Lentil Soup, Nachos, and Thrifty Finds

I tried out a recipe from the More with Less Cookbook (Mennonite) – Middle Eastern Lentil Soup. I made it with red lentils and it came out good. However, it didn’t remind me of any Middle Eastern Lentil Soup I’ve had before flavor-wise. I had my pepper mill set to coarse-grind, hence the large black specs you can see. DOH!

I think it’s neat that a lot of the things discussed in the More with Less Cookbook are still relevant issues today….like overeating processed foods and overspending on your grocery bill. I would say I’m getting my monies worth out of this book but this was one of the free cookbooks I got. LOL

And here’s a repeat – vegan “nachos” but this time I used my non-eco-friendly nacho trays. The cheeze is Melty White Cheeze from The Ultimate Uncheeze Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak. It was a very tasty snack.

I am really excited about this estate sale find…a vintage tri-bowl serving set with 2 matching spoons/ladles. I apologize for the blurry photo. It’s really gorgeous in person and has a slight deco feel to it. I managed to snag this on a 50% off day and it was only $2.50. Yippppeee! CHEAP!!!

Hope everyone has a lovely day.

Rice Salad with Lemon, Dill, and Red Onion WCC #14

Here’s my entry for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge #14. The theme is salad and I chose a Martha Stewart recipe from my Martha Stewart Living Annual Recipes 2003 cookbook. Luckily I can save myself some typing because the recipe is posted HERE.

This salad is a great side dish and I especially like it served with marinated grilled tofu or vegetable kabobs. I usually reduce the lemon juice by about a tablespoon and use about 1/4 less zest to keep this salad from being overly lemon-y. I also was excited this salad uses fresh dill because I was able to pick it from my Chia Herb Garden. The recipe is really simple to make and I like how the red onions are quickly “marinated.” This salad is best served warm.

Marinated Lentil Salad and Thrifty Finds

I made the Marinated Lentil Salad from Ecological Cooking by Jo Stepaniak & Kathy Hecker. It was pretty simple to make and Rob said it was delicious. The dressing for the salad has dijon mustard in it, which I will only occasionally tolerate (I am not a fan of mustard, he loves all types of mustards). I was in a picky-food mood so I didn’t try it but I’m blogging about it anyway since I made it and Rob enjoyed it. He took it for lunch for two days.

The salad is a mixture of lentils, carrots, red onion, and parsley marinated in a dressing for a few hours:

And while we’re on the topic of salad, I just wanted to remind everyone that Salad is the theme for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge #14. The lentil salad isn’t my entry but I’ll be posting my entry this weekend Be sure to check back! If you’d like to participate, there’s still time. You have until March 5, 2007.

I recently found a wonderful old cookbook for only $1.50! It’s the 1942 edition of the The Victory Binding of the American Woman’s Cookbook – Wartime Edition. The cookbook was edited and revised by the director of the Culinary Arts Institute – Ruth Berolzheimer. The book is even dedicated to General Douglas MacArthur.

There are over 800 pages of recipes, menu plans, fun facts about food, and of course a section on wartime cookery! I’m going to have so much fun picking out recipes to try from this and all of my other recent cookbook acquisitions. I’ll be sure to post about anything I make from this cookbook…most likley I’ll start off with a dessert recipe.

There’s even some full color pictures in the book like this one from the inside cover:

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I also want to mention a shameless plug for A Car Blog from Chicagoland…Rob decided to start a blog

Magical Avocado, Black Bean Dip, and Super H Mart

Magical Avocado. All I can say is YUM! Thanks to Bazu for cluing us all into this delicious snack. I had to change it slightly based on my ingredients on hand…I used gomashio, tore off pieces of nori from a nori sheet, and dotted the avocado with prepared wasabi. Rob loved this as well and told me to make a magical avocado anytime. Thanks again Bazu!!!

We also tried the Smokey Black Bean Dip from Sara’s blog – I Like to Cook. I ended up picking out a really, REALLY strong red onion at the store so that kind of threw off the taste a bit. Other than that it was delicious. I am definitely going to make this again…hopefully I’ll get a less intense red onion next time The recipe was also a cinch to prepare and makes for a great snack.

We finally made it over to Super H Mart in Niles, IL. It was relatively easy to find coming from the NW suburbs. The store was huge! We had a great time exploring the store and I found a few different brands of tofu to try. They had some excellent prices on fresh herbs too. A friendly shopper told us to take our receipt to this table they had set up past the checkout lanes. They give you free stuff based on how much you spent. We got a bowl of microwavable rice (Rob said he’s going to try it out at work as we don’t own a microwave, never have) and a “beef flavored” noodle bowl that is actually vegan and made with TVP. Yay! Free Stuff! Super H Mart rocks!!!

Meaty Mushroom Sauce, Thrifty Finds, and Elk Pics

I tried the “Spaghetti with Meaty Mushroom Sauce” recipe from Vegan Vittles by Jo Stepaniak. It turned out really good and we’ll be making it again. I didn’t have any spaghetti so I had to make it with rigatoni. The sauce also has TVP in it which gives it some “chew”, just like the cookbook said.

I also made some garlic bread to go with the pasta:

Here are the rest of the books that I got for free after coupon at an estate sale the other week. Actually, there is one more book…a local community cookbook that I forgot to include in the picture. The Cooking for Two Cookbook is from 1976, the Mushroom Recipes book is from the early 80’s, and the Family Circle Dessert and Fruit Cookbook is from 1954. I got seven FREE books altogether. Can’t beat that.

We also stopped by a forest preserve and went to the fenced-in Elk Conservation Area. We got to see eight elk which was really neat.

More Elk:

Have a wonderful day