I am moving forward and going to be cooking more again.

Try this soup. I know, soups are mostly left for fall and winter, but this soup was a delicious supper with the salad and cornbread and a nice glass of iced tea. So enjoyable.

Thank you to Karen and Marie for helping to make this dinner memorable.

UPDATE: I made this soup again and used a few different kinds of vegetables in it and it was still delicious, just a little different. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different vegetables with this recipe, and do be brave enough to use savory!

Happy, Healthy Eating,

Jackie V.

However, there are times when I just want something sweet. Yesterday was Kenny’s birthday and I wanted to do something special for him. We went to Kansai for dinner. Oh My Goodness! Henry you and Liu outdid yourselves with our food preparation, and I have to give a big holler out to Helen who is absolutely the most fantastic waitress you could ever have! Dinner was probably the best I have ever had, I know I enjoyed it very much.

Since Kenny is a big “chocolate” person, he will literally turn the house upside down and inside out if he thinks there is chocolate here, I decided to make him a chocolate bar I saw on Ricki’s site, Diet, Dessert and Dogs. She does some amazing things on her site and when I saw this one, I knew I had to make it! I didn’t have a small enough loaf pan, so mine was in a circular dish which is pretty also.

Decadent Chocolate Pâté to live for! When you see the picture on her site it is so much better than mine, but alas, I haven’t taken that photography class yet, and neither has Ken so you will just have to do with our pictures for now! I did put orange zest on mine since there was some orange juice in it!

This recipe is so easy and you won’t believe the ingredients. 70% chocolate bar ( I like Green and Black because they do not have a lot of additives that I don’t want to eat.), fresh-squeezed orange juice (imperative), maple syrup, vanilla and the pièce de résistance, 1 avocado. That’s right, you read it right, an avocado. Amazing! The texture is like, well, do you remember those chocolate little cubes called “ice cubes”? That is what the texture is like. You know how an ice cube melts on your tongue, well that is what those ice cube chocolate candies felt like and that is exactly what this feels and tastes like. So rich, creamy and smooth. I loved it!

Here are our pictures:

Enjoy!

Happy, Healthy Eating, Sweets!

Jackie V.

Thai Curry Soup:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced or chopped onion ( I add mixed color sliced bell peppers as well about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon (+- to taste) Thai green curry paste
1 14oz can of unsweetened coconut milk
1 can low-salt chicken broth
3 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 can diced tomatoes or rotel if you want more kick
1 package lg. shrimp peeled/deveined or 3 lg boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 generous squirt of lime juice
1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 can of baby corn drained
1 can of sliced water chestnuts drained
A dash of salt and pepper
Chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in large skillet over med-high heat. Add onions and peppers; stir fry until soft and beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add green curry paste, yellow curry powder, garlic, and ginger ; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add coconut milk, chicken broth, fish sauce, salt, pepper, and sugar; bring to a boil. Add tomatoes, lime juice, w. chestnuts, and corn; and boil for about 2 minutes. If using shrimp, add them now and cook till the center is opaque and shrimp become pink (stir often), about 3 minutes. If using chicken (cubed), add now and cook soup till chicken is done, about 15 minutes or so. Transfer curry to bowls and garnish with the fresh cilantro. You also have the option of serving this soup over jasmine rice like I prefer. I just cook 1 1/2 cups of jasmine rice with 2 cups water in my rice cooker. Put the rice on at the same time you begin to cook the soup. Place desired amount of rice in bottom of the bowl and pour soup over it.

Ingredients:

1 tsp -1 tbs of Thai red chili paste (choose amount based on your personal heat preference)

1 tbs minced garlic

2tbs sugar

2 tbs rice vinegar

black pepper

3 tbs fish sauce

3-4 tbs oil ( I use either olive or sesame seed oil)

1/4 lb chopped chicken

1/2 of a large package of Thai style extra wide flat rice noodles

1 cup fresh Thai basil, and buds chopped

1 can of diced tomatoes or 1 1/2 cups fresh tomatoes chopped in 1″ pieces

1/4 cup lite soy sauce

1 cup diced onion

1 can or 1 package of bean sprouts (about a cup)

1 generous squeeze of lime juice or 1/2 lime

Directions:

Combine sugar and pepper in a small bowl.

