Lentil and spinach soup

I might need to make a new tag for "hotel cuisine." We've made some pretty decent meals when we travel, thanks to our usually-amazing accommodations at the extended stay hotels we use. I was intrigued to find some recipes in this, my first-ever, issue of Consumer Reports Food & Fitness magazine. This one in particular comes from a section that focuses on how to reduce the salt, sugar, and fat in our daily diets. Sounds good!

This soup was a sort of experiment. First, I never make anything in this great a quantity when we travel, so finding storage containers for leftovers was a minor challenge. Bonus: I got to test its freezability at the same time. :) Also, the recipe doesn't call for any salt. For a family that's been eating at restaurants for 2 out of 3 meals for more than the past week, that could've come as a giant tastebud shock. Rather than possibly waste the whole recipe on my men for dinner one night, I made this for lunch. The little guy said he loves lentils ("they're so cuuute and tiny, right Mom?!"), but he needed to eat before it was done, so he had leftovers from dinner last night.

Lentil and Spinach Soup
from Consumer Reports Food & Fitness, March 2012
Serves 10

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (this is very hard to do with incredibly dull hotel knives)
2 cups uncooked lentils (Whole Foods had these on sale!)
4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 sprig (2-3 inches) fresh rosemary
1 (7-oz) package baby spinach
2 large tomatoes, chopped (heirloom ones were so pretty I couldn't resist!)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1. Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook 5 minutes or until onion is soft, stirring often.

2. Add lentils, broth, water, and rosemary. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or until lentils are tender.

3. Stir in spinach and tomatoes. Simmer 10 minutes. Remove rosemary sprig and stir in pepper.

I love the natural light from our 19th-floor hotel room; much better than in my east-facing kitchen. :)

Since I prefer a thicker stew-like lentil soup, I only used 3 cups of the water called for. And since there isn't any other seasoning beyond the small quantity of pepper and rosemary, I more than doubled both and left the rosemary needles in. Without increasing those two ingredients, the soup would've been mighty bland. I was almost instantly regretting my choice of low-sodium broth as I taste-tested at the end of the cooking time.

Making this for my lunch(es) was the right choice. The H and little guy would've griped about it for sure. I added a hefty squirt of lemon and some Parmesan/Romano/Asiago curls from Trader Joe's to my portion. Those greatly improved the flavor and brightened up what could've been a giant waste of ingredients. If I were to make this at home, I'd probably add some chopped carrots when sauteeing the onion, and some kosher or sea salt at the very end.

Should've snapped a pic!

Tonight was "fridge clean-out night" for dinner. So far, I've stuck to our weekly meal plan down to the letter, which both shocks and pleases me. Alas, that's going out the window tomorrow when The H takes me and the little guy out for dinner with a gift card he was recently given... but I digress. TONIGHT we had leftovers, just as I'd planned. The H, who had chili for lunch, opted for broccoli soup and a make-it-up-as-you-go pizza gluten free pizza crust. What he did with it (lightly prompted) was fantastic! I had the other portion of chili, btw.

The crust was about the size of a pie plate. (OK, it was exactly the size of a pie plate. Because that's what I had pre-baked it in.) He brushed it with olive oil, sprinkled it with feta and grated Parmesan, topped that with half a sliced red pepper, two chopped artichoke hearts (saved from this salad), and fresh sliced Provolone. It went into a hot oven and baked 'til hot and bubbly.

Then we ate it. And it was yuuuummy. I should have him do stuff like that more often...

A happy little lunch

Wine and cheese. Love and marriage. Grilled cheese and tomato soup. A match made in heaven.



The soup was leftover (which I think makes tomato-based dishes that much more flavorful), the sandwich was gooey, the kale crisps salty, and the weather dreary. What's not to love?

A funny little lunch

Today's theme seems to be "fridge clean-out" as evidenced by my lunch (and dinner--stay tuned)... two small slices of leftover black-olive pizza with a bulb of fennel roasted with onion and grape tomatoes. Odd, yes. Tasty? For sure!

Pizza alone sounded lonely, and I knew I needed more veg in my life. The onion was a natural choice, and the tomatoes were a last-minute inspiration. Why not? They're so pretty!

The best way to reheat pizza, in my humble opinion, is to bake it at 400* for 10 minutes, then keep it in the oven with the heat off for another 10. This re-crisps the crust, melts the cheese, and heats everything through almost as if it were fresh.

Today I tried something a little different. I stuck the two pans in next to each other for 10 minutes, then shuffled the racks around so the pizza was on the very top and fennel closest to the heating element. After 15 minutes I removed the pizza, added a handful of grape tomatoes to the fennel, and roasted for another 5 minutes.

