Carrot-Ginger Soup

We have had four days in a row with temperatures soaring above 80 degrees. It's been beautiful, gorgeous Summer-ish weather. And of course now is the perfect time to post a soup recipe on this here blog!

Okay, in reality, I know that it is not AT ALL soup weather, but I happened to have a gazillion carrots lying at the bottom of my fridge (I buy them in 10 pound bags from the farmer's market) and a ton of ginger leftover from our latest Indian-themed dinner. Waste not, want not...the only option was to make a delicious Carrot-Ginger soup.

This recipe makes a ton of soup. Perfect for an easy, quick dinner the next evening! Easy meals means more time to snuggle with Baby Emma!

This is one soup that I will gladly eat year-round. It is slightly sweet from the carrots and coconut milk with a mild amount of spice from the addition of cayenne, curry, and ginger. It is warm, comforting, and has a wonderfully smooth texture thanks to a little bit of time in the blender. It's great eaten straight with a dollop of sour cream or spooned over a piping-hot helping of jasmine rice. This is one of my all-time favorite soups!

Carrot-Ginger Soup


2 tablespoons butter
2 onions, peeled and chopped
6 cups chicken broth
2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons yellow curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 canned coconut milk, well shaken
Salt and white pepper
Sour cream or yogurt, for serving
Hot Rice (optional)

Melt butter in large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until translucent. Add the carrots, ginger, and garlic and stir for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Slowly pour in the chicken broth and stir. Bring to a boil and then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the carrots are tender.

Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender. Be careful to hold the top down because the steam could cause an explosion! Return the pureed soup to the pot and add salt and pepper to taste. Add the coconut milk and gently warm the soup over medium-low heat. Serve with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt. If desired, spoon over hot cooked rice.

Thai-Style Quinoa Salad

Lunch is the single most difficult meal for me to prepare and eat during any given day. Around lunchtime, Emma typically has one of her fussy periods and Matthew is super demanding because he is hungry, tired, and cranky. You can normally find me bouncing a wailing Emma on one hip while trying to spread peanut butter as quickly as I can onto a slice of bread for Matthew while he sits at the table telling me over and over and over again: "I'm hungry Mommy! Soooo hungry!" And nine times out of 10 that stupid slice of bread will begin to rip apart from my vigorous attempts to spread the peanut butter evenly resulting in the most mangled sandwich ever. Matthew normally sends me a look of confusion when I place the sandwich in front of him and I don't blame him. It literally looks like I picked something out of the garbage can and threw it on a plate for him to eat.

Yes, lunchtime is difficult. And if I want to eat anything semi-nutritious, it had better be prepared and readily accessible to grab from the fridge. I normally end up eating lunch straight from the plastic Tupperware dish (again, while either bouncing or feeding the baby). I normally try to make a large batch of some type of healthful dish at the beginning of the week that I can eat for lunch for several days afterwards. I love quinoa salads for this reason (I know, I know...I wax poetic about quinoa A LOT!). They keep well, are very healthy and filling, and are pretty limitless when it comes to the different combinations of fruits, vegetables, and vinaigrette.

This Thai-Style Quinoa Salad has been my favorite lunch staple for a while now. The sauce is composed of items that I already have in my fridge or in the cupboard. The salad is packed full of healthy vegetables and protein-filled quinoa to keep my energy levels up. I've been really obsessed with Thai food for the past several months and the Thai flavors in this vinaigrette really help satisfy that craving! I don't really stick to any particular type of vegetables when making this salad - I tend to just throw in whatever I have on hand from the Farmer's market (except for edamame - I aways toss a bunch of it in because I LOVE it!!). Occasionally, I'll even throw in a frozen medley of Asian vegetables. That option not only tastes great, but is also super economical! If you have some leftover chicken from dinner, throw that in as well! The possibilities are endless

Thai-Style Quinoa Salad
adapted from How Sweet Eats

Note: Use whatever combination of veggies/meat you want! The listed ingredients are simply suggestions!


For the Salad:
1 1/2 cups uncooked quinoa, rinsed well
2 cups cooked chicken or shrimp
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup snow peas
1/2 green beans
1/2 cup shelled edamame
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
4 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts (optional)
1/2 cup freshly chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

For the Sauce:
4 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons canned coconut milk
1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons creamy peanut butter
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 lime juiced, about 2 tablespoons
Pinch of ground ginger

Prepare quinoa according to package directions using chicken broth. The ratio is normally 1 1/2 cups of liquid for every 1 cup quinoa.

While quinoa is cooking, combine all of the sauce ingredients together in a liquid measure and whisk to combine. When the quinoa finishes cooking, scoop it into a large bowl. Stir in the sauce and mix well. Stir in the carrots, edamame, red pepper, green onions, green beans, snow peas and cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm, room temperature or chilled.

Lentil Salad with Olives, Feta, and Mint

I'm not gonna lie, when I announced to Paul that we were having "a deliciously healthy lentil salad" for dinner, he looked like I had actually informed him that fried earthworms were on the menu. Lentils are not one of his favorite things. He finds their texture weird and their taste almost tinny.

I personally do not fully comprehend Paul's hatred of lentils. They are excellent sources of healthy protein, folate, and fiber and taste pretty awesome. I have been in the mood for light, fresh, and healthy meals lately and randomly decided to grab a big bag of french lentils while cruising around the grocery store with Matthew and Emma.

"What are these, Mommy?" Matthew asked as I tossed them into the cart.

