I found this via one of my favorite blogs that often posts links to great freebies. You can print out cute recipe cards!

How cute is that?  Perhaps I’ll print out a few simple online recipes, which are way more portable and kitchen friendly than toting my laptop up and down the stairs

I’ve always struggled with planning ahead, so the last few weeks I’ve been making an extra effort to plan meals ahead of time and use a list for my grocery shopping.  I decided to create a document that would help me both plan AND shop, plus it’s pretty and cute when I hang it on the side of my fridge to remind me what’s for dinner each night.  Gotta love something that makes me smile when I look at it every night while cooking dinner!

At the top, it includes the dates for the week.   Below that is a section for breakfast, lunch and dinner for each day, and then below that is a section to jot down items needed (in this case, ones I need to purchase) for meals for each day.  At the very bottom is a section for extra items I might need on a daily basis, like bread or milk.

And guess what, I’m going to share this with you!  Let me know if it’s helpful.  I’ve printed a few copies and LOVE using it to help keep myself organized.

Here it is, just click on the link and the PDF will download.  Grocerymenulist

I’m bringing back Menu Mondays! This is for two of my friends who said they don’t have good lentil recipes – to which I say, how can that be?!? I used to hate lentils, but that was before I found out how much I loved Indian cooking. The great thing about lentils is that they’re cheap but filling! You can find brown, green, or yellow lentils at most super markets, and if you want to get fancy you can find special daal (that’s lentils) at Asian or international markets in most major cities.

I’ve made this recipe several times. It’s very easy and the ingredients are easy to find, even though it’s Indian. The flavors are subtle, but delicious.  You can easily substitute other vegetables and just adjust the cooking time.  Serve this with hot basmati rice.

Ingredients

1 cup yellow split mung beans (you can substitute yellow lentils, but I prefer the flavor of the mung/moong)

2/3 cup finely chopped onions

1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger root

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/3 teaspoon turmeric

3 medium-sized potatoes (3/4 pound), peeled and quartered

1/2 small cauliflower cut into 1 1/2 inch flowerets (about 2-3 cups)

1 table spoon of salt

For the tadka (which is a fancy glaze at the end):

12 tablespoons of ghee (clarified butter – use light vegetable oil as substitute.  We use about half of the amount)

1 teaspoon cumin seeds (NOT powder)

2-4 green chilies, seeded and minced, or 1/4 -1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons of lemon juice

2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Pick over, clean and wash beans or lentils.  Use a wire strainer if needed.
2. Put the mung beans in a deep pot, along with chopped onions, ginger, garlic, and 3 cups of water.  Add turmeric, and bring to a boil.  Watch the pot carefully, because the water will foam FAST once it boils.  Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes or until beans/lentils are cooked.  Add extra water if needed.  (I’ve found that it takes closer to 30 mins to get the beans/lentils well cooked)
3. Add potatoes, cauliflower, salt, and 2 more cups of water, and cook for an additional 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and the beans are thoroughly cooked.
4. To make the tadka:  Heat the ghee over high heat in a small frying pan.  When it is hot, add the cumin seeds and fry until they turn brown, being careful not to burn the seeds (15 seconds!)  Add green chilies or pepper, and stir.  Immediately pour the contents into the stew.  Add lemon juice and chopped coriander to the stew.  Stir well to mix.  Check for salt, and serve the stew with a bowl of hot basmati rice.

Serves 6 people.

This is all because of my sister…and Jerod’s love of sausage and peppers.

Ingredients:

2 c (8 0z) penne pasta

1 t extra virgin olive oil

4 links italian sausage (i mix sweet and hot)

1 onion

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 can diced tomatoes (they can be stewed or italian style, just NOT mexican style)

2 T brown sugar

1 T balsamic vinegar

4 bay leaves

1/2 t basil

Directions:

1) Heat oil in large skillet over medium low heat.  Pierce sausages with fork and add to skillet.  Let cook for 10 mins. until sausages are browned.  Meanwhile, slice onion into rings, and seed the peppers and cut into thin strips.

