Foodie Goddess - Lentil Soup

It is officially fall! I thought to mark the occasion I would share with you one of our family’s favourite chilly weather meals. It is actually a vegetarian meal, but my husband who is a meat eater from way back, loves this meal, too. My Dad also makes requests for this every year when the air gets cool – yup, it’s that good!

This is our version of lentil soup with a side of yummy cheesy biscuits. You know the soup is very healthy, so you can enjoy these fantastic biscuits with no guilt…at least that is what we can tell ourselves! I was watching Rachael Ray yesterday and she calls this “girl math”. I subscribe to this train of thought myself.


Now this recipe makes a GIGANTIC pot of this stuff. Which is great because it also freezes most excellently {is that even a word?!}. I made this last weekend and I then froze two smaller batches for meals in the future and one lunch sized bowl for me to take to work one day. A great idea for work lunches on those cold winter days.

Here are the recipes ... Enjoy!

Foodie’s Favourite Lentil Soup


1 – 2 teaspoons of oil {canola, olive or heck even some good old butter}
1 cup of chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 cartons of chicken or vegetable broth {'no salt' added varieties work really well}
1 big can of diced tomatoes {28 fl oz}
1 cup of tomato sauce or even a can of tomato soup will work
2 cups of lentils {any colour of your choice}
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups diced sweet potatoes {I have used regular potatoes in the past and it good too}
1 tsp of oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp of ground coriander
¼ - ½ tsp of ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of fresh chopped spinach

First you will need a giant pot! Now saute the onions, celery and garlic in the oil or butter for 3 or 4 minutes, until they start getting soft. Now you will add everything else into the pot, except for the spinach. Bring your soup to a nice boil. Once boiling, cover and reduce to a simmer. Let it simmer for 30 minutes. Then add in the spinach and let it cook for another 15 minutes. We love to sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top – yum!


Now for the delicious side…



Ever so Yummy Biscuits

2 cups of flour {any kind works well}
4 tsp of baking powder
2 tbsp of sugar
1 ½ cups of grated cheddar {strong flavour works the best}
2 – 3 chopped green onions
1/3 of oil or melted butter
¾ cup of milk

Preheat the oven to 400 F

Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the cheese and onions and stir. Add oil/butter and milk, stir to mix. You will need to get your hands in here at this point. Gently kneed until you have your dough formed. Now, most civilized recipes will tell you at this point to roll out your dough and cut it with pretty round cutters. But I like the shortcut version myself. I just take the dough, form it with my hands and place it on the cookie sheet. Works great! I have also in the past used the wooden spoon and just dropped the dough onto the cookie sheet – this too makes fabulous biscuits. What an easy recipe you say! Yes I know!

Bake for 15 minutes until just starting to become golden.

Enjoy!

 
The way to any man or woman's heart or any other part of their anatomy, is through their stomach
~Rachael Ray

Foodie Goddess - The Perfect Choclate Chip Cookie

Welcome to another Saturday of guest blogging ... today we have my pal, Foodie Goddess and her mad domestic skills on display. Check back the third Saturday of the month for more recipes and mayhem from the kitchen of Foodie Goddess!

I am the Foodie Goddess, only because I always wanted to be known as a goddess!  I love cooking and baking, as well as decorating my house and crafting.  So all in all I am pretty domestic, but cooking is a passion!  My husband, "The Captain" and I have two children ages 8 and 2, known as the "J man" and "Miss K." They keep us very busy and slightly insane.  I am looking forward to sharing goodness from my kitchen with you!

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Hello Random readers!

 Today I am going to share with you the greatest Chocolate Chip cookie recipe I have ever made. These are delicious…soft, chewy and of course chocolaty! I came across this recipe about 10 years ago while working in a day program for adults with disabilities. Another girl and I ran a culinary program. We made these cookies one day with the group, and well, we were all in love. Between the staff and clients we devoured those cookies in no time flat! In fact it caused me to declare, “I will be the mom who makes the best chocolate chip cookies!”

Ten years ago I did not have any children. I was however a huge “Friends” fan. Any of you who may also have been a big fan back in the day may recall the episode where Monica was trying to recreate Phoebe’s secret family recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Monica wanted to be known as “the mom who makes the best chocolate chip cookies”. As it turned out on the show, the secret family recipe was actually the recipe on the back of Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip package – which by the way I have made and they are pretty good too. But with this recipe you now can be known as the mom, dad, friend, neighbour, co-worker or heck, just as “the person who makes the best chocolate chip cookies”.




The Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

~1 ½ Cups Butter, softened (butter is always better than margarine)
~1 Cup granulated sugar
~1 Cup light brown sugar packed
~3 Eggs
~2 tsp vanilla extract
~3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
~1 ½ tsp baking soda
~¾ tsp salt
~4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips {yes that’s right 4 cups! I believe this is what makes these so yummy!!}

Method:
Heat oven to 375 F.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat until light and fluffy.
Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat into butter mixture.
Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 8-10 mins or until lightly browned. Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheet onto wire rack to finish cooling.
> Try not to over bake these. They are most delicious when they are slightly under baked so they stay soft and chewy.