A Tale of Three Recipes

The weeks of summer are flying and the pounds are still coming off - slowly but surely.  This week I lost 0.8 pounds!  That brings my total weight loss to 62.8 pounds - 17.2 pounds away from my October goal!  My goal this week is to move my butt more and sit on it less.  The heat has a way of sneaking up on me and giving me a lame excuse to stay inside and "relax." Time to get back to gettin' serious!


I went crazy this week in the kitchen and tested out some new recipes.  I am so excited to share all three with you guys!  I hope you and your family enjoy them as much as we did!


This first dish is something I have been thinking about attempting for a while now.  I realized the other day that my family knows very little about food from other countries.  We have the occasional spaghetti or lasagna or burritos...but I am talking more exotic than that.  I am intrigued by the spices that are used in Indian cooking.  The smells and flavors are so powerful.  When I cooked this dish the other day it was so inviting and had such warmth and comfort to it!  Needless to say - I LOVED it!  This recipe is a hodge podge from about 4 different recipes I found online.  Here goes:


Chickpea Curry


2T olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves (or 4...haha) garlic, minced
1 can fire-roasted tomatoes (14.5 oz)
1 tsp. ground ginger (if you have fresh use it...and double the amount)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. cayenne pepper (I added less so that the kids could eat it)
1 1/2 tsp. curry powder
salt to taste
2 cans (15 oz) garbanzo beans/chickpeas (with liquid)
1/4 c. coconut milk (in the can)
3T fresh cilantro (optional - add 2T to the dish and use the other T for garnish)


Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Cook onions until tender.  Add tomatoes, garlic, and all dry spices.  Cook over medium heat until fragrant and bubbly.  Add garbanzo beans and their liquid (I drained the second can slightly b/c I added the coconut milk) and coconut milk.  Continue to cook until heated through.  Stir in 2T of the cilantro and take off of heat.  Serve over basmati rice and garnish with cilantro.  I think that traditionally it would be served with naan bread, but I didn't have any.  I will have to locate a recipe for it!  I figured up the points to be 5 points per 2 cup serving and then the rice would be extra.


This next dish is one I threw together using inspiration from a recipe I found in my Parenting magazine.  It was a huge hit as well and took no time to put together!


Lemony Pasta with Sugar Snap Peas, Feta, and Sausage


1/2 box Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Penne Pasta
1 bag Steamfresh (Bird's Eye) Sugar Snap Peas
2T olive oil
1T Earth Balance butter (or regular butter)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used more)
zest of 1 lemon
1T lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 package Morningstar Farms Italian Sausage links, crumbled
feta cheese (about 2-3T per person)


Cook pasta according to package instructions.  Put the snow peas in the microwave and cook according to package directions.  See how easy this is??  ;)  Cook MSF Italian Sausage in a large covered skillet for 8-10 minutes or until heated through.  Remove from pan and let cool slightly.  Drain pasta.  Heat the oil and butter over medium heat.  Add the garlic and lemon zest and saute 1 minute.  Stir in lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Add the pasta and peas and toss to combine.  Pretend you are going to slice the "sausage" and oops it crumbles.  Oh well...it's even better crumbled.  Portion out the pasta and peas, top with feta cheese and sausage.  My husband ate 2 huge helpings and sang my praises all night.  Hopefully yours will too!  PS...you can obviously use real sausage here in place of the MSF sausage, but the fake stuff is REALLY good!  Also, the original recipe calls for mint (2T) and red pepper flakes to be added at the end.  If you try it...let me know how it goes!


Finally, I have a soup recipe for you...again this was very yummy and the two key ingredients are chiles in adobo (found in the Mexican foods section in a can) and dill.  Please don't make this recipe without them...trust me!  This recipe is from a blog I love called Little House of Veggies.  She has so many amazing looking recipes that I am dying to try (and she is just plain gorgeous)!  In fact, the one on there right now is a key lime pie knock-off that looks heavenly!  Again, I slightly adapted the recipe for what I had the other night (I can't ever just leave a recipe alone), but followed it pretty closely:


"Cheesy" Chipotle Corn Chowder


2T olive oil
3 carrots, peeled and diced
3 ribs of celery, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
5 ears of corn, cut fresh from the cob, or about 4-5 cups frozen corn
2 32-ounce boxes of vegetable stock (use 1 1/2)
3/4 lb. of small baby yellow potatoes, or a few larger potatoes, cubed
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce ( I think you could get away with 2)
3 vegetable bouillon cubes or 3 tsp. vegetable soup base (in a a jar)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
Veggie Shreds Monterey-Jack flavor
fresh dill for garnish
crushed tortilla chips for garnish


Heat a large soup pot over medium heat.  Add the olive oil, carrots, celery, onions, garlic and corn and saute for about 5 minutes, until the veggies become slightly tender.  Add 1 32 oz box of veggie stock plus 1/2 of the other box.  Add diced potatoes, bay leaf, chipotle pepper, and all seasonings.  Bring to a boil, then cover and turn down the heat.  Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.  Remove the bay leaf from the soup.  Top soup with "cheese," dill, and tortilla chips.  She made a "cheesy" sauce using cashews and it sounded yummy, but I didn't have everything to make it so I cheated and used the Veggie Shreds.  You can check out the original recipe here.


I hope you all have a splendid week!  I am planning a cowboy party for my oldest son...he will be two at the end of the month!  :(