2) Boil water and cook penne according to package directions.  Add onion to sausage and brown. (3 mins)

3) Add the peppers to the skillet. Stir and cover.  Raise heat to high.  Add tomatoes with juices, brown sugar and vinegar, bay leaves and basil – stir, and immediately cover and bring to a boil.

4) Lower heat and cook until sausages are done -  about 7 minutes.

5) Draine penne, season sausage mixture with salt and pepper.  Garnish with parmesan cheese.  Serve over pasta.

**The main trick with this dish is to make sure the sausage is cooked all the way through.  If it’s taking too long, feel free to slice up the sausages to speed things up a bit.

I used to hate chicken salad growing up.  Actually, I hated anything that was called salad that didn’t have green leaves like ice burg lettuce – how is potatoes and mayonnaise a salad anyways?  That’s beside the point though.

I had some extra green onions and celery awhile back, as well as some chicken (which just reminded me that I need to take the frozen chicken breasts out of the freezer to thaw in time for dinner…..back!) – so I searched online and found this scrumptious recipe.  It reminds me a lot of a recipe from one of my favorite restaurants in Amherst, Judie’s.  I’ve made this twice now, and it’s super easy and quite delicious.  Give it a try!

Why is it that I never get around to actually posting my recipes on Mondays?  Probably because that’s my busiest day of the week.  Someone come up with a fun title for a NON monday recipe category posting, and I’ll run with it.  

In the mean time, this is a recipe for hummus.  I used to hate hummus, then started putting it on sandwiches in college, and it slowly grew on me.  Now I dip carrots and peppers in hummus at lunch time, and I still use it as a condiment for my sandwiches.  It’s classic Greek and VERY easy to make.  It’s also much cheaper to make your own then buy it in the supermarket.  My old roommate Cindy found a basic recipe a couple years back that I started with, but I decided to jazz it up and try something different this time.  Hummus is easily customized to suit your tastes – you can spices and herbs up the wazzoo to make it fun.  I recommend starting with cumin and oregano.  You may need to tweak the consistency with extra water or olive oil – just make it the way you like it!

Ok, enough HERE’s the recipe!

Ingredients

My hummus!

• 16 ounces garbanzo beans (or 1 15-ounce can)
• 1/3 cup sesame tahini
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 juiced lemons (~ 2 T)
• 1 raw garlic clove
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2-3 teaspoons hot chili oil
• 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper (optional)

Directions

1. Combine tahini, olive oil and garlic in food processor or blender. Blend until pureed.
2. Add remaining ingredients, blend until smooth and creamy consistency.
3. Serve at room temperature, with pita bread, on crackers, as a sandwich spread, or as a dip for raw vegetables. Store in refrigerator. It will keep for up to 2 weeks.

*Note:  In place of canned chickpeas, you can buy the dried chickpeas in a bag and soak them overnight and then boil them in water for an hour before following the directions above.  The consistency of the hummus will be a bit fluffier, and I like it better.  Just note that one regular bag of chickpeas will make 3 times this recipe, which is A LOT of hummus.

Another “soup” recipe for this week.  I’m in kind of a soup mood since it’s starting to get cold and dreary outside.  I remembered this recipe from a friend of mine.  Back a few years ago I took part in a church chili contest, and she won one of the categories with this recipe (I think…).  I won the “spicy” category with a different recipe, which I’ll share another time.  Kudos for such a simple and tasty soup!

Turkey Tortilla Soup

3-4 cups chopped turkey leftovers

1 onion

1 can diced tomatoes and and green chilies

1 can tomato sauce

1 carton GF chicken broth (I used 1/2 carton of regular chicken broth, and added extra water

4 cups water

1 can kidney beans (drained/rinsed)

1 can black beans (drained/rinsed)

1 small box frozen corn

8 corn tortillas

chili powder (2 tsp or to taste)

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Saute chopped onion in oil until tender in large pot. Add canned tomatoes, sauce, broth, water, beans, corn, turkey, and spices. Simmer until heated through. Tear corn tortillas into small pieces and add to soup. Simmer until tortillas dissolve. Serve with crushed tortilla chips and grated cheese on top.

