Chilly outside and only soup and a sandwich will do!

I picked up these flowers at a local market and they completely set the tone for the weekend.

Even the colors inspired this Sunday’s menu.

Creamy baby lima bean and yukon gold potato soup with Kerrygold cheddar grilled cheese.

Fragrant rosemary and roasted garlic add to the rich creaminess of this meal.

Start by soaking the beans overnight.

Pour out the water and add fresh water for quick boiling.

When you’ve brought these beans to a boil pour out this water, as well.

For the final cooking add enough water to cover plus about 4 cups.

Add a large sweet onion and allow to cook until the onion is soft and translucent.

Meanwhile, roast a head of garlic in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes

When the onion is done remove and place in the food processer with the roasted garlic, about 2 Tbspn of dried rosemary, 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 Tbspn flour.

Blend until creamy.

Add this to the boiling beans.

Add 2 Tbspn of vegetarian boullion and salt and pepper to taste.

Chop 5-6 Yukon Gold potatoes and ad to the soup and allow to cook on medium heat for 2 hours.

Grilled cheese is perfect with this soup!

This is the perfect winter meal for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Enjoy!

I love eggplant and I love basil!

This recipe combines my favorites along with cheese and the crispy fried goodness of eggplant in olive oil!

This is basically eggplant parmesean but with basil pesto instead of red sauce.

I also did not use ricotta cheese.

This was easy and so rich and delicious that I can’t wait to make it again!

Ingredients

2 large eggplants

2 large eggs

1 cup flour or Italian style bread crumbs

3 cups mozzerella cheese

1/2 cup parmesean cheese

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 eggs

1/2- 3/4 cup of basil pesto

a pinch of nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Begin by dredging the sliced eggplant in the eggwash and flour.

I added slices of fresh basil to the 2 eggs for an extra bite of flavor.

Fry the slices until light brown and crispy and set aside.

Combine the pesto, heavy cream and nutmeg and mix well.

Coat the bottom of a large baking dish with the pesto cream mixture..

Place a layer of the fried eggplant on the bottom of the dish.

Combine the cheeses and 2 eggs and mix well and layer on top of the eggplant.

Then add another layer of the pesto and cream mixture.

Just keep douing this until you run out of ingredients.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until golden and bubbly!

This light tomato, red onion and basil salad complimented the cheesy richness beautifully!

This kale soup is so simple, so delicious, so nutritious and so inexpensive that it would be just wrong not to share it!

This recipe comes from the Aunt of this guy; my “Cooking Buddy”.

The family comes from Albania and learning about a new cuisine has broadened my own cooking repetoire, especially when it comes to vegetables.

I have gained a new perspective on preparing and serving food and learned how to create complete meals from very simple ingredients.

The ingredients for this soup are: Kale, potato, onion, garlic and celery, olive oil and yogurt . With salt and pepper to taste.

We garnished with sheep milk feta cheese and fresh green onion.

A hearty wheat bread truly rounds out this meal.

I will make this a part of my regular rotation of dishes around here, to be sure.

And I would like to experiment with vegetable stock, which we didn’t use.

I had my doubts about the lack of broth but I was pleasantly surprised by how flavorful the soup was without the added boullion.

And considering that most boullions contain MSG, sugar, sodium and other unnatural and unneccesary processed ingredients, it is nice to know that I don’t need to have homemade stock handy or run out to pick up something at the store when I want to make this soup.

The other thing that I like about this soup is that the olive oil and yogurt are added at the end of cooking.

From a nutrition perspective this helps to maintain the health benefits and maximum flavor of the yogurt and the olive oil.

Method

The process begins by boiling 1 large yellow onion and about 5-6 cloves of garlic.

We’re garlic lovers around here so I tend to use twice what I recommend at times!

I had 2 large baking potatoes which I chopped and added to the boil.

I then cleaned and chopped 2 large heads of kale and added them to the boil. Curly Kale worked well but I would have preferred Lacinto Kale.

I then chopped 4-5 large celery stalks and added these to the boil, as well.

I cooked this mixture until everything became soft and wilted.

Now, I was supposed to drain the water and pour the veggies into the food processor but I didn’t know that, so I just pureed everything together.

The cooking water was included and amounted to about 2-3 cups.

I put the pureed mixture into a large pot and continued to cook at medium heat for about 15 minutes.

We then added about 1 cup of olive oil and about 1 to 2 cups of yogurt.

We served this with some crumbled sheep milk feta and freshly cut green onion.

Salt and pepper to taste.

These roasted vegetables are the perfect dish for a sunny Autumn afternoon lunch.

Beautiful Donna, from Italy, made this light lunch for me and my BFF.

Roasted sweet potatoes, red peppers and zucchini with olive oil and salt and pepper in a 425 degree oven for about an hour is all it takes.

These were fantastic and tasted great with the mozzerella cheese fritatta with a hint of sauteed onion.

A light touch is the perfect ingredient.

Arugula salad with walnuts and dried cranberries is herb and berry freshness.

Eggs make a great light but protein and nutrient rich meal when you’re trying to eat light or stay on a tight budget.

This is so simple.

But don’t don’t be fooled.

This makes for an elegant, filling, nutritious, tasty, side dish or meal!

You can add nuts, dried fruits, mushrooms, wild rice, cheese, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg; go sweet or savory for an outstanding, economical dish!

I like to mix cinnamon and garlic and even butter.

Simply cut into halves, pour on about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, crush 3-4 cloves of garlic and bake in a 400 degree oven for about an hour and a half or until tender.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

I wrap these completely in foil.
Serve this chopped in chunks or “smashed potato” style.