Lentil Soup.

Peter informed me that he wanted to eat less meat in the New Year - so instead of mourning meat, I went to the store and bought some lentils.


If I can make a confession - I am NOT a huge meat lover.  I love a good steak and a fatty burger and I am a huge taco fan, but I am not a huge fan of frozen chicken or chicken that's reheated in the microwave.  Nasty!  But I will eat it.  


Anyhow, I was more than happy to accommodate his new diet request and the meat mourning process was EXTREMELY short-lived.  I began to brainstorm meals, and perused some recipes, and went to the store and bought lentils.  And I was determined to make vegetable soup with lentils.


And I did.  And I even served it to others for dinner!  Slightly risky, but I was willing to take the chance.  They seemed to like it or else they are just good liars!  I would like to think it was the former.


I found my Lentil Soup Recipe on allrecipes.com, and improvised it a little.

The Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups dry lentils
• 8 cups water
• 1/2 cup spinach, rinsed and thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery; cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in garlic, bay leaf, oregano, and basil; cook for 2 minutes.
2. Stir in lentils, and add water and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for at least 1 hour. When ready to serve stir in spinach, and cook until it wilts. Stir in vinegar, and season to taste with salt and pepper, and more vinegar if desired.

Pumpkin cookies.

Yum, Yum - pumpkin cookies!  I love all things pumpkin, so after thanksgiving, I picked up a can or two on sale at the grocery store.  And i finally put one of those cans to use.

I perused the recipes for pumpkin cookies on the Internet.  My requirement was that I wanted to use ingredients I already had in the house - didn't want to have to make any stops to the grocery store for these cookies.  

And this is the recipe I landed on.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

The recipe calls for a glaze on top, which I could have made (I had the ingredients), but I decided to pass.  Less calories that way right?

The cookies are amazing!  However, I did burn the bottoms of the first batch.  Our oven is so touchy.  But the rest turned out so chewy and moist.  Definitely one of my few baking successes.