PB&J Oatmeal with Apples (Happy St. Patrick's Day!)

For months, I've been dreaming of this day. I imagined cooking up some elaborate Irish meal and drinking cider, Jameson, or some other Irish-related beverage with my besties. And oh yes, there would be soda bread.

As the day approached, however, I lost my motivation to do any serious baking. I could definitely make some soda bread, but beyond that, no way. For that reason, I was thrilled to see a Facebook post by a local cafe announcing that they were serving potato and leek soup with soda bread. Count me in!

That salad was wowza! Spinach, mandarin oranges, chickpeas, baby mozzarella, and a vinaigrette 

I've never had soda bread made with white flour before. It was tasty, but I found it too "light" and "cake-like." I guess some people would think those are positive attributes, but those people have never had soda bread before. ;) I like my soda bread dense and hearty. The only thing "sweet" about it should be the jam you slop on top. :)

We decided when we were finished that we were still a little bit hungry, so we walked down the block to our favorite bar/eatery to split one of their ah-may-zing cupcakes. Much to my delight, their flavor of the day was Irish Car Bomb!

The frosting was the star of the show for the most part, but in the last few bites, I finally tasted the cake itself. Wow. Absolutely incredible. I might have even liked to eat it plain, without the frosting. 

Anyway, I have another oatmeal recipe for you. It's basically the combination of several of my favorite oatmeal recipes. I woke up Monday morning craving peanut butter, but I needed to use up half an apple I had in the fridge, so I just kind of threw it all together. Naturally, it was delightful (I think I've made less than three "bad" bowls of oatmeal in my life. It's hard to screw up!).

PB&J Oatmeal with Apples

Prepare my Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal. Top with swirls of your favorite jelly/jam/preserves and globs of your favorite nut butter. I used banana butter. Enjoy!

**You can check out my other oatmeal recipes here, or by clicking the oatmeal tag. You can also find dozens of other oatmeal recipes on my Pinterest board (along with tons of other meatless recipes!). Thanks!

Chili: Unveiled

I've posted about chili many times now. First, I confessed my addiction by whipping up a quick, cheater's version during the hottest days of the summer. Then I used the leftovers to top a veggie burger. Then I made another (botched) batch to stuff an acorn squash.

And now, at last, I have a recipe to share with you--a recipe that I can proudly share because I know it rocks. Half the problem with my previous attempts was not the ingredients at all, but the fact that I didn't let it simmer.

Yes. You HAVE to let it simmer. For HOURS. And if you want it to be even better, you'll let it simmer, and then leave it in the fridge overnight, and FINALLY eat it the following day for lunch. In a mason jar.

But that's only if you love yourself. If you hate yourself, then sure: go ahead and eat it as soon as it's all assembled. But don't say I didn't warn you!

P.S. I used Westbrae Organic Chili Beans in this recipe. I don't normally specify brands, or differentiate between organic and conventional, because I feel like those decisions should be left to the individual cook. However, I love these beans because they are a mix of three different beans (black, kidney, and pinto), without the usual chili gravy. This way, I had total control of my chili's seasoning.

Lauren's 3-Bean and Quinoa Chili

• 1/4 c quinoa
• 1/2 of a white onion, diced (not finely!)
• 1 - 15 oz.can tomato sauce
• 1 - 15 oz. can stewed tomatoes, chopped into quarters
• 1 - 4.5 oz. can chopped green peppers
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• 2 tsp. Blackstrap molasses
• small handful of dark chocolate chips
• 1 - 15 oz. can black beans
• 1 - 15 oz. can Westbrae Organic Chili Beans
• salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes

1. In a large pot, cook 1/4 cup of quinoa according to instructions. Remember, it is better to UNDERCOOK your quinoa for this recipe, since you'll be simmering them later (right??).

2. Cook your onions on medium high heat in some olive oil in another pan for several minutes until they are translucent. Stir them frequently.

3. Combine your quinoa and onions to the large pot, and add the tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, chopped green peppers, garlic, cumin, oregano, chili powder, molasses, and chocolate chips. Stir. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes.

4. Stir again. Add both cans of beans. If your stove is super hot and your chili is practically boiling, you'll need to turn the heat down to low.

5. Taste. Add salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes (or cayenne pepper) as you deem necessary.

6. You could eat it now. But it won't be special. What you should do is let it simmer for an hour. Or at least half an hour. I even put mine in the fridge afterwards, and reheated it the next day. All of this helps thicken it up and make all the ingredients work together beautifully.

You can eat this plain, or top it with cheese, Greek yogurt, sour cream, chives, or green onions, or serve it with a nice chunk of cornbread. Or, if you're really fancy, you could bake it in a mason jar with cornbread on top. I'm dying to try that sometime.

