I’ve been eating lots of crap lately. Lots of meat and lots of baked sweets. A couple of weeks ago,  bought lentils. I saw a recipe for lentil soup and quickly forgot all about it. This morning I decided that today was the day I was going to make the soup. I usually only make soups on the weekends because they take a while (well at least the ones I make) to cook. Not this. Somehow, I had all the ingredients needed so a stop at the store wasn’t even required!

When reading the recipe, I kept looking for the step where I’m supposed to soak the lentils for a period of time. When I realize that I didn’t have to, I was overjoyed. This soup was going to be easy to cook. I was right. All you do is dump a bunch of veggies in a pot with a bit of olive oil, brown them, add the chicken broth, tomatoes, and lentils and let it simmer. It can’t get any easier than that!

The end result is a flavorful, filling, and uber healthy soup. If you want to add meat, you can first boil some (already cooked) smoked turkey, sausage, ham, I usually use ham hocks (here’s a good recipe)….or even bacon! The picture, as usual, isn’t fancy but don’t let that deter you. The soup was delicious!

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French Lentil Soup
(Recipe from Epicurious)

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons extra–virgin olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped celery stalks plus chopped celery leaves for garnish
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 4 cups (or more) vegetable broth
• 1 1/4 cups lentils, rinsed, drained
• 1 14 1/2–ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
• Balsamic vinegar (optional) (I didn’t add it)

Directions:

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium–high heat. Add onions, celery, carrots, and garlic; sauté until vegetables begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Add 4 cups broth, lentils, and tomatoes with juice and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium–low, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 35 minutes.

Transfer 2 cups soup (mostly solids) to blender and puree until smooth. Return puree to soup in pan; thin soup with more broth by 1/4 cupfuls, if too thick. Season with salt, pepper, and a splash of vinegar, if desired. Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with celery leaves.

New Year, New You. Right? Well, Andy and I vowed that we’re going to eat a lot more seafood at home. We used to eat salmon once or twice a month and then just sort of grew out of love. I was never crazy about cooked salmon, but I’m hoping to change that soon. My goal is to find lots of great recipes for different fish and seafood.

This recipe was a spur of the moment type of find. I have no idea how I even found. But I’m really glad I did. This recipe is really easy, has a small list of ingredients, quick to make, and extremely delicious.

Crunchy Wasabi Salmon with Lime
(recipe from epicurious)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup wasabi peas (about 3 ounces)
4 (8-ounce) salmon fillets with skin (each about 1 inch to 1 1/4 inches thick)
1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 cups thinly sliced red cabbage (about 1/2 large head)

1 (8-ounce) package trimmed sugar snap peas
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Lime wedges

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Blend wasabi peas in processor until ground but with some coarsely crushed pieces. Lightly oil rimmed baking sheet. Arrange salmon fillets, skin side down, on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle fish with salt. Press ground wasabi peas onto tops of salmon fillets to adhere, covering tops completely. Sprinkle grated lime peel over salmon; drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil. Roast salmon just until opaque in center, about 10 minutes. (I cooked my salmon for a 3 or so minutes longer).

Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add cabbage and sugar snap peas; sauté until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Transfer 1 salmon fillet to each of 4 plates. Drizzle with lime juice. Mound cabbage-snap pea mixture alongside. Garnish with lime wedges and serve.

Friday night I roasted a chicken. It’s my fall-back, easy, warm meal. On Thursday night I bought a chicken just for this occasion and completely forgot to pick up any veggies to roast. You see, I like to roast veggies with my chicken. I usually throw in onions, a bit of garlic, potatoes, carrots, and whatever else I’m craving at the moment. Fortunately, I had one sweet potato laying around and some regular potatoes (from Thanksgiving time), plus I always have onions and garlic, so the combination was perfect.

Now, I found a recipe to roast a chicken that is foolproof. Half-way through the roasting, I turn the chicken over to make sure it gets crispy on all sides. I have done this 4 or 5 times in the last 3 months and the process has yet to let me down.

So what do you need? A chicken. Time. A meat thermometer. An oven. Salt & Pepper. That’s it.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients:

• One 2- to 3-pound farm-raised chicken
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons minced thyme (optional)

• Unsalted butter
• Dijon mustard

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Rinse the chicken, then dry it very well with paper towels, inside and out. The less it steams, the drier the heat, the better.

Salt and pepper the cavity, then truss the bird. Trussing is not difficult, and if you roast chicken often, it’s a good technique to feel comfortable with. When you truss a bird, the wings and legs stay close to the body; the ends of the drumsticks cover the top of the breast and keep it from drying out. Trussing helps the chicken to cook evenly, and it also makes for a more beautiful roasted bird.

