Pots to Pea In

Whilst sometimes it might feel like we don't have a pot to piss in....we DO have pots for peas....and other assorted beans. I may, however, be absolutely lacking in lids. 

So, yesterday, I set forth to make up a metric fuque-ton of soups for lunch. Beans and split peas abounded all over the place. One recipe amended from a recipe given by Susan Powter, a recipe which I cannot find for the life of me...the other a concoction of my own creative thinking. 

Let us keep the peas, shall we?  

Split Pea Soup-The All-Vegan Variety

What You Need:

1 C. Split peas, dried

3-4 strips of soy bacon, torn or chopped

2 small onions or one large (I use yellow), peeled and roughly chopped

1 or 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled, whole

Kosher or Sea salt

Coarse ground black pepper

Olive oil, 1-2 tsp

1 C. Vegetable stock

4-6 C. Water

Large pot/Dutch oven thingy

Stand blender or a blender/wand/handheld thingy-rather, and IMMERSION blender....

What You Do: 

 1. Prep your veggebles and soy bacon. No need for fancy cutting or garlic pressing, because by the end, everything will either be melted down or blended to a perfectly split-pea-soupy consistency. 

2. Heat olive oil to medium in pot, then add onions, garlic and soy bacon. Saute for several minutes until onions begin to carmelize. 

3.  Add salt and pepper (I used about 1 tbs each.), split peas, vegetable stock and water. Stir to mix it all up. 

4. Raise heat and bring soup to a rolling boil for at least 5 minutes. Stir. 

5. Lower heat to medium-low...(that's about a "4" on my stove) and cover, leaving a little space for ventilation. 

6. Depending on what consistency of soupiness you prefer, you might wish to add another cup of very hot water during the simmering process. I like mine to be almost stew-like, so I added about 1/2 a cup. You could also go for a very thin, split-pea BROTH if you wanted too and add a TON more water. All up to you!  

7. Simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  

8. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 15-30 minutes. 

9. Place soup in blender or use immersion blender to completely break down all left over split-pea bits and create a smooth, lovely soup.  

This is sort of what it looks like right after adding all the liquidy stuff.

 Click on it to get the riveting visual of floating split peas!  

This one freezes well. Just allow it to cool completely, then add to freezer-safe containers with air tight lids and freeze. And, as gross as it might sound, this is not bad as a cold soup, or a room-temperature soup. Seriously!  

Now that THAT is out of the way, I am currently experimenting with cornbread...because how can you have split-pea or bean soup of any kind and NOT have cornbread???  I used ground flax seed, via Care2.com's advice, and almond milk in place of the dairy varietal. It sort of LOOKS the same, but only lunch and tastebuds will tell. I WILL report back. And yeah, I'm lazy and used the Jiffy boxed variety cornbread mix. Sue me! :D  

So, tomorrow, I'll endeavor to repeat the recipe for the 15-Bean Soup that I concocted. It should be exciting! I hope you'll return.  You can also sign up for email notifications or follow me on Blogger, if you so desire. Good fun, eh?  

Beating Meat: Day 1

Could I think of a more obnoxious (and/or suggestive) title? Probably. This fits. Sort of.

So, Day 1 of the 21-Day Kickstart came and went. A fairly decent day, highlighted by an enormous amount of stress at work, but a phenomenal ending to the day. Over the past month or so, we've already made serious changes to the dietary intake, eliminating most processed sugars and processed foodstuffs, foods with high or any cholesterol content and fatty, junky, well-preserved foods. So, this foray into healthier eating really isn't going to be THAT difficult. Probably just a bit more fibery (read: Farty), grainy and more vegetable-full.

For me, the day's menu went like this (until dinner):

Coffee with non-dairy creamer
Bowl of Raisin Bran (with Silk Vanilla)
1 large grapefruit with about 1/2 tsp of stevia
Split pea soup (with soy bacon) and Sea Salt-flavored Pita Crackers
1/2 whole grain bagel (and THIS is where I cheated...because we had some Whipped Philly Cream Cheese left in the fridge. I used about one tablespoon. Fail)

For the Beloved:

Coffee-black
1/2 Boca Chick'n patty
Peanut Butter and Jellies (using natural peanut butter (just peanuts..period)
Tortilla Chips

This is going to get a BEET long winded (pun intended)....so we'll break HERE. Click that little 'Read More' thingy to continue!!!

21 Ways to Leave Your Meat

In other words, tomorrow, (Monday), we are engaging in a 21-day health plan which we discovered whilst watching PBS one night. This doctor, Neal Barnard, was enlightening his audience about giving your body, health and fitness a 21-day kickstart. All it takes is going completely Vegan for three weeks!!! WHO KNEW, right?  Ha.

THIS is that book....

When you live in the country, surrounded by farms and their respective farmers, a hog farm and a cattle slaughterhouse on either side, it's kind of hard to imagine living life without meat or animal products. This is Ohio, for the love of all things Holy, seriously! Meat-free in a rural area? We must have lost our minds! Us? We, the parents who gave our son a whole, holy-hell ration of shit when he tried it out? We can't have gotten to the point where we, ourselfs, would even begin to entertain such thoughts. Could we?

We have.  And it starts tomorrow.....

I'm thinking the best course of action, one that will help us monitor our changes is to share them with YOU. LUCKY YOU!!!  I don't promise culinary delights or a complete mental transformation into the stereotyped Vegan. I just promise that we're going to give it our best for the next 21 days and see what happens. Stick around, you might learn something. If not, at least you'll get a sick sense of satisfaction (if you are carnivorous) that we're going without a lovely piece of blackened prime rib or a decadently grilled burger and YOU are not :)

I'm thinking I'll probably scour these webs of Inter and find assorted Vegan recipes, try out said recipes, search for and purchase assorted Vegan products and learn new ways to cook old things in a much healthier way. Hope you'll stick around for the next few weeks and get a giggle or three.

Until tomorrow!  

From Seed

It's been more than a while, I know.....starting a job outside the home, trying to juggle the schedules, the down time, the cooking, the shopping....got the best of me. But I am BACK! And, with a whole new direction in which to take this here corner of the Internets.

During the time I've been away, several events have transpired that have forced both myself and my beloved into reviewing our habits and making some serious changes therein. He found that he's got a dangerously high cholesterol count and I've got some minor thyroid issues as well as being in the range of being considered pre-diabetic. Not cool. Not cool at all.

So, in the interest of saving our own hides, we're exploring new alternatives and gradually making changes that will both improve our blood testing scores and get us into fighting shape. While some of my culinary creations here at Cooking Squared have been mostly healthy, some have not. That's about to change. Seriously. I'm doing some heavy research, learning new things, revisiting old things and kicking around the plans to create a new way of life that no longer involves copious amounts of fat, sugar and processed shite that passes for food.

I hope you'll stay tuned. If you're new here, feel free to Follow, via Google, or sign up for email updates. It might be a bumpy ride, but I intend to share what I learn, create new things and maybe even inspire you to make your own changes.

Take care!