Receta Meals for the week and split pea soup
I'm back! I didn't actually go anywhere but I've had a bit of a busy week, technically speaking. First, my website was hacked. This was not awesome. It didn't take my site down, but it did cause some issues and gave me a major case of the hebegebees. Hackers are so creepy. After I cleaned up much of the hacker mess, my site host had a server outage and that DID take my site down. For almost 24 hours. I had to re-do some hacker cleanup after my site was restored. Sooooooo, it has been a long week in terms of all things GetNatured.com.
I planned several meals for the next week or so. I'm not really all that organized about this process. My main goals were to use up some things in my pantry and to get through my CSA produce before it went bad. After listing out all of my "must use" ingredients, I came up with this list of meals for the next several days:
Pot of pinto beans with brown rice and avocado
Vegetable soup with "Harvest Grains Blend" (grain and bean combo from Trader Joe's)
Whole wheat pasta tossed with chard, sundried tomatoes, white beans, and a creamy pesto sauce (cashew-based)
Pita pizzas with cashew ricotta (there it is again- love it!) and steamed green beans
Veggie burgers and chipotle sweet potato oven fries
Stir fried bok choy and turnip greens with tofu, wild rice, shiitake mushrooms, and toasted pecans
Roasted turnips, carrots, and sweet potatoes with farro, tempeh, pecans, and shiitake mushrooms (this is a repeat- it was SO GOOD last week)
Potato leek soup with white beans added for protein
Breakfast dishes: Apple cinnamon crockpot oats and persimmon apple breakfast crisp
*A tip: Portion out leftover dinner meals into single-serving reheat containers and refrigerate or freeze for easy grab-and-go lunches.
I love these containers:
(link)
I will share a few recipes from this list as I cook these meals. Today, I'll share a super fast split pea soup recipe that I made last week.
Did you know...? Split peas area fantastic food- they don't require pre-soaking and they are loaded with iron, fiber, and protein!
Simple Split Pea Soup
- 1 1/2 cups split peas (green, yellow, or a mix), sorted and rinsed
- 6-8 cups of water
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1-3 tsp liquid smoke (to taste, optional)
- Sea salt (about 1 Tbsp) and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil in a soup pot and add the onions and carrots. Saute until the onions are lightly browned.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer, partially covered, for about an hour. Serve the soup topped with homemade croutons.
To make croutons, I chopped up the heals of a few loaves of bread that were lingering in my fridge for just such an occasion. I tossed them with olive oil, salt, fresh chopped parsley, and minced garlic and baked them at 300 degrees until they were crunchy (about 25 minutes, turning once or twice).