Vegetable, Lentil and Beef Soup

It doesn't sound like much, but this soup was actually really, really delicious. It was hearty and filling and just tasted really fantastic. It was very low effort with a very high return. We served this to guests with no-knead bread and a salad, and they all agreed it was the best dinner they'd had all week. I'll definitely be making this soup again.

Vegetable, Lentil and Beef Soup


1 pound lean ground beef
1 1/2 cups dry lentils, rinsed
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
ground black pepper to taste
2 cubes beef bouillon cube
6 cups tomato-vegetable juice cocktail
1 (4.5 ounce) can mushrooms, drained
1 dash Worcestershire sauce


Brown beef; break meat into small pieces while cooking. Drain.

Place meat in a big pot with lid. Add lentils, vegetables, water, salt, pepper, bouillon, vegetable juice, mushrooms, and Worcestershire sauce. Cook on high until it boils. Reduce heat to low, and cover. Simmer for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until lentils are tender. Stir occasionally.



Via Allrecipes.com.
Photo from Country Living.

No-Knead Bread

I cannot believe it has taken me this long to get on the no-knead bread train. I'm a little late to the party, I know. Well, the main thing standing in my way was that I didn't have an enameled dutch oven. (That's your cue to go over to Amazon and buy one for yourself. Go on! You deserve it!) Honestly, now that I know how amazing and effortless this bread is, I should have run out and bought one as soon as I first heard about this recipe years ago.

Anyway. All you need to know is that this is like fancy bread you'd get at some kind of european bakery, but it takes almost NO effort to make it. So, you should do it. I've included the white version (the tastiest) and the wheat version (the healthiest and still pretty dang tasty, for whole wheat).

No-Knead Bread

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.


Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread


4 cups whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour)
2 cups water plus 3-4 tablespoons water  (adjust depending on the consistency of the dough. Yes, 1 tablespoon can make a huge difference.)
2 teaspoons salt
½ plus 1/8 teaspoon yeast


1) Mix all the ingredients in a bowl just until they are thoroughly mixed. Cover the bowl with plastic and set the bowl aside for 12 to 18 hours.

2) After the first rising, lightly flour the counter top and use a spatula to remove the dough from the bowl and put it on to the counter top. Fold the dough over on itself from left to right, turn the dough 90° and fold it again. Lightly shape and dough into a ball and place it on a well-floured tea towel. Fold the towel flaps over the dough to cover, and let it rise for an hour and a half.

3) Allow the dough to continue rising on the counter top while you heat the oven. Turn the oven temperature on to 475° and put the covered pot into the oven. Let the pot and the oven warm for 30 minutes.

4) Take the pot out of the oven, remove the lid and slide the dough off the tea towel into the pot. Cover the pot, place it back in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.

5) After the 30 minutes is up, remove the lid from the pot. Set the timer for another 15-20 minutes and continue cooking the bread until the top is browned to your liking.

6) Take the pot out of the oven and use a large spatula to remove the bread. Let it cool on a cookie rack about 15 to 20 minutes before cutting into it. Waiting to taste it is the hardest step in the whole recipe, but if you cut into the bread too early it will not finish cooking properly.




Recipe from Jim Lahey via the NY Times.

Whole wheat adaptation via My Healthy Eating Habits.

Healthier Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

{post-edit 3/4/13: Sincerest apologies to anyone who tried this in the past two days and ended up with gooey cookies (I'm looking at you, Justin!). I have now re-tested the recipe and adjusted the amounts accordingly. It's perfect now, I promise!}

Now that I'm on this 'healthy cookie' kick, I've been experimenting in the kitchen. I came up with this recipe today and thought it was worthy of sharing.

These cookies are a little higher in calories, fat and sugar than the ones posted below, but that is only because of the addition of peanut butter. You could make them quite a bit healthier by using almond butter. So I know they're still cookies, and are a treat, but if compared to a traditional peanut butter cookie, which is full of butter, sugar, and refined flour, this is leaps and bounds healthier. These are whole grain, have no refined sugar and no butter, and the only sweeteners are banana and honey. So it's kind of like eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich, but with less bread...? Just make them, they're guilt-free cookies!

