Creamed Greens
November 19, 2012 - Written by DianaThis recipe is a great way to use up greens – any kind of greens for your Holiday dinner. My market bag not only has greens in the form of collards, kale, chard, spinach, but there was bok choy last week and we even have greens on root vegetables – beet, turnip and radish. What to do with all of those greens. Cream them up. When we were little my grandmother made creamed spinach with the frozen spinach and mushroom soup. This is my version – using all different types of steamed greens, and leeks. As a plus I took the bok choy – the greens were steamed and the more sturdy white part was sauteed in the oil along with the leeks for extra flavor. My version uses a roux and also chevre instead of cream of mushroom soup.
My husband said he never had creamed greens or spinach, usually he had the canned spinach. I never liked canned, and frozen is okay, but nothing is as good as fresh, even if you are cooking it up. However, if you are creaming your greens, you can use frozen – stay away from canned. It’s just not nice at all.
It takes …
Pumpkin, Chard and White Bean Soup
November 8, 2012 - Written by DianaThis soup is easy, semi fast and very seasonal. I made this on vacation with a microwave, a bowl, and one pot on an electric burner. The kitchen was a small not even efficiency size kitchen. One microwave, a dorm fridge, a two burner cooktop and a small sink with a tiny counter made up the kitchen. I have trouble with how small my small kitchen is and I could live with this little efficiency for the one week we were staying in Duck, North Carolina – but I think one week is the limit.
While the recipe made four bowls of soup, my husband and I both ate two bowls each for dinner. It was a vegetarian dish for us, you can add sausage to it, or chicken and it would go well. Also, you could serve it as a soup course along with a sandwich. While spelt berries were cooking in broth, the microwave was used to partially cook the pumpkin – after slicing in into pieces and cleaning out the seeds and pulp. Only one soup/stew pot was used along …
Chicken, Chard, Bean and Butternut Squash Soup
February 10, 2011 - Written by DianaI told you I was going healthy for the Superbowl. We brought this soup, plus some berries and greek yogurt with honey – plus vegan chocolate avocado cupcakes. We did splurge though because my sister in law made some awesome queso with sausage that was great with chips and they also had some Buffalo Wild Wings. It was a small gathering, but there was plenty of food and even though our favorite team disappointed, we had a good time (well most of us).
I bought my butternut squash last fall at the farmer’s market. We put them into baskets and stored them on shelves in the unheated basement. The food doesn’t freeze down there, but it does get rather nippy downstairs. Last year I tried storing them in a warmer spot, but some of my squash went bad. This year, they are in perfect condition and not even drying out. I’m thrilled that we put up a nice shelving unit to use for winter storage.
Anyway, I also have been trying to work with beans more, but not canned beans, dry beans, and so that was the start of this soup. I …
Big Bowl of Whole Grainy Dinner Goodness
January 27, 2010 - Written by DianaTonight’s dinner was inspired by a store bought frozen lunch I had today. It had beans, whole grain orzo, dried cranberries, spinach and a little bit of cheese. I enjoyed it quite a bit and thought I would use it as inspiration to create my own big bowl of whole grainy goodness. Even though the barley and quinoa stuck to his braces, my son thought it was delicious. My husband also liked it a lot too. I know my daughter would have enjoyed it, and that she would have grabbed the leftovers thrown salad dressing over top and had it cold for lunch the next day. One thing I would have changed would have been to add in more chard. I dug through the snow to find what chard I could from the raised beds in the garden. I found some small leaves, only about 7 or 8, but it was enough to give it a little color and flavor. I just wish I had more. It’s so cool to go dig through the snow for chard in the middle of winter, but your fingers get awfully cold and you have to be careful that they don’t stick to the …
WW – Chard From My Ohio Winter Garden
January 21, 2010 - Written by DianaWhat a nice surprise after a dreary, cloud covered day, chard from my garden that I used for our dinner. Isn’t that the coolest – in the middle of winter?! It’s just a little bit, but it was so delicious. ( PS ignore the wilty looking stems – I pulled that part out).
Turkey, Chard and Red Jasmine Rice
November 28, 2009 - Written by DianaTurkey leftovers on Friday are always great. You shouldn’t want to do a huge preparation, just a little relaxing cooking for the day after Thanksgiving meal. I have this lovely chard colored red, yellow and green growing in my garden. No dyes involved in case like my kids you were wondering. We planted this in the raised beds earlier this past summer, but since Chard loves cool weather it is thriving and growing enthusiastically. Isn’t this just gorgeous?
I also had some Ruby Red Jasmine Rice to try out, which I thought would look awesome with my chard.
I pulled off the chard stems, chopped them and steamed them in the rice cooker along with the rice. My rice cooker has a steam tray that sits up from the rice.