And then I topped it all off with a garbanzo bean brownie. :)

A disappointing day

Today was a day of leftover-round-up in my house. Everyone's favorite, right? Blah. I can think of fewer food-related things more disappointing than a day of reheated food. I hate leftovers. At least, I hate the IDEA of leftovers. There are so many other things in the world (heck, in my pantry) to eat, why would I want to eat something I've recently had? Well, here's why:

Yesterday I made a massive batch of steel-cut oats, so it would only make sense that I chip away at them for breakfast. That was the intent, after all. So I had that with dried cherries, flax seed, chopped almonds, and agave nectar. Yum. Then I rinsed the black beans I'd soaked overnight, and got them into the CrockPot to simmer all day.

Shortly afterwards, my son tripped on something (pajama foot? toy? I couldn't say) and face-planted onto the hardwood floor. When I noticed the blood on my shirt after snuggling him, we made a trip to the pediatrician's office, where he was diagnosed with an (untreatable) lacerated frenulum--he bit through that hangy-down ridge inside the upper lip, between the teeth. Ouch. His morning snack was ice cream, and mine was ... nonexistent.

After his quiet time while I did some work, we shared (or tried to) a bowl of chicken barley stew. It must have been too hot or peppery for his split lip, because he cried at every bite until I just gave him plain whole-milk yogurt and blueberry applesauce. Because of his picky temper, I ate half of my not-so-hot bowl of soup very quickly before admitting it was not very satisfying. The dog lucked out this afternoon.

Once baby was down for a nap, I toasted a piece of 7-grain sprouted bread and topped it with the rest of my tuna from yesterday. I forgot to smear the bread with Dijon, so it was too dry to really be enjoyable. Argh. At this point I realized I had also not been drinking enough due to the day's events, so I had a few glasses of water and a vanilla protein shake while I ran the dishwasher and mopped the kitchen floor and living room.

Tonight The H was going to have pizza with the little guy while I went for my girls' run, and then the girls and I would order or make something for our dinner, but a change in plans (read: nobody showed up) left me dinner-less and running with my boys instead of girls. Enter a frozen portion of Clean Eating Magazine's sloppy joes (stay tuned for a recipe post) and a whole wheat Trader Joe's hamburger bun. I guess there is something to be said for a well-stocked freezer. I could have had chili from yesterday, or more chicken stew, but the small portion of the sloppy joe in a plastic baggie lent itself to quick thawing.

The H fed baby a slice of reheated pizza (also from my amazing freezer) and some green peas while I topped H's leftover gluten-free pizza crust with a few things and thawed my sloppy joe filling. Once baby was in bed, we sat down to eat. And then just because I was sick of seeing them in my house, I ate the last fun-size bag of peanut M&Ms. So there.

Here's to a fresh start (even though it will begin with more leftover steel-cut oats) tomorrow.

The grass is not always cleaner

We're on the road... again. I know! Seems like we're always going someplace. This time it's a short trip with The H to the east side of the state. (Go Blue!) I tried something new this time and did not go grocery shopping when we first arrived. The hotel fridge is as empty as I've ever seen it. Just a sad little yogurt, cream cheese container, baby's juice cup, and a box of leftovers adorn its shiny shelves. We've been eating hotel breakfast and going out for lunch and dinner. Yes, I feel bloated and my face is extremely broken out. Now, about those leftovers...

Dinner last night was at a steak-and-ribs joint, the west-side locations of which have long been closed. We were looking forward to enjoying their food again, and I was determined to live it up. (Please note the title of this post...) I ordered a pork BBQ sandwich, which turned out to be as big as my face, and crispy onions. Yikes, right? Big yikes. I couldn't even pick up the sandwich at all until I'd eaten a Piglet-sized serving off the top, and when I finally did start mowing through with BBQ sauce up to my ears, The H made the observation that "it seems like you've been eating forever and haven't really gotten anywhere." So very, very true. I put down the sandwich, shuffled through the onions, and decided a to-go box was in order... not for myself, though. My often-vegetarian son decided he actually liked the taste of overly-sauced oinker, so I brought the rest of the meat home for him. And then I went for a run.

This morning I knew I had to start getting back on track or people will think I'm a 15-year-old boy (pizza face, anyone?), so I hauled out the container of steel-cut oats I brought with me and stirred up a batch with dried cherries (also brought) and pecans (thanks, Marriott). Double batch = some for tomorrow! I've also got another run planned for tomorrow, and then a 5K to look forward to on Saturday. Hopefully that gives me something to focus on when the siren song of a glossy menu is calling to me the rest of the week. I think I've decided that no matter how short our hotel stays will be, from now on I want to at least stock the fridge with eggs, wheat bread, my own natural pb, and some good fresh fruit. Live and learn.