Healthier Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

1 1/4 cup quick oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter (I prefer crunchy)
1 1/2 Tbs honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350, and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray (or line with parchment paper, my favorite). Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside. Mash up bananas with a fork and stir them until smooth with few lumps. Stir in peanut butter, honey and vanilla until mixture is smooth. Stir in dry ingredients. Batter should be moist and sticky (this is more of a batter than a hard dough), but not runny. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet, flatten out slightly with your fingers. Bake for 11-12 minutes.

I like to sprinkle with a little kosher salt as soon as they come out of the oven. These are delicious served warm, but after a few hours the flavors meld together and they're still really tasty! They should keep just fine in the fridge for a few days.

makes 20 cookies

Healthy Banana Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe has changed my life. Seriously. The past seven weeks I've adopted a new healthy lifestyle, cutting out refined grains and added sugars, and eating more fruits and vegetables. And these cookies are still totally legal. You can make them and eat the entire batch for breakfast and not even feel bad about it (that's what I just did, actually). Nutritionally, this is like eating a hearty bowl of oatmeal, minus the milk. These totally satisfy my craving for a warm, soft, chewy cookie with absolutely none of the guilt after I eat six of them. I am so happy about this I want to sing!

The other nice thing about this is it's totally adaptable. You can put whatever you want in them. The first time I made them I only used a banana, oats and chopped walnuts and they were still good!

Are you ready for the best part? If you make these as described below and eat the entire batch, it's only about 400 calories (a perfectly acceptable breakfast, if you ask me). The walnuts also add essential omega 3 fatty acids, and you're getting a serving of fruit from the banana, and whole grains from the oats. Leave out the add-ins and you're at about 240 calories. I know. I know. You can thank me later.

Healthy Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Cookie base:

1 ripe banana, mashed
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs quick oats

The above ingredients are actually all you need, but I added a few extras:

dash of salt
splash of vanilla
2 Tbs chopped walnuts
1 1/2 Tbs craisins
1 1/2 Tbs shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together ingredients. Form into cookie shapes and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray (they will stick if the pan is not well-sprayed). These don't change shape, puff or rise while baking, so form them into the shape you want them to end up. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Makes six or seven cookies.

Asian Bell Pepper Soba Noodle Salad

I had some bell peppers on hand and had a stroke of genius and decided to make them into a salad using soba noodles. I LOVE soba noodles. They're whole grain and they are so tasty. I loved how this salad turned out.

Asian Bell Pepper Soba Noodle Salad

6 oz soba noodles, cooked and chilled (run cold water over after cooking)
3 bell peppers, red, yellow and orange, sliced thin
2 green onions, chopped
1 cup broccoli florets, chopped small
1/2 cup sugar snap peas
4 cups baby spinach

Dressing:
1 whole Lime, Juiced (1 Tbs bottled lime juice)
1/2 cup Olive Oil
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil
1/3 cup honey or 2 Tbs Agave nectar
3 Tablespoons Fresh Ginger Chopped
2 cloves Garlic, Chopped

Mix up the dressing, pour it over everything else. YUM!

Curried Butternut Squash Apple Soup

I love the addition of curry powder but if you're not a fan you could reduce it. This recipe made a TON of soup. I took some to a friend and her family for dinner and had plenty leftover for myself. If you're not cooking for a crowd, half it.

Curried Butternut Squash Apple Soup

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons good olive oil

4 cups chopped yellow onions (3 large)

2 tablespoons mild curry powder

5 pounds butternut squash (2 large)

1 1/2 pounds sweet apples, such as McIntosh (4 apples)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cups water

2 cups good apple cider or juice

 

Warm the butter, olive oil, onions, and curry powder in a large stockpot uncovered over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the onions are tender. Stir occasionally, scraping the bottom of the pot.

Peel the squash, cut in half, and remove the seeds. Cut the squash into chunks. Peel, quarter, and core the apples. Cut into chunks.
Add the squash, apples, salt, pepper, apple cider and 2 cups of water to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook over low heat for 30 to 40 minutes, until the squash and apples are very soft. Process the soup with a blender. (I used my blendtek and it worked great. Just don't over-fill it - you don't want hot soup splattered all over your kitchen. And wash it out right after. I let my blender soak overnight and it is now stained orange. Great.)
Pour the soup back into the pot. It should be slightly sweet and quite thick. Check the salt and pepper and serve hot.

Thanks, Ina.