Recipe: Butternut Squash & Pear Bisque

My semester is slowwwwwwly crawling to a close. I'm not really sure if any length of a Christmas break would be enough to recover from this whirlwind! I have several papers to compose this weekend, but I purchased a squash and pear this week specifically for this awesome-looking recipe, so I took some time off homework to hit up my kitchen.

I found the recipe on Pinterest, the best site ever. The recipe looked good, but it involved onions (which I hate buying for no explainable reason), cream (I prefer to avoid dairy), chicken stock (...yeah), and curry seasoning (I should probably buy some of this...someday...but not today). So I decided to take the general idea and apply it to my standard creamy soup template.

I was really pleased with the result. After the first taste, I couldn't really taste the pear, and it tasted like my regular butternut squash soup. Had all my work been a waste? But then I sat down with a bowl and tried again. Woah. Suddenly I noticed the subtle sweetness. It wasn't a burst of PEAR, but an enhanced level of the squash's sweetness. Because I'm a poor college student who generally opts for simplicity, I rarely experience this kind of flavor depth in my kitchen.

Would I make this again? Yes.
Would I make it for others? Absolutely.

Butternut Squash & Pear Bisque
Inspired by this recipe by Memories in the Baking

• 1 medium butternut squash
• 1 pear (Anjou or Bartlett), peeled and chopped
• 1 clove minced garlic (OR half an onion, chopped)
• 3 cups vegetable broth (or more or less, depending on how thick you want it!)
• salt
• pepper
• any other spices (I, of course, suggest cayenne pepper!)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Slice that beautiful squash in half lengthwise.

3. Remove seeds and set aside.

4. Chop the squash into quarters, cut off the skin, and dice the squash into 1- or 2-inch chunks. The smaller you cut them, the faster it will roast! :) Put your squash cubes on a baking sheet with tin foil and nonstick cooking spray. Place in oven.

5. If you don't want to keep your seeds, set your timer to 40 minutes, toss your seeds in the trash, and skip to step 8. If you want to keep the squash seeds to use for garnish or snacking, set the timer for 30 minutes.

6. This part sucks. There's no sugar-coating it. Clean off your seeds. There's no easy way of doing it. Get rid of all those stupid, slimy, orange strings. Rinse them off in a colander.

7. Drizzle your clean seeds with a little olive oil, and sprinkle them with salt and whatever else you want (cayenne pepper!!). You can bake them plain, but that's boring. When your 30-minute timer goes off, make a little room on your baking sheet, add the seeds in a single layer, lower the temperature on your oven to 325 degrees, and reset the timer to 15 minutes.

8. Remove from oven and let cool. And don't forget to turn off your oven. ;)

9. Heat your garlic (or onion) in a large saucepan in about a tablespoon of oil. I actually have a jar of minced garlic (which is why I prefer using garlic instead of buying an onion!), so I don't have to cook this down very much. If you are using an actual garlic clove or onion, then cook this for several minutes like you normally would.

Love this stuff.

10. Carefully add the stock. If your saucepan is really hot, it might sizzle, smoke, and splatter when the liquid hits your cookware. In other words, don't have your saucepan on too hot, and/or lift the pot off the stove for a second as you add in the first cup.

11. Add your butternut squash and pear.

12. Puree! Either use an immersion/stick blender, or dump the contents into a blender or food processor (and add it back to the saucepan afterwards). This is a good time to assess the thickness. I added another 1/4 cup of broth.

13. Add salt, pepper, cayenne, curry, or whatever you want! Start small and keep adding until you like it.

14. Garnish each bowl with your roasted squash seeds.  Serve with bread. May I recommend Irish soda bread? :)

With a Christmas tree in the background, just for good measure.

Creamy Winter Squash Soup for One

I will never stop loving soup. Ever. First of all, it's cheap. It's cheap to make, and it's cheap to buy at restaurants. So if you're ever spending two weeks in Ireland and you don't want to blow all your money on fresh salmon or shepherd's pie, check out the soup of the day! ;) Those tasty soups accounted for practically half of my meals on the Emerald Isle. Because soup + Irish soda bread = perfection.

Today, I had a mixture of roasted acorn and butternut squash to use up. I saved a handful of the butternut squash that I bought for this fantastic pasta recipe I made yesterday--I will share this recipe later (it was fantastic!).

I only had one cup's worth of squash, so it was just enough for one serving. Obviously, you can double/triple/quadruple to fit your needs. 

Creamy Winter Squash Soup for One

Adapted from SimplyCooking's blueprint for creamy, pureed soups.