Now, salt the chicken—I like to rain the salt over the bird so that it has a nice uniform coating that will result in a crisp, salty, flavorful skin (about 1 tablespoon). When it’s cooked, you should still be able to make out the salt baked onto the crisp skin. Season to taste with pepper.

Place the chicken in a sauté pan or roasting pan and, when the oven is up to temperature, put the chicken in the oven. I leave it alone—I don’t baste it, I don’t add butter; you can if you wish, but I feel this creates steam, which I don’t want.

(Halfway through, I turn the chicken over. The original recipe doesn’t call for this).

Roast it until it’s done, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove it from the oven and add the thyme, if using, to the pan. Baste the chicken with the juices and thyme and let it rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board.

Remove the twine. Separate the middle wing joint and eat that immediately. Remove the legs and thighs. I like to take off the backbone and eat one of the oysters, the two succulent morsels of meat embedded here, and give the other to the person I’m cooking with. But I take the chicken butt for myself. I could never understand why my brothers always fought over that triangular tip—until one day I got the crispy, juicy fat myself. These are the cook’s rewards. Cut the breast down the middle and serve it on the bone, with one wing joint still attached to each. The preparation is not meant to be superelegant. Slather the meat with fresh butter. Serve with mustard on the side and, if you wish, a simple green salad. You’ll start using a knife and fork, but finish with your fingers, because it’s so good.

I was so busy at work that I didn’t even realize that I had to plan for dinner until about an hour before it was time to leave. I sent Andy an email with three options with quesadillas and the sides as one of the options (duh).

I have never cooked tomatillos and, honestly, I didn’t even realize that salsa verde (green salsa) was made with tomatillos. I just always assumed that it was made with green tomatoes. Boy, was I wrong! I recently started watching Rick Bayless’ “One Plate at a Time” and really like how simple and easy his cooking appears to be. So, when I was looking for a recipe for salsa verde, I went straight to the source.

In the end, I actually used two recipes (sorry Rick). The recipe below is for what I did, but I will also include the links to the two recipes I referenced.

Since I was going to attempt to make an authentic Mexican meal, I decided to make the quesadillas with Chihuahua cheese. Once again, this was a first for me. I actually emailed a couple of Mexican ladies (that I see everyday on the train) to ask for their opinion and advice.

Whenever we make guacamole, we have chips. Not store bought chips. Semi-Home made chips. It’s so incredibly easy, you don’t even know. They’re (nearly) fat free, crunchy, fresh, salty, and delicious. The recipe (if you can call that) is below.

Tomatillo Salsa Verde

Ingredients:
4 small/medium Tomatillos
1/2 of a small red onion
1 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, removed from the canning sauce, seeded and finely chopped
juice from 1/2 a (small) lime
some cilantro (to taste)
Salt to taste

Directions

Cut the tomatillos in 1/2 and and set, face down, on a non-stick skillet over medium heat. When they are browned, 3-4 minutes, flip and brown the other side. While the tomatillos are cooking, chop the onion and the chile. When the tomatillos are done, cut them in smaller pieces and combine the chiles, onion, and tomatillos in a food processor. Pulse until all the ingredients are finely chopped and mixed.  Season with salt and cool in the fridge. 

Rick Bayless’ Recipe
Simply Recipes’ Recipe

“Home-Made” Corn Chips

Ingredients:
Corn Tortillas (1 small tortilla makes 4 large chips)
Olive Oil Spray 
Coarse Salt

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450. While the oven is preheating, cut the tortillas into 4ths (for small tortillas). Spread the chips on a cookie sheet or baking pan. Spray the chips with olive oil spray and then sprinkle with lots of salt. Bake the chips for 10 minutes or so. Check the chips every few minutes because they can burn fairly quickly. That’s it! Simple, quick, and super tasty.

I really really didn’t plan tonight’s dinner. Andy offered to pick up food on his way home and, honestly, I felt so tempted to agree. I really didn’t have energy to cook or any idea of what I wanted to make. So I suggested the first thing that came to my mind – pasta. So pasta I made!

Once I got home, I looked through my fridge and kind of freaked out. I had no tomatoes, no sauce, no idea what to make with the pasta. I found some scallions that were close to being extremely gross and found a recipe for scallion sauce online. The only requirement was that the sauce had to be quick and easy. It was. I used angel hair pasta that cooked incredibly fast and the whole meal took less than 30 minutes to make. Lovely. I added some other veggies to the pasta and Andy added some sliced chicken sausage to his.

(forewarning – I barely followed the recipe and used it primarily as a guide)

Spaghetti with Scallion Sauce
(epicurious)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb pasta of your choice
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 4 cups chopped scallions (from 4 bunches)
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped*
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 oz finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1/2 cup)

*I found this a tiny bit bland. I recommend adding a lot more garlic and, maybe, some heat (?)

Directions:

Cook spaghetti in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until al dente.

