Thursday reminder

Today's mantra:

“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

Works wonders when working with the great unwashed public, especially those closest to our hearts.

End of Summer Soup

So good I only got pictures of one 1/2 eaten bowl

This hearty end of summer soup is a great low-attention one-pot meal for when the skies cloud over and the weather turns cold.

And for when your preggo taste-buds finally start responding to a wider range of flavors than fat and sweet.

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 bell peppers (one yellow one red), chopped
• 1 jalapeno, finely chopped
• 3 springs thyme
• 6 sage leaves, torn
• 1/4 cup basil leaves, chiffonaded
• 4 cups chicken broth/ stock (veggie or mushroom as a substitute)
• 1/2 cup roast turkey, roughly chopped or torn to bite-size pieces (baked tofu if making a vegetarian/vegan soup)
• 4 cups roughly chopped ripe tomatoes, heirloom, beefsteak, red, yellow, purple- doesn't matter, just don't bother peeling or seeding
• 1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled (pasteurized for us preggos, none for vegans!)
• 1/2 cup dry egg noodles (substitute with orecchiette if going vegan)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (vegans leave this out, obviously)
• 4 cups well-washed spinach, dried and chopped
• green olive bread, lightly toasted and buttered

1. in large non-reactive stock pot heat oil at medium high. add chopped onion and saute until fragrant & translucent
2. add celery and carrot and saute a few more minutes
3. add jalapeno, bell peppers, sage, thyme and turkey (tofu) saute until peppers are fragrant and soft, giving a good stir every minute or two. the goal here is to get a light coat of brown on as many veggies as possible. however, your pot might be a bit crowded, so don't worry if it doesn't work out
4. toss in all the tomatoes and reduce heat to medium low, cover and let cook until tomatoes are thoroughly broken down, stirring occasionally. this will probably take around an hour. here's where your laziness in not peeling or seeding pays off- the confetti of colorful skins adds visual interest and texture to the soup
5. once the tomatoes have broken down into an easy liquid, stir in your broth and bring back to a simmer, let simmer another 10-15 minutes covered
6. thoroughly mix your crumbled feta, egg noodles and beaten egg in to the soup. cover and set a kitchen timer for 5 minutes
7. when the alarm goes off stir in basil and 1/2 the chopped spinach, leave uncovered and set alarm for another 5 minutes
8. when the alarm goes off again, remove your soup from the heat and fold in the remaining spinach. keep soup covered, away from heat until it's cool enough to dish up
9. if you can find one, serve with a green (or black) olive baguette- the combination of sweet, salty, spicy soup and sour bread is heavenly.

This is happening?

Today is J & my four-year anniversary!*

And an excuse to post.

The recipe posting has been negligible over the last few months because I haven't really been interested in food.

In fact, I've only been eating capital B Boring foods.

Cottage cheese, roast turkey, avocado, string cheese, plums, yogurt, and more cottage cheese.

I've also been incredibly lazy about cooking.

Thank god the Trader Joe's in Davis opened; I didn't really miss not having one around for the last eight years, but their frozen dinners have been a savior to the overly sleepy cook with suddenly, horrifyingly, bland taste-buds.

Last night I had wilted spinach with 2% milk poured over it for dinner. Really.

Three weeks in Asia was truly great, but having to be careful about every bite I ate, and extra-vigilant against food poisoning left me feeling more than a hair on the wrong side of boring.

For a naturally shy girl, not going out for drinks with colleagues, or having Perrier with a twist of lime as my "fun" beverage, was a new experience.

Good thing I seek out new experiences.

Since a lot right now is falling under that category...

And if you haven't guessed it already...

If everything goes according to plan...

(and the whole thing has so far)

The July 8 post was a clue...

In March our lives are really going to change.

(This picture of our bean is almost a month old, but it's another month til we get a new one)

Life is surreal.

I am so happy and lucky to have four years of marriage with the best husband ever, and excited for what the future years will bring.

Happy anniversary love of my life ♥

*Blogger has it's time zones wrong- this was posted 2011.09.30 even though Blogger thinks it's the evening of Sept 29, no where on the planet is it still the 29th.