Thursday, January 7, 2010

Creamy Chickpea Soup and Walnut Argula Pesto

Happy almost Friday! It has been one busy week so far and I am hoping for some down time this weekend. Despite the buzy-ness, I have had a time to make some wonderful dishes. The first I made by compiling a few different recipes I’ve found which resulted in creamy chickpea soup. The soup itself is vegan, but for Josh, I added some additional toppings/add ins. Josh’s soup:

Creamy Chickpea Soup (Vegan) (~ 3 servings)

Ingredients
  • Olive oil
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 2-3 celery stalks, chopped
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 yellow squash, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 can chickpeas (chickpeas and liquid)
  • 1 cup vegetable broth
  • ½ teaspoon thyme, dried
  • ¼ cup cashew cream
  • Chives (optional)
  • Sherry Vinegar (optional)

Additional optional toppings (non vegan):
Cheese
Cooked chorizo, pancetta or bacon (cook until crispy)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add chopped onion and celery and season with salt and pepper. Cook three minutes until just starting to soft, add yellow squash. Cook an additional 3 or 4 minutes until veggies just start to brown. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds longer. Add chickpeas, vegetable broth and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Add cashew cream and utilize an immersion blender to puree soup (alternatively, work in batches using a blender). Top with additional thyme, chives, and sherry vinegar, if desired.

For non-vegan version, top with cheese. For non-vegetarian version, top with cooked chorizo.

We enjoyed our soup with bread for dunking and additional fruits/veggies on the side. It was very tasty (and even better reheated!).

I also made up my first batch of Pesto, Arugula Walnut Pesto. I found a recipe in a cookbook that I won from the fabulous Shannon quite some time ago. The outcome:

Did you make anything fun in the kitchen this week? Please share recipe links!! I’m always looking for new/different ideas. Enjoy your weekends!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Ups, Downs, Spicy Acorn Squash & Baked Shrimp

Hello! How are you? HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope 2010 brings you all kinds of excitement. We had a very nice New Years. We were lucky enough to go to Duke for a tour of their basketball stadium and to attend a New Years Eve game versus Penn.

We felt very VIP getting to see the empty center:



And we enjoyed the game:



Unfortunately, Penn is nottttt very good.
Fortunately, Denzel Washington’s son plays for Penn and he was at the game ;). After the game, we had a fabulous dinner out:

And then brought in the New Year with a little party in our hotel rooms with Josh's family and friends.

Sadly, one of Josh’s “second moms” growing up past away last week. As a result, we took an unexpected trip up to Philadelphia for the funeral/wake. Such a tragedy, but we did get to spend some quality time with Josh’s friends.

We got back at 3 AM on Sunday morning and I spent the day catching up (gym, food store, laundry cleaning, Frank bath, lots of cooking). I passed out around 10:30 last night. When my alarm went off this morning…it sounded funny. I hopped out of bed to realize it was my phone ringing…not my alarm. Ugh- alarm did not go off and the gym was calling to tell me I had a full class waiting for me. I (VERY quickly) got dressed and drove to the gym in 10 minutes (some how) and still managed to teach Body Pump. I was upset...but I think my body was grateful for the extra sleep haha.

The rest of today has been spent working, running errands, and learning new choreography. For dinner tonight, I roasted up some acorn squash with some chili powder. I ate mine with eggs topped with salsa and (too much) Parmesan cheese. I also enjoyed a tortilla that I threw under the broiler and a diced apple. Not very pretty, but very tasty:

Josh had squash, baked shrimp and fruit.


For the shrimp, I dipped uncooked shrimp in egg whites and then tossed them with panko and chili powder. I put them on an oiled cookie sheet and baked them at 450 for about 8 minutes (turning once in the middle).


Everyone starting to get back on track with the gym after the holidays? My plan for the week looks as follows

  • Monday: Teach Body Pump
  • Tuesday: Teach Body Attack
  • Wednesday: Short warm up run and 45 minute spin
  • Thursday: Teach 45 minute Body Step, Teach 45 minute Body Pump, Body Step practice for launch
  • Friday: Off
  • Saturday: Teach Body Step and Launch Body Pump
  • Sunday: Off

What are you most looking forward to this week? I'm looking forward to getting my hair done on Friday- yippee! And then going out to dinner with Josh afterwards.