While pasta cooks, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook scallions and garlic, stirring occasionally, until scallions are softened and garlic begins to turn golden, about 5 minutes.

Transfer scallion mixture to a blender and add zest, salt, pepper, remaining olive oil, and 1/2 cup pasta-cooking water, then purée until smooth. (Use caution when blending hot liquids.)

Drain pasta in a colander and return to pot.

Toss pasta with scallion purée, cheese, and salt and pepper to taste over moderate heat until pasta is well coated.

I’ve been feeling a bit tired of eating meat every night and couldn’t figure out what to make for dinner. I’ve been wanting to make my own jam for a while, so when I found this recipe for the pancakes, I knew it was fate.

Both are fairly simple to make and don’t really require any fancy ingredients. To me, these can easily replace a dessert, especially if you add a tad bit more cinnamon and some apples. I’m going to So here we go -

Cinnamon Polenta Pancakes:
(Food & Wine Magazine)

Ingredients:
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

1. In one bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt)
2. In a separate bowl, combine & wisk all the wet ingredients (buttermilk, eggs, olive oil, and water)
3. Whisk the liquid ingredients in with the dry ingredients. If you have some small lumps, it’s ok.
4. Set a griddle or skillet over medium high heat and spray it with vegetable oil spray. When the pan is hot, spoon in 1/4-cup of batter and spread it to form 4” rounds. Cook the pancakes until the bottoms are browned and bubbles appear on the surface, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook until browned on the bottom, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Serve pancakes warm.

Cranberry Jam:
(Gourmet)

Ingredients:

• 1 (12-oz) bag fresh or frozen cranberries (not thawed; 3 1/2 cups)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 1 cup water

Directions:

• Bring all ingredients to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes (jam will continue to thicken as it cools).
• Force jam through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding skins and seeds. Cool, stirring occasionally.

COOKS’ NOTE: Jam can be made 4 days ahead and chilled, covered

So I ended up adding a little meat to my meal, who can resist bacon? I found a center-cut bacon that is fairly comparable to the turkey bacon we usually get but doesn’t have as many chemicals.

Tonight, I made granola. My favorite thing to eat for breakfast is granola with yogurt. I always use store-bought granola to add to my vanilla yogurt but today, I decided to make my own.

I saw this recipe a long time ago and bookmarked for future use. Today, while looking for recipes for tomorrow’s dinner, I stumbled upon the recipe (once again).

This is incredibly easy to make and fairly quick. You can constantly change-up the ingredients and flavors.

Confession – I left it in the oven a minute or two too long and it got a little burnt. I didn’t really mind it, but when I make this again I will watch it more carefully. Also, halfway through eating it, I realized that I completely forgot the add the dried cherries. Again, I didn’t mind it at all. Tomorrow’s breakfast will be incredibly delicious.

Ingredients:

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut*

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup sliced almonds (1 oz)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup green (hulled) pumpkin seeds, sometimes called pepitas (1 1/2 oz; not roasted)
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup mild honey
Pinch cinnamon
Pinch salt (flaky sea salt is wonderful in here)
1 cup tart dried cherries

1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup dried pears (1/4 inch dice)
1/2 cup diced dried apricots (1/4 inch dice)
1/3 cup golden raisins
- or -
2 3/4 cups mixed dried fruit of your choice (I used pears, apricots, strawberries, cherries and cranberries)

Directions:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F. Stir together all ingredients except the fruit in a large bowl until combined. Spread mixture evenly on a large (17-by 12-inch) shallow baking pan lined with parchment paper and bake, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes, but checking every five minutes after the 15-minute mark because it burns quickly.** Transfer granola, in pan, to rack to cool stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes.

Stir in dried fruit.

Granola keeps, frozen (the fruit’s moisture softens granola if not kept frozen) in an airtight container, a few months.

Last month, I discovered the sweet potato. Yes. Before then, I have never cooked a sweet potato. The only time I ate it was at my inlaws’ house on Thanksgiving. Finally, I got enough courage to make something with sweet potatoes. This salad was my first real dish and it turned out amazing. I since gave the recipe to a co-worker who said the same thing. Amazing.

Ingredients:
4 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large onion, preferably red, chopped 
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons minced fresh hot chili, like jalapeño
1 clove garlic, peeled
Juice of 2 limes
2 cups cooked black beans, drained (canned are fine)
1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro.

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put sweet potatoes and onions on a large baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil, toss to coat and spread out in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast, turning occasionally, until potatoes begin to brown on corners and are just tender inside, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven; keep on pan until ready to mix with dressing.

2. Put chilies in a blender or mini food processor along with garlic, lime juice, remaining olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Process until blended.

3. Put warm vegetables in a large bowl with beans and bell pepper; toss with dressing and cilantro. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve warm or at room temperature, or refrigerate for up to a day.

Yield: 4 servings

(Source of Recipe)