Also combine fish sauce and soy sauce in another bowl.

Have everything ready and next to the stove.

Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat and add 2tbs oil and heat until a piece of chopped garlic sizzles immediately when dropped into the pan.

Add the rest of the garlic and stir fry for 30 sec until golden.

Add the chili paste and stir fry for another 30 seconds.

Then add the chicken and onions and stir fry for 3-5 minutes until brown and cooked.

Add the sugar mixture and toss to mix, then the fish sauce mixture, also the vinegar and continue stir frying until the sauce bubbles and thickens a little, about 1 minute. This is also the time to add in the lime juice.

Add the cooked rice noodles and fold gently and repeatedly until they absorb the sauce, about 3-5 minutes, adding more oil if needed.

Add most of the basil (reserve some for garnish) and the bean sprouts, toss gently until the basil wilts and the sprouts soften a little.

Add the tomatoes, turn once or twice and remove from heat.

Transfer to a platter and garnish with remaining basil.

Do the pictures do the dish justice? Not quite, but I don’t know if any picture could pick up all this delicious goodness. I remember that when I lived in Jupiter, Florida, I had a friend named, Maria. Maria and I used to get together all the time for lunch and try to outdo each other with delicious salads. I don’t know that we ever outdid each other, but I can tell you that we had some of the most amazing salads, and living in Florida, you can imagine some of the ingredients we had available for use.

Today was kind of like that. I saw some beautiful produce sitting on my counter and a lunch thought just jumped right into my mind.

I cut up a romaine lettuce heart. It was a big one, I got about 3 cups of lettuce out of it. I arranged the lettuce on two plates. In the meantime, I cut, deseeded and deveined a jalepeño pepper then chopped it into very small pieces, I did the same with a banana pepper and a regular red pepper. I chopped 2 medium red, on-the-vine tomatoes. I very finely chopped a large shallot and then sliced and chopped a medium-sized Haas avocado. I mixed all those ingredients together and then placed 1/2 on top of each plate of lettuce. I put a pinch of salt on top of each plate and then drizzled lemon juice over the top!

A wonderful, taste treat for your tongue!

Try this recipe on a very hot day. It cools your senses while at the same time, awakening them.

Happy, Healthy Eating

Jackie V.

So, my brother, Rusty was here for his lunch and massage again. I must say that he and Ken have taken very good care of me through this. Rusty came and cooked for me a couple of times, so I hope I can get him to write a piece on the dishes. Ken did take pictures! Ken has been an excellent caretaker. He has done a great job in keeping everything done up so I didn’t get frustrated about all the stuff that needed done around the house. You know how you can’t get up and do stuff so you see everything that needs to be done!

Lunch yesterday was from a couple of different sources. Heidi at 101 Cookbooks and Jamie at Home on FoodNetwork. I love Jamie’s new show on Saturday on Food Network at 9:30a.m. EST, and I have Heidi’s cookbook “Super Natural Cooking” which I truly do love.

So that I don’t get too tired, I am going to put some pictures of the food I cooked on and be done with the post for the day. I’m just so happy to be back cooking and making posts on the blog, even if they are quick!

Here’s the English Onion Soup by Jamie Oliver:

To make this soup vegan, just omit the cheese on top. I used veggie everything else which is a little different from Jamie’s recipe. He used chicken broth, I used veggie broth. It was still delicious! Also, in place of the serious “knob” of butter, I used Earth Balance, and not too seriously! :) Here’s the recipe. There was mixed reviews about the sage in the soup, so I think I would leave that out the next time. Also, I didn’t have aged cheddar cheese, so I used provolone which, of course, was delicious!

Here is the Spring Panzanella Salad:

I used pumpernickel bread instead of whole wheat and it was really good. I’ll try it next with whole wheat. Here’s the recipe.

We had left over salad for dinner last night with fresh green beans and red small potatoes that were steamed. Very good!

Here they are together!

I hope you all try these two dishes, you’re going to really love them. Try them for something different!

Happy, Healthy Eating

Jackie V.

