Lentil Soup Redux

With fall weather, I'm all about the crock pot and having warm, hearty meals at the end of a cool day. This is especially true after football games!

While I've come home from work and put in the time to make homemade lentil soup, this crockpot soup is perfect for coming home after a long day and just eating!

The night before, do your prep work:

• 2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 2 stalks of celery, sliced
• 1 leek, slice and rinsed
• 1/2 sweet onion, sliced and diced
• 1 pound lowfat Italian chicken or turkey sausage
• 1 can (14 oz) fire roasted tomatoes
• 3-6 sprigs of thyme, stripped
• 6 basil leaves, minced
• organic chicken broth

Prep veggies for soup while you cook the lowfat sausage. Place cooked sausage in crockpot and start veggies (with little olive oil) in same pan you cooked sausage. sprinkle with fresh (or dried herbs) while cooking. Add lightly cooked veggies and tomatoes to crock pot. add chicken broth just to cover. Refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, add one pound bag of lentils to crock pot. Add another carton of organic chicken broth, salt and pepper. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. When you get home, use immersion blender to smooth-i-fy lower level of soup. Retain some sausage and lentils on surface for texture.

Serve in bowl with minced basil!

Chicken Chili

I didn't take a picture, but I should have. I've always wanted to make a great chicken chili, but I've always had to be satisfied with an "okay" chicken chile.

I finally did it! Here's how!

• Two -three chicken breasts, cleaned and cut into bigger than bite sized pieces
• 2 cans great northern beans, drained
• 1 can of pinto beans, drained
• 1 can fire roasted tomato pieces
• 1 small can of green chilis
• 1/2 poblano pepper cleaned and diced
• 1 orange bell pepper cleaned and diced
• 1 mango, skinned and diced
• 3/4 of a sweet onion, chopped
• I cup frozen corn
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• .5 tsp corriander
• .5 tsp cayanne pepper (more or less to taste)

The night before, put beans and tomatos in crock pot. In large pan use a little olive oil to saute chilis, peppers, onion, mango and spices until just tender. Dump on top of beans and tomatoes. Add a little more oil to pan and lightly saute chicken breast pieces just to get spices from pan onto chicken. Add a little organic chicken broth to skillet, swirl and dump chicken into crock pot. Cover and refrigerate overnight to let flavors blend.

In the morning, add corn, more chicken broth and a little white wine (can substitue a nice IPA). Set on low and start your day! Whether it's work or a football game, this fantastic chili whill be waiting for you when you get home.

Recommend serving in bowl with dollops of low fat sour cream.

Easy Pasta Salad

I've been eating this by the bucket. It's relatively healthy and easy to make and tastes so good when the weather is warm.

To make:

One box of whole wheat, whole grain rotini, cooked

2 chicken breasts, grilled, diced

red grapes, halved

3 stalks of celery, thin on the mandolin

fresh pineapple

craisins

lowfat poppy seed dressing

You could probably put just about anything in here that you'd like, but this combination works for me.  I've tossed raspberries in here, but it was a little too tart.

Enjoy!

AG out!

Dinner with The Electrician

So last week, K2/Girlfriend's former significant other (they dated for forever it seems) saw my post about the nacho heartburn. He facebooked me back about this place he'd eaten at with pulled pork sandwiches. He knows I have a weakness for the pulled pork. Did I want to try it?

Um, yeah!

Then he texted me yesterday about what time... Oh yeah! I'd forgotten it was set up for Monday night! My evening just improved like a thousand percent.

(It's worth noting here that we've had The Electrician in our lives since like 2003 at least. We still like him. In fact TOG bumped into him at the baseball game last week and was so excited to have seen him. We know The Electrician and K2/Girlfriend are just friends now.)

So anyway we get to this tiny place and it doesn't look very glamorous. But when you open the door... the smell! The smell! And then I saw the awards....

Dude has won some BBQ awards from some Kansas City competitions! The anticipation builds! After much contemplation, we made our selections and ordered. I settled for the pulled pork plate with two sides. The Electrician went for the Boss Hog with the Memphis (hot link and slaw) on top. [Editor's note: please note that you can buy pulled pork by the pound to take home. AG is doomed. Doomed I tell you.]