"Lentils, honey. They are kind of like peas!" I announced cheerfully - because I am really, really trying to sell him on healthier food choices.

But, of course, the inevitable response was: "YUCK. That's gross. Disgusting!"

(Just one of those three adjectives would have sufficiently gotten the message across, but Matthew seems to have a flair for the dramatic).

"Please don't feed me LENTILS, Mom!!!"

I'm guessing he gets both his taste buds and judgmental attitude towards legumes from his father.

However, being the good sport he is, Paul agreed to eat the dreaded lentils (there may or may not have been the promise of ice cream afterwards if he cleaned his plate). And wouldn't you know it?...after his first bite, he announced that the salad was actually good. Quite good! He really enjoyed the fresh flavors and found the texture of the lentils to be enjoyable. He ended up polishing off a second helping.

The key to the texture of the lentils lies in the unique cooking method. First, the lentils are brined for one hour before being gently cooked in a 325 degree oven. The gentle cooking method allows the lentils to soften without falling apart or bloating, lending a pleasant, creamy texture to the salad. The punchy vinaigrette, briny olives, creamy feta, and bright mint all blend together harmoniously to create a delicious, light meal! I will definitely be making this dish again and attempting other variations of lentil salad. I think this dish would also function as an excellent accompaniment to some grilled chicken or fish.

Lentil Salad with Olives, Feta, and Mint
adapted slightly from Cook's Illustrated

Note: Do not use yellow or red lentils here. They are not as sturdy and will completely disintegrate during cooking yielding more of a thick, sludgy soup rather than the toothsome salad we're going for here!

1 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed
Salt and pepper
6 cups water, divided
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
5 garlic cloves, lightly crushed and peeled
1 bay leaf
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pitted kalamata olives
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 large shallot, minced
1-2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

Place lentils and 1 teaspoon salt in bowl. Cover with 4 cups warm water and soak for 1 hour. Drain well.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Place drained lentils, 2 cups water, broth, garlic, bay leaf, and ½ teaspoon salt in medium saucepan. Cover and bake until lentils are tender but remain intact, about 40-60 minutes (mine took closer to the 60 minute mark). Meanwhile, whisk oil and vinegar together in large bowl.

Drain lentils well. Remove and discard garlic and bay leaf. Add drained lentils, olives, mint, and shallot to dressing and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with feta.

Mexican Quinoa

I love the Christmas season. I love the music, the preparations, the gift-giving, and the exciting anticipation of the birth of our Lord. However, the stress of all the preparations, the financial strain of the buying of gifts, and the near constant hustle-and-bustle leading up to Christmas Day can be overwhelming, stressful, and just plain distracting from the real joys of the season. Every year, I find myself swept up in the stress of preparation. Because I am such a dang type-A perfectionist, I obsess over every detail of every meal, every cookie recipe, and every gift simply because I want it to be perfect. However, a lot of the joy is taken out of these things because I get so anal and usually end up having some type of emotional breakdown...and that is a lot worse than having one less type of cookie on the dessert platter come Christmas Eve.

Our pastor gave a remarkable homily on the first Sunday of Advent regarding the stress and headache of Christmas preparation. He challenged each member of the congregation to really work on approaching this season with joy and to enjoy the process of preparing for the Lord's birth. This really struck a cord with me because almost every year I have ended up an emotional mess shortly before Christmas Day, bogged down and utterly exhausted from the stress of preparation. Inevitably, more poor husband has had to literally peel me off the floor and tell me that he would rather have me not stress than make the baguettes for the crab dip from scratch (the reason for last year's meltdown...the rising baguettes would not fit in our refrigerator). Plus, I have been pregnant every Christmas since we've been married and have never felt well enough or energetic enough to tackle my ginormous to-do list. So, this year, I decided to majorly downsize my preparation list. We decided to make only five varieties of cookies (as compared to 14 last year) and two different types of breads (not six).  And all baking, with the exception of the breads, is to be done together. We agreed to buy simple necessities for our gifts to one another and only spend within a very limited budget. We also have decided to incorporate a lot more prayer and reflection time into the Advent season as a way to keep the focus of Christmas on the nativity.  So far, this has been one of the most pleasant Advents I have ever had.

In the spirit of keeping things simple this Advent season, I have been preparing super easy, quick, healthful meals. We are going to be eating some pretty rich foods between Christmas and New Years so I want to be sure to serve some healthier meals before the pigging out begins! Quinoa is a favorite ingredient and this recipe I found at Annie's Eats has been made no less than four times since the middle of November. However, I have majorly streamlined this already quick-and-easy recipe to make it something even my husband (whose specialties include egg salad sandwiches and quick oats) can fix for me if I am feeling too lazy to cook (and, as always, I'll toss in the pregnancy card and blame my laziness on the exhausting task of growing a person).  Topped with a dollop of sour cream (a must) and a sprinkling of cheese, it's a quick, hearty, healthy meal.  Enjoy it warm, cold, straight out of a bowl, wrapped in a burrito, or over a bed of lettuce!

Mexican Quinoa
adapted from Annie's Eats

1 16 oz. Jar of Salsa (My favorite is Garlic and Lime)
1 1/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup frozen corn
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Sour Cream, Cheese, Sliced Green Onions (for garnish)

Combine salsa through salt in a small stockpot over high heat.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Let simmer for 25-30 minutes, or until the liquid is mostly absorbed. Remove from heat and let stand, uncovered for 5 minutes.  Stir in the lime juice and serve with your favorite toppings!