• oil
• 1/4 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 and 1/4 cup vegetable stock
• 1 cup of acorn and/or butternut squash, diced and roasted
• salt
• cayenne pepper (optional)

1. Heat 1 tbsp. (I used a little less) of olive oil in a medium-size saucepan. 

2. Add 1/4 tsp. minced garlic (or about 1/2 a clove). I am not a huge garlic fan. If you are, consider doubling this.

3. After a minute or so, add 1 and 1/4 cup of vegetable stock/broth. You can alter this amount depending on how thick/thin you like your soups.

4. When it begins to simmer, add 1 cup of roasted, diced squash (mine was 3/4 butternut and 1/4 acorn. I recommend butternut because it has a silkier consistency). Reduce heat to medium and cook until the squash is tender or warmed through.

5. Use an immersion blender (or transfer contents to a blender or food processor) and puree away!

6. Stir in a pinch of sea salt, and if you'd like a kick of heat, cayenne pepper. Remember: start small and keep adding until it suits your palette. You can always add more!

Chili-Stuffed Acorn Squash

You know I love chili.

Do you see the little black specks? Yeah, I burnt the quinoa.

And you know I love squash.

So I roasted some acorn squash and stuffed it with my bean and quinoa chili.

The more nutritious version of the almighty bread bowl.

And I even thought about sharing my chili recipe this time. But then I tasted it, and realized it wasn't my best. I mean, it was GOOD, but not as good as last time. It was lacking that depth and velvety richness, so I need to figure out what I did differently.

But the dish as a whole...mmm. :) And interestingly, as I was tagging this blog post as "vegetarian," I realized it was also vegan. This exemplifies why I will defend a vegan lifestyle. So often, people assume vegans have nothing to eat except salad. LOOK AT THAT PICTURE. Is that a salad?! No.

So often people claim they could never enjoy a vegetarian or vegan meal. This is why I love informing people when they ARE. For example, I was out for lunch one day in September with my sister and her husband. We all were eating soup: I had tomato, and they had broccoli cheddar. I smiled and said, "Awww, we're all eating vegetarian!!" They both froze for a millisecond, trying to think of a witty comeback, but all they said was "....oh." Zing! I win. :)

Lunch: Broccoli & Cauliflower Soup

If you can't tell from the title of this blog, I love broccoli. And the only reason I started eating it (which wasn't until my sophomore year of college!) was because I was having trouble with my IBS, and I realized I needed more soluble fiber, as opposed to insoluble fiber. That's why I started eating broccoli, oatmeal, rice, etc. Soluble fiber is my best friend.

Isn't it glorious? And it was super simple, too. I got the recipe from a blog called Lori's Lipsmacking Goodness. Prepare yourself if you go check it out: there's some bloody awful music in the background. Can we all agree that background music on websites should be banned? Okay, moving on.

I more or less followed the recipe exactly, except I used almond milk instead of regular milk and colby jack and monterey instead of cheddar. It turned out spectacular. I had seconds.

Soup It Up!

So.

As it turns out, being a senior English Education major in her final semester before student teaching is extremely stressful. When I'm not in class, I'm tutoring. When I'm not tutoring, I'm observing or giving lessons in nearby high schools. When I'm not doing that, I'm giving mock lessons in my labs. When I'm not in lab, I'm waitressing at the pizzeria. When I'm not waitressing, I'm doing homework. And when I'm not doing homework, I'm sleeping.

Or eating.

I might have taken on a little too much this fall. But that's okay, because I've had plenty of soup to keep me warm and cozy and sane.

Since the beginning of the school year, I have made three different soups (not counting chili). All thanks to this baby:

My immersion blender is seriously the most used appliance in my kitchen. It's almost frustrating that it's never clean when I need it, because I often use it multiple times a day. Smoothies, soup, pasta sauces, etc.

Potato Corn Chowder

I essentially made a pureed potato soup, and then cut the corn off the cob and added it in. Only four ingredients: onion, vegetable broth, potatoes, and corn. Everything but the broth came from the farmers market! Vegan, local, and organic. Just the way I like it.

Potato Soup

I used the leftovers from the other soup. And garnished it with fresh rosemary growing from the pail on my balcony. :) Three ingredients: onion, broth, potatoes.

Roasted Acorn Squash Soup

I've never actually had squash before. Or at least acorn squash. Admittedly, I had to ask Google how to roast a squash. But the experience was a positive one! I ended up eating spoonfuls of it before dumping it in the soup. 

So I've done the whole pureed soup thing. Now I'm going to try my hand at hearty, chunky soups. With lots of beans.