Mmmmm Minestrone Soup

Now that fall is officially here I can start making tons of yummy soups which coincidentally blends in well with becoming my bizarre hybrid vegan/vegetarian. Basically I can't give up a few key staples - namely eggs, yogurt (but only yogurt all other dairy is out), and honey. Husband gave up all animal products. So I may occasionally lie and say there's not eggs in a few key recipes, like the pumpkin bread I'll be making/posting in a few days....it's important to have a few secrets in marriage. At least that's how I make myself feel better.


Onto the topic at hand - minestrone soup. I am so happy with how it turned out. After my last disaster of a dinner, I admit, I was worried this cookbook was going to be a bust. First a picture of the yumminess.

I should point out this recipe was adapted from one found in the book 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes by Sue Spitler with Linda Yoakam R.D, M.S., fourth edition, page 96 Summer Minestrone. If you feel like looking it up to see what I changed.

Ingredients
4 medium sized red potatoes, cubed
4 carrots, sliced
1 medium sized zucchini, chopped
Apprx. 1 cup green beans, halved
Apprx. 1 cup sliced onion
1 stalk sliced celery
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp dried oregano
4 cups vegetable stock/broth
1 can 15oz rinsed, drained kidney beans
1 can 15 oz no-salt stewed tomatoes
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups uncooked pasta
1/2 tsp pepper

Recipe
Saute vegetables in lightly greased, stockpot about 10-15 mins.
Stir in italian seasoning and oregano; cook another minute or two
Add stock, beans, tomatoes and water. Heat to boiling
Reduce heat and cover, simmer about 10 mins
Add pasta, return to boiling
Reduce heat and simmer approx. 10 mins until pasta is tender
Stir in pepper and enjoy!

The original recipe calls for a sprinkle of Parmesan or Romano cheese on the servings which would be yummy for those non-vegans.

Next time I make it I plan to cut the potatoes smaller, more bite-sized, and add more beans and probably more zucchini because I love zucchini.

It's Official

I hate rosemary, well, at least on food, in soaps it's not so bad.

I made a huge dinner thinking I could save some for lunches, etc. Yea - it's disgusting. This post was supposed to be about that recipe. Not now. Sigh. I have tried time and again different recipes involving rosemary and I always hate the flavor so I am definitely NOT using it any more. Truly I don't know why I've tried it so many times.

There are people who hate cilantro, and I don't understand it.  I guess I'm one of those people that hate rosemary. Oh well. I rarely make food I hate because I can usually read a recipe and tell if I'll like it. Apparently I like to delude myself into thinking something that sounds ok could be great.

The worst part is I wasted a lot of food on this dinner that I can't eat. And now I don't have anything to eat for dinner. Guess I'll just eat a bowl of cereal and call it a night.

Pity party, your table for one is ready.

NEW FAVORITE WORD!!!

I love this word and NEED to use it in a sentence: Brobdingnagian \brob-ding-NAG-ee-uhn\, adjective:
Of extraordinary size; gigantic; enormous.

All I can think of is a conversation like this:

"Look at that brobdingnagian thing!" exclaims person 1.
"That's what she said" replies person 2.
Person 3 laughs.

I love my word of the day emails from dictionary.com - these occasional gems make it worthwhile.

Just a dog

I got this in an email and wanted to share it.

So much for the fierce guard dog

So my dog - the fierceness of his bark is second to none - however he is timid. In our daily walks we've come across very scary things: like a bucket, a baby (seriously), sprinklers, and today's frightening encounter - a tiny decorative scarecrow. Now granted, the word scare is part of the name, but the one we saw today was far from scary. It was about 6" tall.

So as we walked along he started slowing down in fear, I could see nothing. Then he hid behind me. And as we passed the abhorrent item he sped up - you know - to get away as quickly as possible.

Lord help me if  I ever NEED his help.

We have to stop watching documentaries

Every time my husband watches a documentary on something food related he wants to change our diet - drastically. Last fall we went vegetarian after he watched Food, Inc.

Hopefully you see where this is going....but just in case, we are doing vegetarian again. And borderline vegan because he also wants to cut out dairy and we won't be enjoying fish like last time. So hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more vegetarian recipes.

So the next week will be spent eating meat/cheese to rid our fridge of the non-vegan stuff. Wish us luck on our journey!