Saturdays are always wonderful days for cooking. Well, Saturdays when there are no workers in our house. It's quiet, relaxing, and this weekend it was cool but pleasant. In the afternoon, I felt very inspired to start cooking up a storm. Whenever this happens, it's safe to say that all afternoon will be spent in the kitchen, creation after creation after creation. I say creation as opposed to recipe since a lot of the cooking I do doesn't involve recipes. This pea soup that I am going to describe is one of those. I played around with another recipe until I got this pea soup the way I liked it, and then I wrote it down.
Making soup from scratch is one of the simplest, most delicious, economical meals you can make. Basically, saute whatever veggies you want in a pot, add liquid of choice (stock is the usual option), then blend. If you want chunks, save some of the sauteed items to add back in after this process. I like my pea soup smooth though.
I started with a half a large onion, chopped, fresh garlic, 4 carrots chopped, and a bag of dried peas. Saute about 5 minutes.
![]() |
Beginning stages of pea soup |
![]() |
Pea soup, pre-blended |
Alright, one down! Picking up momentum here. I have an orange in the fridge, some leftover sour cream, hmmm, also just shy of a cup of chocolate chips that have been sitting in the baking supplies for a while. Smile, ingredients, you're about to have a party together and turn into Orange Sour Cream Chocolate Chip muffins. C loves these and I think it would be nice to make another treat for him.
First, I needed some orange zest and juice. I have the best zester (a rasp grater) that C got me for Christmas one year. It makes me happy every time I use it. Same with this red plastic reamer. Great tools. If you don't have some, I suggest getting your hands on some for citrus recipes. It makes all the difference.
![]() |
Orange juice for muffins |
Next, all the wet ingredients are mixed together: orange juice, orange zest, one beaten egg, sour cream, oil (I usually replace oil with no-sugar-added applesauce but decided against it with these for some reason), and vanilla extract.
![]() |
Orange muffins: wet ingredients |
Like all muffins, the dry ingredients get mixed in another bowl (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar) and then the dry and wet ingredients meet and are folded together until everything is moist. I find this the hardest part of muffins: getting everything mixed without over mixing.
![]() |
Muffins pre-baking |
The muffins go in the oven for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown and recipe 2, done!
These were so good, there are about 5 left, lol.
![]() |
Orange Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins |
Since the muffins take about 20 minutes in the oven, I have plenty of time to test an idea. We have a bag of frozen berries in the freezer from Costco that have been in there for a while. Also, neither of us have been eating as much yogurt as we used to and a quarter of a tub of strawberry-banana Yoplait sits in the fridge, not moving. I really wanted to make yogurt bars, but didn't have any popsicle moulds. That is, until after today's shopping trip to Superstore! We found some cheap ones for $1.88 and since the Amazon ones I was looking at were 10 times the price, I figured, why not? So, fruit and yogurt in blender until smooth.
![]() |
Frozen berries and Yoplait, blended |
![]() |
Yogurt/Fruit Pops before freezing |
Ok Ok Ok, on a roll. Still time left on the muffins and since I had already taken out the food processor, I rinsed it of the fruit and started on a batch of hummus. In keeping with the theme, I knew I had about 1/2 cup of tahini sitting in the fridge, also not moving. Tahini is basically sunflower butter and is a key ingredient in hummus. So, this, a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas (always rinse your canned food, they can contain up to 60% more sodium than their fresh or frozen counterparts), lemon juice (unfortunately, I had no fresh lemons to use), salt, pepper, hot peppers, dried basil, and chopped garlic all went into the food processor.
![]() |
Hummus ingredients |
![]() |
Hummus |
Oh right, Saturday we still need to eat dinner. And despite all of my cooking, none of this was actually for that meal. I had plans, which I talked about earlier, and they come to fruition here. Remember those lime black beans that I made? Here is the finished product. The time that they had in the fridge brought out all of the flavours. The pickerel that was in the fridge, thawing was baked with some herbs. I wanted to make a dressing for the coleslaw and by chance, while C was at the doctors getting his stitches out (he dropped an electrical transformer on his arm and it left a nasty gash), I read a Canadian Living Magazine. A couple of recipes caught my attention and, seeing as I always carry a notebook and pen in my purse for such an occasion, I jotted them down. One was for lamb and feta burgers, and the other was for a peanut broccoli slaw salad. The dressing seemed like a good idea for this meal. I was a little skeptical since I wasn't really craving the fish, but the dressing, the slaw, all mixed together was INCREDIBLE! Peanut butter, lime juice and zest, minced garlic, fresh ginger, soy sauce, and a titch of sugar. A lovely meal to end a relaxing day to.
![]() |
Baked pickerel, coleslaw salad with peanut dressing, and black bean and lime salad. |
No comments:
Post a Comment