This week's meal plan

Here's what I have on the list this week:

Chicken apple sausage salad - with smoked chicken apple Chardonnay sausage, spinach, spring mix, yellow bell pepper, Pink Lady apple, gorgonzola, toasted walnuts, hard boiled egg, tomato, and lemon-dijon vinaigrette

Chicken cacciatore - with chicken thighs, Trader Joe's sauce, curly rice pasta, and a side of sugar-snap peas

Wild rice salad - with leek, orange bell pepper, chicken breast, sweet onion, tomato, corn (if I have some in the freezer), basil, and a rice vinegar/oil dressing

Stir fry - with chicken tenders, broccoli, sweet onion, carrot, and white bell pepper over brown rice or spaghetti rice pasta

BBQ chicken - with brown rice and a spinach salad (spinach, hard boiled egg, walnuts, dried apricots, gorgonzola)

Frittata - with spinach, tomato, cheddar or gorgonzola, and maybe served with oatmeal-applesauce pancakes if The H doesn't think the eggs will be filling enough (those would also make great leftovers for a quick breakfast)

Turkey chili - with ground turkey, sweet onion, canned tomatoes, and kidney beans OR we can make nachos out of the turkey, using flax chips, taco seasoning, salsa, black beans, and shredded cheddar

That gets us Sunday through Saturday, hopefully with some leftovers for lunches. Before we went to TX I froze some tofu-veggie burrito filling, so if that thaws well I plan to have some in a whole-grain wrap for a lunch or two, leaving the fresher leftovers (and those not made of soybeans) for The H. I'm also planning to make a double batch of granola, hummus, dried black beans in the CrockPot (a first for me!), a big pot of brown rice, and a small batch of yogurt cheese for using as a veggie dip or sour cream substitute. This week's plan doesn't have any new recipes on it, just variations on old favorites, but that may change if I find something great in one of my books/magazines.

Cooking ahead

"What's for lunch?" is often a more difficult question for me to answer than the usual, "What's for dinner?" Dinner (or supper, if that's what you call it) means cooking for my family. Dinner is why I comb through cookbooks and magazines in my spare time looking for delicious and healthy meals that fit with our clean-eating lifestyle. Dinner is eating with other people, so it's fun (for me, anyway) to plan for and look forward to.

But lunch? Lunch is lonely. It's something to get through on the way to my son's naptime, or eaten in a hurry at my computer while I try to get some work done once he's down. Lunch is usually leftovers, if The H hasn't taken them to work. Lunch is boring. A hurdle to jump over on the way to a delicious dinner.

Enter cooking ahead. Determined not to have boring lunches all week, I decided to make things from my clean cooking resources that The H wouldn't appreciate as much, or can't eat because of his allergy. Cooking ahead saves time in the long run, which is always nice, and something I've heard readers asking about lately. It doesn't take a lot of time, promise.

Tonight's dinner was one of our old standbys, a CrockPot casserole-type thing we call "chicken-salsa-rice." It's really a hands-off dinner, since the only real prep is pouring a jar of salsa over frozen chicken and turning the crock on low. Closer to serving time, cooked rice and shredded cheese are added, and sour cream if you want. When I made the rice this afternoon during snack time, I figured I might as well make a big batch to keep in the fridge for lunches or another dinner later this week.

After dinner, once the baby was fed, bathed, and in bed (by 7:30) I got to work in the kitchen. I'd had a package of Trader Joe's extra-firm tofu staring me in the face every time I opened the refrigerator and figured I should use it--the tofu burritos from Tosca's family & kids book were a perfect fit. The H has also been asking for hard-boiled eggs, so those needed to get made. And then there were the chicken breast tenders I wanted to use for dinner tomorrow (chicken taco salad). Sounds like a lot! But you know what? I was done, with the dishwasher running and my pans hand-washed, sitting in front of my computer before 8:45.

First, The H (never turn down free help!) put the eggs in a pot and started them cooking. He also laid out all the chicken tenders on a baking sheet and drained the tofu for me. And then it was my turn. Onion, garlic, jalapeno, bell pepper and tofu got chopped. Canned tomatoes were drained; juice was saved and labeled. Oil heated, veggies added, tofu stirred in. Mixture seasoned and simmered. Eggs done and cooled. Burrito filling container labeled and filled (I love my label maker), burrito pan washed. Egg pan rinsed and dried. Chicken checked, not done, timer set for another 10. Then I went to shower (ran a quick 3 miles before dinner) and came back to put the chicken away. Chicken pan rinsed, dishwasher started, the end! Whew.

Now I have a fresh (as in not left-over) option for lunch. I can add brown rice to the tofu filling in my whole-grain wrap, or use some plain tenders + rice + whatever seasoning for a different flavor, in a wrap or not. I can make a clean egg salad to eat on Ezekiel bread. My son can have an egg with his morning fruit-and-waffle. If The H doesn't take dinner leftovers, those are still available, too.

Tomorrow I will make a batch of oatmeal-egg-white wheat-free pancakes (would have made them tonight but didn't feel like washing the blender) to freeze for another breakfast or lunch choice. And you know what else? I haven't gone grocery shopping since last Sunday. All of this was made with ingredients I had hanging around! If you ask The H, or even my son's sitter, they'd have likely told you there was nothing to eat. Surprise!

I love cooking ahead. It might even help me love lunch.