Welcome Stefanie!

Date: 03/02/2011
Cook:  Stefanie
Menu: Chickpea Curry with Rice, Spinach Salad with Walnuts and Strawberries and Mango Coconut Fruit Salad

Jen and I extend a very warm welcome to Stefanie, who is giving mealgroup a whirl for the month to see if it is a good fit for her family!  Stefanie thoughtfully took the time to write up some of her thoughts about her initial experiences with us:

I'm happy to have joined this group. Its the end of my first week, and I'm totally psyched about cooking and being cooked for. First meal was Jen C's: spicy burgers, oven fries, succulent edamame succotash and satisfyingly rich choc-chip cookies. All of these treats were different for me, and fun. I especially enjoyed the burgers.  Then it was my turn to cook. Coming from a big family (but living as a twosome now), it felt good to cook for a group again. Preparing food for the group gives me incentive to make a proper meal and try new recipes.

Last week I got a new cookbook entitled Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi. It inspired me to make a chickpea curry. In the intro to beans, the author states that sprouting beans increases their vitamin, mineral and protein content. So I sprouted the chickpeas for a couple of days before cooking. I also prepared a spinach salad with strawberries and walnuts, topped with poppy seed dressing: 1/4 c each olive oil and Japanese "seasoned" vinegar, 3 teaspoons poppy seeds,  1/4 teaspoon each fresh grated ginger and garlic, pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper. Mix well into salad before serving. Dessert was mango coconut fruit salad: frozen blueberries, mango and cherries dressed in mango coconut milk yogurt with 1/2 c. shredded coconut.

Lentil Pecan Burgers, Oven Fries, Edamame Salad and Cookies

Date: 02/28/2011
Cook:  Jen C.
Menu: Lentil Pecan Mini-Burgers, Oven Fries, Edamame and Corn Salad and Chocolate Chip Cookies

This was a delicious meal!  Funny that Jen made mini-burgers; I've been reading a lot about sliders and thinking about what a delicious concept they are.  I loved the salad, too, and in the interest of full disclosure, I will mention that no one else in my family ate any of the cookies: I grabbed the container as I ran out the door to a meeting and they were so good that I ate them all myself.

Lentil Quinoa Stew and Chipotle Sweet Potato Biscuits

Date: 02/24/2011
Cook:  Jen G.
Menu: Quinoa Stew, Chipotle Sweet Potato Biscuits and (perhaps slightly stale) Banana Muffins

I've been wanting to do a little more crockpot cooking and so I found this recipe, which fit my requirements of being a healthy, straightforward and yummy sounding crockpot recipe.  It was all that, and so I really recommend the recipe-- very good, and good for you!  I thought that a savory baked good that had a spicy kick to it sounded good to accompany the stew, so I made the sweet potato biscuits that I made in the early part of 2011 and added a few chipotles and adobo sauce to the batter.  They came out really well, I thought, though apologies to Jen and her family, as well as mine: they were a tad undercooked.  I love these biscuits, though!  If you don't mind sacrificing a few nutrients to the microwave, they are really easy to make if you nuke up the sweet potato while you assemble the dry ingredients-- then mash up the sweet potato, add to the mix and pop them in the oven.

We had a few banana chocolate chip muffins left over from a couple of days earlier that I threw in, as there was no one in my household who was interested in them (sigh).

Stuffed Cabbage

Date: 02/21/2011
Cook:  Jen C.
Menu: Lentil Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

We were continuing to whirl around in the busyness of our lives and I was coming off a head cold that had really brought me down when Jen appeared at our doorstep with a container full of yummy stuffed cabbage rolls.  Lentils and rice surrounded by cabbage and served with a light tomato sauce-- they were just the thing to send me hurtling back to good health.

Edamame Pesto

Date: 02/17/2011
Cook:  Jen G.
Menu: Spaghetti with Edamame Pesto, Green Salad and Cupcakes

I really thought I would make split pea soup for last night's dinner, but then the temperature spiked up into the very, very high 50's for us and I didn't have it in me to make a hearty warming soup on such a beautiful warm day.

Instead, I wanted to make a pasta dish.  I was thinking of a red lentil sauce that I sometimes make, but opted instead for an edamame pesto from Appetite for Reduction.  Served not on fancy vegetable-y linguine but plain spaghetti, along with a salad and for dessert--cupcakes from Sweet Avenue.

I enjoyed this meal but I'm extremely partial to pesto, so that goes a long way, right?

African Peanut Soup, and We're All Busy!

Date: 02/14/2011
Cook:  Jen C.
Menu: African Peanut Soup, Coleslaw and Delicious Rolls

We have all been very busy for the last few weeks so our meal sharing has been dialed back a bit.  Rachel is taking some time to focus on some other projects so we'll hopefully be welcoming her back in a few months.  We'll miss her yummy meals in the meantime, though!

On Monday, Jen delivered a superior soup -- an African peanut soup, with coleslaw and these extremely delicious rolls which I later found out were from Trader Joes.  Perfect tasty, light and nourishing dinner.

Lima Bean and Edamame Soup, Macaroni and Cheese

 Date: 01/31/2011
Cook:  Jen C.
Menu: Creamy Lima Bean and Edamame Soup, Whole Wheat Mac and Cheese, Green Salad

Jen C. does it again -- an extremely good meal!  The soup was divine, I wished there were more leftovers!! The mac and cheese was flavorful and somehow Jen magically got the pasta the perfect texture.  I also love a simple green salad on the side.  A lovely meal!