Roasted Tomato Garlic Coconut Soup

Right before Thanksgiving, the baby and I took the train to Kansas to visit my family.  I had six beautiful Roma tomatoes in the house right before we left, and I knew that no one would eat them while I was gone.  I didn't want them to go to waste, so I cut them in half, threw them into a bag, and tossed them in the freezer.

A couple of days ago, I decided to pull out the bag and roast the tomatoes with some garlic cloves.  I still wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, so I put them in a Tupperware and put them in the fridge.  Yesterday I came home freezing half to death and decided that I wanted soup.  It's a rare occasion that I eat soup from a can.  We've already established how I feel about excess sodium and ingredients I can't pronounce.  Luckily I had some perfectly roasted tomatoes ready to go.

I know the combination of garlic, tomato, and coconut sounds strange, but it's really not.  The coconut milk gives it a silky, creamy texture, and it blends so nicely with the rest of the spices in the soup.  This recipe makes two small servings (or one great big one; I ate it all, all by myself!), so feel free to adjust proportions accordingly.

Garbage Pail Vegetable Broth

Oh my gosh you guys.  I am SO behind.  I've got 14 recipes ready to be posted (and those are for big people.  I've got three baby recipes ready to go, as well), but I just can't find the time.  First I had strep; then the baby had croup; then I had bronchitis, and then it was the holidays.  There are days when I considered myself lucky to have time to get dressed and even luckier if I managed to take a shower.  At this rate you're going to be getting Fall recipes this Summer!

Here's one that's quick and easy though, and it's REALLY economical.  I've always called the Vegetable Butt Broth, but I figured maybe I should revamp the name if I was going to put it out there on the internet.  I'm not sure that this is any better, actually, but it's far more appetizing than it sounds.

When I clean my vegetables, I never throw away the parts that most people consider garbage.  I keep the celery leaves, the tops of red, yellow, and orange peppers (but never green; I loathe green peppers), carrot peels, potato and sweet potato peels (but sure to clean them very well first), zucchini ends, outter cabbage leaves that are a little wilty, pieces of squash not quite big enough to roast, the ends of tomatoes, the thin outter rings of the onion, and anything else I happen to be using at the time.  I also save vegetables that are about to go bad and won't be used before they turn.  I keep a big bag in the freezer, and just throw all of this stuff in it as I have it.  When the bag is full, I make veggie broth.  This is far more economical than buying pre-made broth; it has far less sodium, and it also costs less than going out to buy veggies to make your own.

Baby Friendly Cereal Bars

Baby Charlie really likes to eat, and I really like to feed him things that are good for him, free of sodium and sugars and preservatives that I can't even pronounce.  The ingredients on some manufactured "healthy" baby treats make me shudder.  I turned to the internet to get some ideas for making my own.  That's where I discovered Lou's awesome site.  She's got some amazing healthy, baby-friendly recipes.  First I tried following her recipe for these cereal bars to the letter, but for whatever reason, it just didn't work for me.  I couldn't get the dough to be an actual workable dough for the life of me, and I certainly couldn't get it to roll out.  I have no idea what I did wrong, or why it didn't work out, but I didn't let it discourage me, and I did what I always do.  I used her great recipe as my base, made some adjustments, and tried again.

I finally achieved success, and so far we've had apple, banana, and yellow squash cereal bars.  The baby thinks these are the best thing ever, and I'm pretty happy with them myself.  He gets his yummy snack without all that added stuff that I don't want him to have, and I get peace of mind from knowing that he's starting off his life eating well.

Hmmmm what's this?

Coconut Curried Sweet Potato Lentil Stew with Quinoa and Kale

Whew.  That's a long name for something that was pure improvisation.  This stew was born from a case of the blues.  It's gray and rainy and cold and altogether nasty outside, precisely the weather I really hate.  I have a chest cold, and the cough is driving me crazy.  I'm chronically sleep deprived and completely exhausted.  I went and worked out, but it was a gargantuan effort, and it made me feel worse instead of better.  Everything was just crappy, and I needed comfort.  It was also lunch time, so comfort food sprang from the meager ingredients I have in my kitchen.  It's also got three super foods, but that happened completely by accident.  I was just using things I thought would be good together.  I suppose it says something at least slightly positive about my eating habits that I even had three super foods hanging out in my kitchen!

Peanut Butter Banana Breakfast Pizza

Pizza for breakfast.  This sounds like a winning idea to me!  When I saw Chocolate Covered Katie's Breakfast Pizzert, I knew I was going to have to try it out ASAP.  Because I'm me, however, I can't just let a recipe be.  I had to tweak it to suit my needs and tastes.  These days I do my best to use oat flour instead of any other, or at least a combination.  I'm all about the lactogenic foods!  With the exception of the chocolate chips, this is quite healthy, as well.  It's no added fat, refined sugar free, and made with oat flour and fruit.

You could probably make this into a healthy dessert actually, but you'd have to sweeten it up a bit.  It would be really good with maple syrup, I think.