*Note* I made this with a chicken that I baked earlier in the day with just a bit of salt and pepper and butter, and it worked great.  Also, in a moment of creativity, I had to come up with my own home made chili powder since evidently we didn’t have any – I used some oregano, ground whole cloves, salt, sugar, ground cardemom, some paprika, cayenne pepper, cumin and two dried red chilis.  It worked splendidly and tasted delicious.

 Seriously, this is SUPER easy, and makes a HUGE amount of soup (I used a 6 qt dutch oven and it was FULL!)  Enjoy!

I wanted a simple soup to make for lunches throughout the week, so I made this yesterday.  My mom actually passed this on to me because she gave me some vegetables from her CSA that I didn’t know anything about – and this was in the CSA newsletter (though I usually know what to do with carrots!) It’s a pretty inexpensive recipe, though I would recommend adding a few more carrots to thicken it up a bit.

Ginger-Spiced Carrot Soup (Vegan)

CARROT Soup (Vegan)

(from cooks.com)

Ingredients

5 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds

1 leek, chopped (dark green parts removed) – I used green onions because they were in my backyard and thus free.  :-)

1 small onion, minced

1 medium potato, diced

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1.5 inches ginger root, finely minced (about 2 tbsp)

1 can coconut milk

4 cups stock or water

1/2 cup dry white wine (optional)

2 T vegetable oil

1 t sweet paprika

1 t turmeric

salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Heat vegetable oil in a medium-sized pot. Add onions, sauté about 2 minutes. Add leeks and garlic; sauté in pot for about 4-5 minutes until softened, but not browned. Add carrots; stir vegetable mixture until carrots begin to carmelize a bit, about 6 more minutes (watch to prevent over-cooking).

Add potato, ginger, stock, and coconut milk ; allow mixture to come to a boil for about 5 minutes; reduce heat and add spices (turmeric, paprika, salt, pepper). Cover and simmer on low until potatoes are tender, about 20-25 minutes.

Puree soup in batches in the blender, or use a handheld blending appliance to obtain a smooth, velvety textured soup. Garnish soup with roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds).

This recipe is a favorite of Jerod’s, cooked by his mom Gloria, the original Mrs. Weinman.  It’s an adaptation from the Bethlehem Bounties Church Cookbook, from Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Brush, CO, where she grew up.  It was originally published in 1986, and you can trace this recipe back to Ann Lund.  I think the history makes it kinda fun  This is a great way to use up zucchini, though I’m a bit “late” for the prime time of zucchini season.  We had a huge one from the farmers market a few weeks ago, and it lasted two weeks!

Ingredients

3 eggs

1/3 c oil (you can use more if you like)

3 t vanilla

1/2 c chopped walnuts

2 c ground or shredded zucchini

1 c sugar

1 c brown sugar

3 c flour (or combination of oat and regular flour)

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 t cinnamon

1/2 c crushed unsweetened pineapple, drained

1/2 c raisins, dates or choc chips (I like the chocolate, but I put in a little bit less)

Mix all ingredients together using an electric mixer.  Pour into greased and floured loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 50-60 mins until done.  You may also divide this into 2 smaller loaf pans, which is what I do.  Enjoy!

I got this recipe from my friends Bert & Becca.  It’s very easy and comes out reasonably spicy.  If you want to cut down on the spice, add extra tomatoes or reduce the jalepenos a bit.  Feel free to substitute fresh tomatoes (3 fresh = 1 can).  Enjoy!

Ingredients: 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles, 1 can whole peeled tomatoes, 1 onion, 1 can jalepenos, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon salt

Chop onion into smaller pieces.  Drain juice from whole peeled tomatoes.  Blend all ingredients together in a blender or food processor.  Add a dash of lime and a teaspoon of fresh cilantro if you wish.  Chill for an hour and serve!