And here they are...

Pulled pork... note the "burnt end pieces" in the sandwich. OMG! And you can see the rub (which is perfect). I started pouring the sauce and then realized it was going to be more than I could handle and I just dipped instead!

Here's The Electrician's "Boss Hog". It comes pre-sauced. Uh oh. That's gonna be a mess....

A couple tasting notes here. The rub was fantastic. It accentuated and did not overpower the smoky flavor of the pork. The sauce was amazing. It was not sweet (vinegar based) and the flavor built over time. Halfway through the sandwich, the flavors were a full symphony in my mouth. The beans... The Electrician and I thought they were a little "tabasco-y". The corn bread. OMG. They put lemon zest in their corn bread. This was very light and not too sweet, but the zest totally cooled off the rub fest on your tongue. It took your taste buds completely the other way. Amazing.

Best of all...

 

They have a hand wash station right in the middle of the dining room.

These guys have it down. I'll definitely be back.

Thanks Electrician!

AG out! 

Cupcake

Cupcake: (noun; proper) Used by Asthmagirl as a term of affection for those she loves. In it's casual form, describes small cake in paper wrapper that is the perfect "after dinner" delight. See phrase "pass the cupcakes, Bubba".

The pub has started offering cupcakes. We have started bringing one home for K3, much to her delight. This is a stout chocolate cupcake, made with the pub's famous No-Doubt Stout ale! The icing is a peppermint creamcheese concoction that is just right... not too sweet and not too runny.

Perfection!

(And yes, I promptly sent my hand model (K3) to the kitchen to wash her hands. Sorry for the goober-y finger... and the hang nail!) 

Lazy Girl Dinner

What to eat first...

Did you ever have one of those dinners where everything on your plate was calling out to be eaten first?! With The Old Goat at work and no one to please but ourselves, K3 and I decided to go all out and spoil ourselves tonight....

After much discussion, here's the menu K3 and I whipped up for dinner...

Our favorite Ballpark "lite" hot dog, grilled of course! Asthmagirl's famous tarragon potato salad! And fresh fruits and berries drizzled with fat free vanilla yogurt!

It's almost healthy! And it sure beats the heck out of canned soup!

What did you have?

AG out!

Gluttony

Mother's day was full of surprises. I knew I was likely getting a trip to the pub, but I didn't know who was coming and who wasn't. In fact, I'm not sure TOG did either.

But really, it was low key and fattening tasty!

Behold, the jazz band....

The warm up act in the food is always the Brew-hole-io. Made from brewers grain and rolled in cinnamon and sugar and served blazing hot, I love them. Tog... not so much. He claims they are not sweet enough....

TOG's breakfast...

 

Spicy Sausage Hash topped with poached eggs, home made salsa and sour cream.

My breakfast:

Malted blueberry banana pancakes with cinnamon butter. And a "mug o' mimosa"! Across the table you can see the tahini stuffed french toast...

And the preferred breakfast...

Chorizo and gravy over biscuits topped with poached eggs!

 I'm still full...

AG out!

Grillin' and a giveaway!

A few weeks ago, a guy named Al contacted me from Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce. Like many of the other bloggers that Al connected with, he wanted to send me samples of Country Bob's sauce so that I could try it and blog about it. Then he'd let me give away a couple bottle to commenters on the blog. I have to admit, my first thought was "Cool"! My second thought was "What if I don't like it." So I emailed Al back and asked him. He didn't seem worried about it, so I agreed. My Country Bob's sauce arrived promptly.

In the meantime, I moved my blog and went through reindexing and prolonged feed contortions and waited for the weather to clear so we could grill.

Tonight, TOG (my beloved Old Goat) decided to throw ribs on the grill. He said he had a plan for Country Bob and his sauce. I roasted some veggies... (Carrots, Asperagus and Parsnips) while TOG ran the grill.  As it turns out, TOG applied Country Bob straight to the ribs. Talk about good! The perfect amount of tanginess and it just really accented the ribs beautifully. Personally, I was prepared to cobble together a sauce... maybe some soy, brown sugar, garlic, lime, herbs... I was sure I could put together a good sauce. But just straight on the ribs... classic, simple, savory! It actually created a slight glaze on the ribs that was oh so desirable! In hind sight, it might even work to dribble a little on roasted veggies, which I normally do with just olive oil and sea salt.

