Sometimes Simple, Sometimes Grand, Always Declicious
Forgive me. I have about a thousand more recipes for Christmas, but almost every one of them is something involving sugar. I simply have to take a quick break – and I do mean quick because next week we’ll be up to our necks in Christmas cupcake competition craziness (try saying that five times fast!) – and bring back a bit of healthy on the blog before my teeth fall out from all the sugar and I gain an unsightly amount of holiday weight. How’s that for a mental image?
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I don’t know about you, but I’m in the mood for a bowl of soup. I love soup. In all forms and in all flavors. I love how it can be what you need it to be at any given moment. Hearty when you need a big meal, comforting when you’re feeling under the weather, light when you just need a little something to curb your appetite, and healthy when you want to feel good about what you’re eating. And let’s be honest here, between the turkey and the desserts and the leftover Halloween candy (yes, my husband and I are still wading through our kids stash), we could all use a little healthy, right?
Minestrone is one such soup and it just happens to be an absolute favorite of mine for the following reasons:
A. It’s really healthy.
B. It’s super easy to make.
C. It’s the type soup where you can pretty much throw anything in the pot and it still tastes awesome.
D. I swear it can cure any illness you may be suffering from. One bowl and I promise you’ll feel better than you did before you ate it.
E. Did I mention it’s easy to make?
If I haven’t convinced you yet, take a gander at all the goodness in the bowl and see if you can resist. I even threw a splash of Indian flavor in there to warm it up and give it a little extra yummy.
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Before I get started on the post today, I just wanted to remind everyone that voting is still going on through midnight tonight for the Pacific Everyday Food competition. I don’t think I’ll be heading to Napa, but I will be giving an AWESOME donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. So hop on over, vote one last time, and let’s see if we can get the donation to $200! You can find the link to donate back on Friday’s post HERE.
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Once upon a time on a blog a long, long ago, there was a skillet gnocchi dinner that was made, raved about and eaten up; every last bite of it. The gnocchi dinner was happy on the blog until one day, the blog queen packed up and moved the blog to a new home and left poor skillet gnocchi dinner behind.
Ok, not really, but for some reason when I moved over to WordPress, one of the casualties of the move was this recipe. The title’s there, but none of the content. So, of course, in my eyes that’s just an excuse to whip up another batch of this yummy dinner! This is one of those meals that has it all to me. It’s quick to cook, healthy to eat, kid friendly with all the cheese and tomato sauce, and a one dish meal, which while I know they aren’t as shi-shi as some meals, we love ’em in this home because you get everything you need without all the work of putting together sides.
The other great part of this dinner is how versatile it is. The first time I made this I used italian sausage. This time I used turkey. Chicken would also be delicious. Or, you can cook it up like the neighbor who passed it to me does (thank you Valerie!) and leave the meat out all together for a vegetarian dinner that will make even the heartiest meat eater happy.
So are we ready to get cooking? Here’s what you’ll need:
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The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.
It’s that time of the month again, time for another Daring cooks challenge! I’ll fully admit it, this month’s challenge was a bit tough for me. We’ve been traveling the Eastern half of the country like crazy people the past month going from Charlotte to Canada and everywhere in between. I’ve been away from my kitchen for a good portion of July and August and couldn’t find as much time to devote to these pierogis as they truly deserved.
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First up, a special thanks again to Anne for sharing her space with me yesterday. Let’s here it for Anne of Annie Bakes! Second up, because we had a few issues with pictures yesterday over on Anne’s site, I’ve gone ahead and published the complete recipe over here as well. You can find it directly before today’s post. Hopefully that will help all the wanna be Indian food cooking chefs out there that were hoping for a little step by step assistance (you know who you are).
Alright, let’s move on. We’ve got the rice, now let’s get to the good stuff. Today we’re going to whip up a batch of daal. Daal is considered to be a southern Indian tomato based lentil or bean dish and is typically served with rice and bread. I chose to make mine with chickpeas; Yumazing!!, as my good friend Sommer over at A Spicy Perspective would say (check out her blog after finishing here to see why!).
There is a touch of spice in this dish, but not too much to stop my 17th month old from eating two helpings of the stuff; he loved it!
Feel free to adjust the heat level to accommodate children and adults alike.
Let’s get to it!
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