Monday, September 24, 2007

Soups and snacks

With my husband working very late hours recently, I have been alone with the boys for 11 hours a day. I have thus discovered a new love for soup. It's easy, fast, and only requires one pot. Perfect! And, as a bonus, hubby can easily take the leftovers for dinner the next day. (Actually, his company brings dinner every night, and almost always provides a vegan option...apparently the CEOs are vegetarian!) Anyways, aside from being simple, soup if perfect fall food, and it is definitely fall here.
Here are a few of the soups we've sampled in the past week.
A soup my mom made for us. She found the recipe in the paper....I think it was called a Harvest Soup or something? I don't remember, but it was good! Perfect fall food.
I was feeling a little under-the-weather last week (anyone who's ever nursed, or knows what mastitis is will feel my pain), but with the some rest, a healthy dose of vitamin C, and a few big mugs of rosemary tea, I managed to avoid antibiotics. To help nurse me back to health, my husband made a batch of the Cure What Ails Ya Garlic Soup from La Dolce Vegan. Whoa! It sure was garlicy! But yummy, and it did the trick! I was feeling better in no time.
I finally tried the Earthy Lentil Soup from Vive. I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while....I'm a sucker for anything with 'earthy' in the title. ;) It was just as delicious as I hoped it would be. Unfortunately, my dining companion is going through a texture phase, and didn't like the texture of the lentils (I used red instead of brown, so the disintegrated and got mushy...just the way I like!) Anyways, he ended up having a snack later on to make up for the lack of soup he ate. But the husband (who got the leftovers) and I really enjoyed it! Quinn and I made the Whole Wheat Biscuits (with spelt flour instead of ww) from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook. They were a little dry, but we ate them up!
I got a new cookbook today! ExtraVeganZa. I have flipped through it, and it looks fabulous! I made a recipe from it tonight, the Spicy Peanut Lime Cilantro Soup. Except that I didn't have any lime. Or cilantro. So, it was more like a Spicy Peanut soup, but whatever. Quinn loved this! Seriously. It is the first meal, in his life, that he has ever said, "This is good!" about, without prompting. Yes! I win this round!
While I was making the soup, Quinn snacked on frozen peas, something I used to do while my mom made dinner. Say PEAS!!!
On to the snacks.... Late last week we made a batch of the Banana Oat Bundles from Vive. We threw in some dried cranberries and carob chips. Yum! They didn't last the day, so I made a second batch the next day, except with applesauce instead of mashed bananas, because we didn't have any more. They turned out great too!
This morning, before he went to work, my husband made me the Carob Coconut muffins (I think that's what they're called...) from Vive. They are so good! Thanks honey! Look at sneaky Quinn stealing a carob chip!
And, on a random food note, we got some giant garlic from the CSA this week. The heads are the same size as regular garlic bulbs, but there are only about 5 cloves per bulb.
Well, that was a long-winded post! Phew. Go make soup!

9 comments:

Peggy said...

Soup is wonderful indeed. :)

Yay for trying the Earthy Lentil Soup! I should try using red lentils next time- disintegrated and mushy is a happy thing.

One of my friends has said that she wants me to bring oatmeal cookies to school, so maybe I'll bring your variation of vive's banana oat bundles. :)

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

MMM, Soup! Too funny that I made Earthy Lentil last week, and also subbed red lentils - it does become mushy! So far, my favorite soup from ExtraVeganZa is 'Sweet Pepper Coconut Corn Chowder' my mouth waters just thinking about it! :)

urban vegan said...

Soups and cookies. What a great mom you are. Your boys are little cuties.

The Little Mama said...

Thanks for the comments!
Peggy - You should totally make the banana oat bundles! The banana makes them naturally sweet and yummy!
Vicki - As per your suggestion, I am going to be making the Sweet Pepper Corn Chowder and bringing it with us to the mountains this weekend.
Urban Vegan - Aww! Thanks!

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

we love soup! we are excited it is starting to get cool enough to really enjoy them.
by the way, yr son is adorable!

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Oh he's so cute!

Anardana said...

Ooo! All the soups look great.

Monika K said...

Just found your blog and wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading your posts. (-: Lentil soups are my favorite and I've been meaning to try that garlic soup...now that weather is turning cold, I've got the excuse I need!

The Little Mama said...

Thanks everyone! Is it terribly dorky that I just excitedly told my husband that I had 7 comments on my blog...? :)