So, summer's coming and we'll be doing a lot more grilling. Do you grill? Do you want to perk up your grilling? Leave a comment below telling me what you like to grill or what you'd grill if you had some Country Bob's! I'll choose a couple winners to recieve some Country Bob's of their very own!

Contest ends on Sunday Evening!

PS~ I wish I had pictures to show you but the ribs were so good, that TOG is in the kitchen eating the last one. So much for left overs!

He's back!

Last year, I wrote a post about this guy because I liked his show. It made me think about cooking in a different way. The show itself acknowledged that disaster did indeed lurk around every corner and even the most proficient of cooks (which I am not) was at risk of public humilations! I appreciated the fact that he never took success for granted, and that he was secretly thrilled each time he successfully pulled off another caper! Who am I talking about? This guy here...

 

Chef Robert Irvine! And the Show?

 

I love Dinner Impossible. Yes, yes....I know Robert exagerated his resume and they booted him and brought Micheal Symon in, (who's an awesome chef) but the show lost it's ooomph. Chef Symon lacks that somethin' somethin' that keeps me tuned into the show. Maybe it's Chef Irvine's openness... disaster is lurking behind every pot and everyone knows it? Maybe it's his ability to throw together a menu? Maybe it's watching a good manager wrangle people and ingredients into a symphony of culinary excellence? Maybe it's his deep fried peanut butter and jelly dough-nuts?

Whatever the reason, he's back with six new episodes and I'm excited! I'm on board! I can't wait until Wednesday night. Chef Irvine will tide me over until my ultimate favorite show starts next week...

Hi. My name is Asthmagirl and I'm a food nerd.

Catering perfection

It feels like it's a been a total food week here on the blog! Not that that's a bad thing! Today's post moves us from food that I've cooked to food that someone else has cooked! (and I get to eat!)

Today I hauled my crabby back to work (not the best idea I've ever had) because I had a date with my event planning sidekick to go see the last caterer. Yes... it's time for the final tasting! (that sounds so ominous!) This caterer is kind of unique because they offer you a tasting AFTER you've indicated what menu you're interested in. Then when you go to the tasting, they make that food for you.

So we started off with one of our appetizers. We wanted the "breads and spreads" which is nine different spreads served at an appetizer station with toast points, pita points and bagel bites. We got to try four of  the spreads with a deli bread...

From the top moving clockwise, Olive Tapenade (OMG! Sweet Mother of Pearl), Sweet onion spread (OMG), Roasted red pepper hummus (bland but pleasant) and Herbed salmon spread (nice!). I liked the tapenade so much and my friend liked the onion dip so much that we protested when the chef tried to remove the plate from our table. He finally offered to package them so we could take them with us!

Our next plate was salad. We wanted two salads because not everyone likes Caesar. 

So on the left, the most amazing Caesar ever... with fresh croutons. I don't really like Caesar, but I couldn't quit eating it! The salad on the right is wild greens with gorgonzola, candied walnuts and cherry tomatoes with a pear vinegrette. Yummy! That dressing had "oomph"!

Finally, for the main, we selected the following....

At the top of the plate is the pasta dish... We wanted both a veggie and meat main so we wouldn't have to have veggie plates on the side. The pasta dish is penne in a light garlic cream sauce with sun dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. Again, I don't even like sun dried tomatoes and these were quite good. The other main at the bottom of the plate is chicken marsala with sauted mushrooms and sweet onions. Baby. I was full by this time and I kept eating "one more bite". It's embarassing to have your gluttany hanging out in public!

The chef was great! We totally enjoyed his humor and his cooking. This caterer runs 7 crews and your chef for the event is assigned. Our chef asked us to request him so he could be attached to our event. I'll gladly do it. He's an approachable guy and I want him on my team! Besides I loved all his tattoos and his gaged ears!

I'm still full. Thank goodness that lemon cake from hell is gone so I don't have to get up and go eat some! I wonder how many calories are burned walking into the kitchen...

Asthmagirl out!