It's Better Homemade

The last four days have found me either languishing on the sofa, bed, or in my favorite chair. Some very nasty little guy at Walmart who was in the Christmas spirit decided to share his crud. If I live and if I find him, I will lick his face. Hard.

In the meantime, I haven't really wanted to eat anything. After all, food isn't very good if one has no sense of taste. But, today, the thought of tomato soup was enough to make me take up my bed and walk... all the way to the kitchen... Since commercial soups seem to have high fructose corn syrup added, I opted to make my own. This is what I made:

Tomato Soup

2 T. olive oil
2 T. chopped onion
1 T. chopped garlic
1/2 t. ginger powder (or 1/4 c. chopped ginger -- I used the powder)
1 can or jar of tomatoes
1 c. vegetable or chicken broth (I used veggie bouillon)
1/2 c. milk  (or almond milk)

Cook onion and garlic for one minute in olive oil. Add ginger, tomatoes, broth, and milk. Heat to just boiling (milk will curdle if it gets too hot too quickly).

Slowly put soup in blender and liquefy. Reheat and serve with one tablespoon mozzarella cheese as a garnish.

Add a few good crackers (we like the Kashi multi-grain) and you have a great lunch with the added benefits of a lot of vitamin C and garlic for that nasty cold.

Enjoy!

Nine Minutes Or Less

We are eating a lot of this these days. Kinda tells you what did well in the garden.

It is becoming this:

Whole Wheat Pasta with Pesto. 

Yummers...

Garlic Pesto

3 c. basil leaves (wash if they have been sprayed; I use a combination of curly basil and sweet basil)
3 T. pine nuts
1 clove garlic or 1/2 t. powdered garlic (or to taste)

Using a food processor, chop until blended. Mine is chopped until the pine nuts are fine little grains.

Add:

1/2 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Mix until blended.

I put mine in a pasta bowl and then add the pasta to it. It seems to blend better. You can also add little butter to the pasta just before mixing it with the pesto. We put fresh Parmesan cheese on the individual servings, but you could add it to the pesto as well.

You can freeze this as well by spooning the mixture into ice trays, freezing, and then storing in a Ziploc or freezer container. When you are ready to use, set out and let thaw. Perfecta for marinara, too!