Souper Combo

February 26th, 2014 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (4 Comments)

I ate this exact turkey sandwich and soup combo for lunch for three days in a row,

Soup and Salad Lunch

for two reasons:

1. Because it was really good.

2. The recipe I’m about to share makes a lot of soup.  Halve the recipe if you won’t be able to eat/share 10 cups of soup over the course of three or four days.  Now that Zak works from home, we have no trouble eating this much soup in a relatively short period of time.  You could also freeze the leftovers to have on hand when you don’t feel like cooking some time in the future.  (I need to get better at remembering to do this!)

Potluck Lentils

January 20th, 2014 | Posted by Alison Spath in Party Time - (6 Comments)

I’ve blogged about this recipe before (it’s one of my favorites!) but today we’re going to talk about the cost break down of this giant pot of Coconut Curried Red Lentil Chili.

I made this yesterday to take to a winter (indoor!) picnic with a bunch of our homeschooling friends.  This is one of my go-to potluck meals because it’s inexpensive, it’s “something different” while also being delicious and healthy.  All of my favorite adjectives in one big pot!  Another reason I like this chili for a potluck is because it’s a good option for people with dietary restrictions – it’s gluten free, nut free and made without any animal products for our vegetarian and vegan friends.

The End of March

March 31st, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (3 Comments)

Well, we made it. It’s the last day of The Greener March Challenge.

Whether you ate greens every day for the last 31 days or not, you endured my month long green stream of posts.  I’m not sure if I should say “Congrats!” or “I’m sorry.”

There were certainly a few highlights for me for this month.

The first thing that comes to mind is Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  I’m so glad I watched this documentary and was re-inspired to get back to juicing after a bit of a juice hiatus.  I know that a few of you watched this film and were inspired and motivated by it too.

World Travel

December 4th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (10 Comments)

It was a dark and stormy night.

Actually, it was just a cold and gloomy Friday morning. And I was in the mood to cook.

Ingredients for Apricot Lentil Stew

I was also in the mood to shake things up! I went googling my way around the world wide web in search of something outlandish to do with a bag of red lentils.

Like… string them together to use as garland on our Christmas tree? Get started on a lentil mosaic of A Starry Night? Toss lentils at wine glasses filled with varying levels of water and teach myself to play I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In?

The Lunchtime Puzzle

October 20th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Motivation - (4 Comments)

Two days a week, the girls go off to class for three hours in the afternoon.

That means two days a week, I have three hours to myself.

Sometimes I stay and help out in class, sometimes I run errands, sometimes I do housework, sometimes I work on a blog post.

Lentil Taco Salad

Sometimes I eat leftover lentil tacos on a bed of lettuce with salsa, Greek yogurt and 1/2 an avocado for lunch in front of my computer so I can watch Modern Family on Hulu.

A Dinner Play

August 29th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (5 Comments)

Me: Good morning everybody!

Condiments

Condiments: Hi Alison!

Me:  Who wants to be turned into dinner tonight?!

Condiments: [cheers]

Crock Pot enters stage left

Crock Pot Enters Stage Left

Me: What about you, Crock Pot?  You wanna play too?

Crock Pot: Yeah, sure.  I guess so.

Me: [ignoring Crock Pot’s unenthusiastic response] OK, then – listen up.

Today is a full day.  We’ve got a jam packed schedule of hiking with friends this morning, a meeting tonight, not to mention the usual house work plus tidying up for visitors tomorrow and hopefully squeezing in a ridiculous blog post where I pretend my condiments are actors in this weird dinner time play I’m putting on.

Leftover Lentil Burger Leftovers

August 23rd, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (5 Comments)

A great way beat the leftover blues is to create something new and different with your uneaten foodstuffs from a previous meal.

Thanks to a big scoop of rolled oats, lentil tacos from Sunday were turned into lentil burgers last night.

Lentil Tacos Turned Lentil Burgers

With oats stirred in to the last of the lentil taco filling and then given a few minutes to sit, they’ll very generously soak up the sauce and thicken up. It’s then easy to form the mixture into patties with your hands.

Cooked in a lightly oiled pan for about 15 – 18 minutes, flipped a couple of times.

On any given day, I cannot tell you what I’m making for dinner that night until the five o’clock hour is upon me. I have tried and tried to become proficient at meal planning, but it appears I am simply unable to make this learned skill a personal reality.

I suppose I could work on this shortcoming of mine, spending hour upon hour digging into my past, trying to uncover from the depths of my psyche why on earth I can’t pull together a weeks worth of meal ideas in one sitting,

OR!

Asparagus is not yet in season here in upstate NY, but we’ve been eating it recently despite this small fact because I think I’ve been brainwashed into doing so.

The stores always seem to jump the gun with the holiday decorations and seasonal merchandise – shelves currently loaded with pastel candy and green beaded necklaces well in advance of any bunnies needing supplies to make up baskets or a dude named Patrick getting ready to chase some snakes out of Ireland.  It’s no wonder I’ve had a hankering for spring produce!  I blame consumerism.

CSA = Community Supported Agriculture.  (Not “Can’t Stand Alison”, thankyouverymuch.)

If this acronym is new to you, in short – a CSA is an opportunity for you, the consumer, to get your produce direct from a local farmer.  Find a farm that offers CSA memberships and you can buy a share of their crops for what will hopefully be a bounty of locally grown fruit and/or vegetables from late spring until mid fall – or whatever the growing season is where you live.