Vegan Green Lentil Soup

Sorry... no picture for this one. I actually took a photo (or thought I did) but ended up not having the memory card in the camera... hehehe Somedays I don't know where my brain is!

Anyway, in my detoxing that I was doing, I was allowed lentils and I LOVE the lentil soup that they make here in Turkey. I searched online to find a recipe that would be similar and contain no meat or meat products. I found a recipe but needed to tweak it a little and here is what came out:


2 tsp olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onions
3 cloves of minced garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
8 cups water
1 1/4 cups dried green lentils
salt and pepper to taste

First take the onions and garlic and sauté them in the olive oil until the onions are translucent. Then add the rest of the ingredients and bring them to a boil. Once you have them boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer and cook until your lentils are completely soft. Then turn it off and let it cool before putting it in a blender and pureeing. Reheat to the temperature that you like your soup at. It's a great soup!!

I didn't have a blender so I elected to eat it chunky style and it was still tasty and I thought it would be amazing over brown rice!!

Happy Eating!

SPRING!!!

When I lived in Oman, a woman from Jordan introduced me to this little spring jewel and I am thrilled to be back in a part of the world that sells, enjoys and loves them! They are the green, spring almond. It's an almond before it reaches maturity. It's crunchy, tangy and just plain good!! The green fuzzy part is what becomes the shell given time to ripen and harden. The inside is what will become the almond nut itself. Anyway, they come just once a year and are a treat! Soak them in a little salted water before eating, or simply crunch away while dipping in a little sea salt. Up to you!!

Call For Recipes

Hi Foodie Friends!!! I've recently gone to the doctor for something that I think is unrelated to my weight but my doctor wants to put all the blame on my weight... so I'm happy to comply and lose the weight (I'm sure that it's not the cause of the issue, but I am also sure it's not helping things). Here are the parameters I must function within from now on (some are fairly easy for me since I don't partake in them often):

• no salt (at all)
• no sugar (at all, this includes fruit juices)
• no oil (as little as possible)
• no bread (guess what? It has salt!!)
• no fast food (easy... I don't have that often anyway)
• no cheese (this is like murder for me... if you remember, I had a post about melted cheese alone!!!)
  

Here's where you come in... please leave me links to good recipes or even some recipes you know and have that I could use in my comment box. After my Spring Break I had planned to follow a detox program and I have a few recipes with that, but I am going to need more... especially considering that I can't get all ingredients readily here.

Help me get back to happy eating, my friends!!

Turkish Coleslaw

I am not the biggest fan of coleslaws usually, but there is one that they make us for lunch here that I have fallen in love with. So I asked my friend, Nilay, to tell me what's in it and she did. Let me share it with you!!!

You will need:

1 large white cabbage (chopped or shredded)
3 lemons
2/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp salt
2tbsp crushed red chilies
4 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp freshly chopped mint.

Chop up the cabbage, and then squeeze the lemon juice over them. Reserve a little for the dressing.

Mix the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl and then pour it over the cabbage and toss it all together... and that's it! Super easy, super tasty and fresh!!


Happy Eating!!

Eggs... IN OATMEAL!?!?!?!

Yes... and it's GREAT! I like having something hearty like oatmeal to start my day but I need protein or I am just hungry in an hour. You'd think oatmeal would hold me... but it doesn't. So I went looking online and this is what I found:

This is for a single serving so adjust as you need for your family.

1/2 cup oatmeal, uncooked
1 cup of water (you could cream it up with milk instead if you like)
1 egg
1 small pat of butter
sugar, cinnamon, fruits or whatever you like to add more flavour (I used dried cranberries, a little cinnamon and about 1 tbsp white sugar)



Bring the water to a boil, add the oatmeal and bring it back to a boil while stirring... add the butter and egg at this time.




Keep stirring so that it keeps a creamy consistency. It won't be as stiff as regular oatmeal, but it is tasty. At the end, throw in your fruits if you are using dried fruits. If not, plate it up and add your sweeteners and spices.

HAPPY EATING!!

Mmmm.... chicken!

I don't buy meat often for my house because it's just me, it's expensive and I really enjoy vegetarian meals throughout the week. It makes meat a special treat when I go out to eat. However, I had some chicken legs leftover from the soup and I decided to give it a go.



Here is what you need:

skinless chicken legs (2 per person)
Rice (measure to the portion of people you are serving)
2 or 3 fresh tomatoes, chopped
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 can of diced tomatoes
red or green bell peppers
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp rosemary


Begin by sautéing the chicken with a little olive oil and the garlic.




Once it begins to brown, add some water and the rest of the ingredients, cover and let cook. Talk about an easy, 1 pot dish that is tasty!!



HAPPY EATING!

Spicy Chicken Soup

So... I'm not really a soup person but this country and my friend Jordan are slowly changing my mind. In Turkey, soup is an important part of most meals and Jordan makes pretty much the best homemade soup I've ever eaten. So I thought I'd try my hand at this art... and it's as much art as science as far as I can tell. I'll give you my ingredients and in brackets I'll give some alternatives that I would have used if I was in Canada or the US.

Ingredients:

Chicken carcass or 5 chicken legs, I used skinless ones
Spicy Sucuk (I'd use chorizo sausage if I was home), chopped
3 carrots peeled and chopped
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
10 mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
1 can of corn
2 purple onions, chopped and divided
1 chicken bouillon for flavour
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 litres of water
salt and pepper to taste.
1 HUGE soup pot



I started by sautéing the the chicken legs, garlic, sausage or sucuk and half the onions with a little olive oil. Once the chicken was nicely browned and the onions were translucent, I added the water, bouillon, veggies and spices. Stir, bring to a boil and then let simmer for a couple of hours. Then I pulled my chicken legs out, pulled the meat off and put it all back into the pot to cook some more. Finally, I added some noodles and brought it back to a boil for about 20 minutes. I think the noodles were a mistake or I need to learn how to do that better... they were mushy! hahaha Or I'd add rice next time.






HAPPY EATING!