Dinner-Yum-o!

Yes, I am posting about dinner again. See, I have started to take pride in what I make for food, and with the help of some meal planning and some TV watching (Thanks, Food Network!) I am on a "make it yourself" kind of kick. I have done a really good job so far this year not going out to eat and not eating prepackaged foods.

I had a "cooking day" today, which basically means that I spend several hours in the kitchen cooking things of all kinds.

Here is what I made

1.) yogurt
2.) granola (2 kinds, one for Jared and one for me)
3.) almond milk
4.) vanilla ice cream
5.) strawberry ice cream
6.) fresh bagels (as in I cooked, boiled and baked them)
7.) baked potatoes
8.) Basil pea soup

Many of these things are staple items for us that I make on a regular basis, but the bagels were a new experience. I usually make vanilla ice cream, but I took half the batch and put strawberries in it. It was REALLY good just as a base. It is hardening up now, and I will try some a little later.

The pea soup was the highlight. I had seen it on the Food Network earlier in the week. It struck a cord because I had some spare peas lying around that Daphne decided she did not want, and I needed to do something with them.

It was so simple, but it was amazing. I may be making more soon because I do have some more peas. Here is how I did the recipe.

Sweat 1 onion for 8 minutes until it is soft then add 2 cloves of garlic.

Immediately dump in about a half a bag of frozen peas and cook for 2 minutes.

Take the mixture to the blender and add 2 cups of stock (chicken or vegetable). Blend until smooth.

Return to the stove and add 2 cups of milk (you could even do rice milk, and this could be vegan).

Heat through, add 1 tsp of cayenne pepper and serve.

It was amazing!

On a side note, I did start the stove on fire during all of this cooking. No one is perfect right?