Tomato and Spinach Soup

Tomato-Spinach Soup

This was a completely unexpected and impromptu soup. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m not much into soup since I have so few soup recipes. But this just came together suddenly, since I didn’t even get into to the kitchen until about 8 in the evening. What can I say, I was bored so I started cooking. I had some things I wanted to use up before they go bad and wanted something easy, light, healthy, and packed with nutrients. And since I’m fond of throwing a bunch of stuff in one pot and seeing what develops, I got a really yummy soup that is perfect for this cold and rainy weather. I hope, one of these days we’ll have spring.

Ingredients:
1 (1lb) jar of tomato sauce
2 bell peppers (red and yellow, or whatever you want)
1 large onion
1/2 lb carrots
1/2 cup of brown rice (optional)
1 lb spinach
Water (at least as much as the tomato sauce; I used two times the tomato sauce)
basil
bay leaves (optional; I used a few small ones)
Spices (salt, freshly ground black pepper, cumin, corriander, paprika, Pensey’s Chile Con Carne, Pensey’s Sweet Curry)

Steps:
1. Saute the onion and bell peppers. Season a little bit.
2. Heat the tomato sauce in a pan (I used a 3.5 QT pan). Add water (as much as you used for the tomato sauce. I just used the empty jar of sauce).
3. Add the sauted vegetables and cook a few minutes.
4. Add brown rice, if using and carrots.
5. Add spinach.
6. Add the rest of the water and bay leaves.
7. Add the spices, whichever you are using, and basil.

Tomato Soup ingredients

Tomato soup and veggies

Tomato soup and spinach

Marinated/Pickled Mushrooms

Marinated Mushrooms

I absolutely love pickled things; I think I can live on pickles alone. So I am always looking for good and easy recipes for pickling things. This time, I wanted to experiment with pickling mushrooms. I wanted a recipe that was very easy and very quick and with a very short list of ingredients and steps.
So here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:
2 6.5 OZ package of mushrooms (I used button mushrooms)
1 jar of Zesty Italian Dressing

Steps:
1. Wash the mushrooms (they don’t absorb water and don’t get soggy, don’t worry).
2. Place the mushrooms into a pot full of cold water and bring to a boil.
3. Let boil for a few minutes and drain.
4. Place mushrooms into a clean jar and pour the entire jar of Italian Dressing on top of the mushrooms.
5. Close tightly and let stand for a few days. Make sure all the mushrooms are equally covered, so mix up the contents ever now and again.

I had great tasting mushrooms in a few days.

Leftovers into the pan

I always have too many leftovers and I never know what to do with them.  Today I decided to toss all of them into a pot.  Generally, that’s my typical cooking style (through stuff into a pot and see what happens) unless I’m making a specific dish.  Today I had bits of uncooked pasta, half a large eggplant, and a few other raw ingredients.  Feel free to try this with anything you like.  Here is what I had.

Ingredients:

1/2 of a large eggplant (peeled and diced)
3/4 of a large red onion (diced)
1 14.5 oz. can of tomatoes (whatever you have on hand)
a packet of mushrooms (mine were already sliced)
cheese (whatever you like, to taste)
salt, pepper, parsley, garlic
a handful of spaghetti
liquid (you can use some wine, or stock or water. I used about a cup of chicken stock)

Steps:
1. In a large skillet saute onions, garlic and eggplant together. When the eggplant shrinks a little and the onions are really soft, add the mushrooms.
2. Add stock and cook for a few minutes before adding the can of tomatoes.
3. Season.
4. Add the cooked pasta (cook it in a different pot), parsley, and cheese.

Baked Salmon

I found this recipe on FoodNetwork.com, but it had a few too many extra things, so I paired it down.  Here is my version.

Ingredients:

1 LB of Salmon
Tamari (or low-sodium soy sauce if you can’t find Tamari)
freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

Steps:

1. Rinse the fish and pat it dry.
2. Put fish into oven-safe dish.
3. Pour as much Tamri as you like. I like it quite liberally on the fish. It keeps it moist during cooking, as well as makes a nice sauce for spooning over your side dish (like rice).
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
5. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.
6. Cook for about 15-18 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.
7. Take it out of the oven. If the fish is still too rare for your liking, keep it covered with the foil. It will keep cooking, but won’t dry out.

That’s it. A main dish in 15 minutes. It’s healthy and easy and quick. What could be better?

Salmon with tamari

Baked Salmon

Finished Salmon and Asparagus