Today's red lentil and tomato soup

Had to quickly come up with a soup to share with a friend's family who could use a hand right now. So I ended up making this soup, it was so yummy! I ate 2 bowls of it for lunch.




Red Lentil and Tomato Soup
makes approximately 16 servings

1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
1 large red pepper
olive oil
500g red lentils
1 large can tomato paste (580g, 28-30 Bx)
water
salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes



Dice the vegetables and saute in olive oil in your (large) soup pot . When beginning to carmelize, add rinsed lentils and lots of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes, until the lentils start to break apart. Add tomato paste, more water, and seasonings to taste. Bring back to a boil, then simmer for another 10 min.
Serve piping hot. It's perfect with a nice crusty bread!

Tuesday Night, March 8, 2011

I'm so tired; one of my kids has a cold that is not going away on its own. I'm starting to get concerned... and it's wearing her out and wearing me out. We are not sleeping so well at night!

So, even though it feels like spring, we're still eating soup!

Here's my plan for Tuesday night:

Vegetable Soup (with extra garlic to help get rid of that cold)

Chick Pea & Tomato Salad - don't forget to soak the chickpeas overnight before cooking them! Combine cooked chick peas with diced tomatoes, olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper. (it really is worthwhile cooking the chick peas from scratch - the frozen and canned varieties cost so much more per kilo! and the cans may have BPA in them, so best to avoid them altogether...) I was considering making this a chick pea and roasted tomato salad... any idea how that would taste?

Cut Veggies (we have cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and celery)

Baked Ziti or other pasta (something without tomato sauce for the picky kids!)


Banana Bread - I bought too many bananas and now we MUST find a way to use them!

We're definitely working our way through the pantry and freezer stuff. How about you?

Tuesday Night (Feb. 8, 2011)

I'm a little under the weather, but I still need to run my household. I hung out a couple of loads of laundry today, even though it's raining (I put the drying racks in the covered part of my mirpeset). (I have no dryer)
I didn't think of putting on a coat for that task... I'm cold.

If you have great warming foods to serve, please tell me! I could use some creative and different ideas.

My kids are wondering why I've been serving soup so often lately. Don't they notice it warms them AND fills them?

Here's tonight's menu:

Minestrone Soup
Cheesy Baked Cauliflower
Rice
Roasted Beets
Tomato and Chick Pea Salad

Some notes about this menu:

Minestrone Soup is very forgiving - you can really use all sorts of veggies in it!

I'm experimenting with the cheesy baked cauliflower. I bought a whole lot of cauliflower  for 1.99 NIS/kilo. Now I hope I have the energy to clean and check it... I know cheese is not the most frugal food, but you can stretch it pretty far with enough ingenuity.

I will make oven-baked rice, since I'm roasting beets also, and I'll probably bake something else since the oven will be on already. Date bread? Chocolate Cake? Cookies?

I cooked a lot of chick peas the other day, and now we need to be sure to eat them... so we're having a salad repeat. Especially since tomatoes were 1.99 NIS/kilo...

Let me know what you're making for supper!

Monday Night, Feb. 7, 2011

I ended up going out shopping on Sunday afternoon, only to be very disappointed with what I found. I went to Kimat Chinam, where for the past few weeks I have found amazing produce deals, and for the past few months in general  has had very good produce pricing... only to discover that they raised all their produce prices (cucumbers for over 5 NIS/kilo, for example)! So, I left and went to Mega, since I noticed an ad the other day about some low produce prices.

At Mega I found a bunch of produce, so I bought according to the sales. Once again, we have lots of cauliflower. I'll have to get creative with cauliflower! (I also found tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and red peppers for decent prices)

Let me know if you are finding stores with good produce sales! (The shuk here in Teverya isn't really less expensive than the supermarkets, only perhaps right before closing, but that timing doesn't work out for me right now...)

Tonight's menu is a bit different. We like to mix things up every once in a while....

Breakfast for Supper!

Omelets
Cut Veggies - carrots, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes -  with avocado dip
Hash Browns
Carrot muffins
Citrus fruit salad


Some notes about these dishes:

My kids think omelets are so much cooler than scrambled eggs, so we'll go with omelets.


I have tons of avocados left from when I bought them at Yesh for 1.99NIS/kilo a week and a half ago. They are all ripe now. So, avocado dip is in order. I'm going to try to freeze some, as rumor has it that does work. What do you think?

Hash Browns allow me to pretend that I really am a southerner. I like to think I have southern roots, even though they're not very deep... I like potatoes in most any form, in any case, so I will introduce my kids to the idea of hash browns tonight!