Jackie is resting and doing a good job of keeping her head face down to improve the chances of proper healing of her retina and increase the potential of having less vision loss.

Jackie wanted me to thank everyone for keeping her in your thoughts.

Have a great day.

Ken

We had a great group that gathered, and we had a great discussion about food. They were a very attentive audience and I sure appreciated everyone who was there and also appreciated Peggy asking me to speak and share some foods.

This meeting concentrated on foods from the garden, and everything I made had food from the garden.

I first made a “Sunomono”. It is a very simple to make dish and contains some of my favorite ingredients. You can find the recipe here. Here’s the picture:

Next we had a salad which was based on the “Hallelujah Acres” salad. It is delicious and I don’t think I ever tire of it. You can make so many variations!

This one had romaine lettuce, red and green peppers, green onions, carrots and purple cabbage. I used a fat-free Italian dressing.

We had a wonderful one-dish entreé that was delicious and beautiful, but Ken forgot to take pictures of it while it was cooking and when it was done. I think he got sidetracked talking to people and then he couldn’t wait to eat it! :)

Here’s a picture of the ingredients before I cooked them.

I wish you could have seen it, but you will just have to try it yourself. It is not vegan, but is vegetarian.

In an electric skillet I placed 1 Tablespoon olive oil along with 1 large onion chopped in large pieces. I let the onion cook for about 5 minutes at a pretty high heat. I wanted it to brown, but just lightly. I added the zucchini and yellow squash and asparagus. I used 2 medium sized zucchini, 3 small yellow squash and 1 pound of asparagus in 1 inch pieces. I let these sauté for about 4 minutes, then I put the lid on the electric skillet for about 5 more minutes. I then cut 2 medium tomatoes into wedges and placed these scattered over the top of the vegetables, then used a 12 ounce bag of shredded mozzarella cheese over the top of that. I turned the heat off of the skillet and I put the lid back on and let the cheese melt down through the veggies. Over the top of the cheese I ground some Italian seasoning. It was very, very good. This recipe was courtesy of Peggy Roberson at the New Albany/Floyd County Public Library. I just tweaked it a little bit. Thanks, Peggy!

Last, but definitely not least, I made the Chocolate Beet Cake from Fat Free Vegan. This cake is a great way to get beets into your family and they won’t even know it! See, a sneaky mom! I did tell everyone there, however, that there were beets in the cake! The peanut butter sauce on Susan’s cake looks delicious, but I just used some organic powdered sugar (from the health food store), agave nectar, natural peanut butter, vanilla and rice milk to make mine. I used 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/8 cup agave nectar, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla and enough rice milk to blend. It was very good on this cake. P.S. I also saved some of the beet water and put it in the icing to make it a little pink! Thank you for that idea, Susan V.!

Thanks again to the Cookbook club for inviting me in. I look forward to another meeting!

Happy Healthy Eating

Jackie V

I love asparagus season, I never get tired of eating it. On this day, I was going to make some asparagus soup. I used about 1 1/2 pounds of asparagus, vegetable broth, some earth balance margarine, rice milk and spices.

I overdid it on the veggie broth and rice milk and it was a bit thinner than I thought I would like, so I had to do some quick thinking. I decided to turn this into a “Thai” asparagus soup. Their soups are pretty brothy, so I thought that would work well.

To the above ingredients I added, Thai green curry paste and curry powder. Ken truly loved this soup. We ate the soup along with some low-sodium, no hydrogenated oils crackers and a cup of hot tea. A great, very light soup.

You can find the recipe here.

Make and enjoy!

Happy Healthy Eating,

Jackie V

I just wanted to write and say sorry I haven’t posted for a few days, but I had a retinal tear in my right eye, and it has made it very difficult to focus on the computer screen. I haven’t done very much cooking either! :)

I’ll be back good as new soon, the doctor says I am healing very well. I believe it is no doubt because of the way I eat! So you’ll be seeing new dishes here before long.

Tomorrow I am doing a food demonstration at the New Albany/Floyd County Public Library for a cookbook club, so wish me well!

See you soon,

Happy Healthy Eating

Jackie V