Citrus Fruit salad - I have been buying all those citrus fruits that are in season right now. We have white grapefruit, pink grapefruit, pomelit, naval oranges, and clementines right now (yes, we also have lemons, but I'll leave them out of the salad!).  My 6 yr old really wants honey-cinnamon oranges, so I'll indulge her and make them again.


Let me know what you think, or what you're making for supper tonight!

Sunday Night, Feb. 6, 2011

Shavua Tov! I had a very relaxing Shabbat in Yerushalayim. It was great to see family and friends whom we rarely get to see.

It's a new week, and in the past, Sunday night supper has snuck up on me and often caught me off guard. Now, I have a plan! (This meal planning thing is great! I am stretching my shekels so much further, and feeling much less stressed out!)

Here's the menu, using only things that I have on hand (not sure if I will make it to the store or not early in the day - I haven't planned my grocery run, yet!):

Green Bean Soup
Broccoli or Spinach "Puff"
Couscous
Chick Pea & Tomato Salad

Some notes about these dishes:

Green Bean Soup works very well either with EXTREMELY fresh green beans (garden or farm stand), or frozen ones (these are usually harvested and frozen the same day, so they are very fresh). It does not work well with supermarket "fresh" green beans. Here's what I do: Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil till translucent. Add green beans to the pot, stirring and heating till they are bright green. Add water or soup stock. Heat through, puree, add milk or rice milk to make it "creamy", and season with salt and pepper.

Broccoli or Spinach Puff: (Yes, these are slightly less frugal than the other menu items, but we all have to add some variety and remember to not be so thrifty as to never make our kids' favorite foods. My 3 yr old loves anything with spinach and my 12 yr old loves anything with broccoli. I know, go figure...) Mix the following ingredients together and bake in a deep casserole dish at 375 F for 1 hour: 16 oz. cottage cheese, 2 eggs, 4 oz. shredded cheese of your choice, 2 T. flour, 2 c. chopped broccoli or chopped spinach, salt and pepper to taste.

Chick Pea & Tomato Salad - don't forget to soak the chick peas overnight, and cook them early in the day (or use canned - but that costs a lot more per unit, and then you also have to deal with the question of BPA in cans. I prefer to soak and cook them myself.), as these chick peas should be completely cooled before combining with tomatoes and green onions for this salad...

As usual, let me know what you think!

Thursday Night, Feb.3, 2011

I can't believe how fast this week is flying by. Menu Planning is really helping me out - there are fewer foods going to waste and no supper crises, so I'd say it's been a successful food week. Not everything I've done this week has been so successful, but I'll take what I can get...

That said, it looks like it will be another busy Thursday. We usually end up running in the door right before suppertime, and everyone wants to eat "NOW". I may not post every Thursday from now on, because it's just too predictable...

The Menu:


Any leftover soup from the week
Make your own salad 
A variation on pizza

Some notes about this menu:

Make your own salad works wonders in our house! My kids don't always like it when too many flavors are mixed together, but for some reason, it's so much more palatable for them to choose their own combinations. I just put out all the various vegetables (and yes, fruits sometimes too) in individual bowls and everyone takes their own winning combination. This way, the one who loves avocado can have it, and the one who won't touch it avoids it without any fuss...

Our pizza variations usually include toppings like tomatoes, olives, peppers, and mushrooms.

Sunday Night

It's going to be a busy week, so I've begun my planning already now that the kids are in bed (ok, only the younger ones).
Tomorrow, we plan to be out and about all afternoon. And I still have plenty of those 1 and 2 NIS/kilo veggies, plus the Bulgarian Cheese that was on sale at Kim'at Chinam.

Here's the menu for Sunday evening:

Black Bean & Tomato Soup (crock pot)
Embellished Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Salad - Lettuce, Tomato, Avocado, Bulgarian Cheese, and Olives(w/ a splash of olive oil)
Fruit for dessert (we have tons of oranges and pomelit right now)

A note about the soup: be sure to used pre-cooked black beans! (It's another one of those chop and toss recipes that I love: chop onions, garlic, celery, red pepper, a small potato, and 2 tomatoes. Place in crock pot with cooked black beans, tomato paste or crushed tomatoes, and 1 c. frozen corn. Cover with water or soup stock, season to taste. Let your crock pot cook it all day!)

Embellished grilled cheese means everyone gets to put their own "toasted" sandwich together. We usually offer a variety of cheeses, tomatoes, olives, and roasted peppers. But, of course, you can be as creative as you like!