I Like it Hot!...

......

 (I think those are 2 knitting needles. hahaha)

For the past few months I have been making a big pot of veggie soup every week.  I don't care if it's getting hot either! Today I plopped a big yellow hot pepper & special garbanzo beans into the pool. The broth was so good as you can see I already need to add water to this and I made it this morning.  The beans & the pepper really pumped up what may have turned out to be ordinary.  I love how every pot of veggie soup has it's own personality and I think each pot gets better and better until it's gone. I have been reheating the soup on the stove instead of the microwave. Just like Mom used to do. :) I now season each pot with extra virgin olive oil. 

The garbanzo beans (chickpeas) in today's pot were cooked from dried beans. I used a Punjabi recipe whereby you cook them with some olive oil, a big pinch of baking soda (amuses me to watch it foam), a tea bag, 1" piece of cinnamon stick & 2 cardamon pods. I added 2 cloves of garlic & salt.  I think it makes them taste a little like boiled peanuts and I love boiled peanuts, no one else thinks so, but I can dream a bit, nonetheless it makes them good! Try it!  I may try it with some other beans as well just to see what happens. 

Why all the soup? The past few months I have been eating vegetarian mostly. I have eaten a few bites of meat- very few and I do eat eggs and cheese.  I haven't really missed meat - except for chicken. I love chicken like Forrest Gump liked shrimp, however, even that is getting less appealing.  It's an attempt to get a little healthier,  learn how to cook more creatively, and a little bit for my BFF too, who is suffering so much that she can't eat meat. I can share some of the things I cook or can cook for her when I go down.  Sometimes it's easy to get stuck eating the same things all the time when you change your diet. Especially when you are on a diet. Eating vegetarian is way more tasty than I thought it would be.  I saw this show the other night on tv and they said salad is not the healthiest thing to eat when given a choice between a salad and Ham & Cheese Sandwich. People are getting sick from eating unclean salads (bacteria & such) more than any other food. So they compared the risk and for that fact alone the ham & cheese won.  I'll take a cheese & hold the ham :) Grilled cheese :)  I am feeling better and have lost a little weight as well. So yea!  

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When the waitress in a New York City restaurant brought him the soup du jour, the Englishman was a bit dismayed. 

"Good heavens," he said, "what is this?" 

"Why, it's bean soup," she replied. 

"I don't care what it has been," he sputtered. "What is it now?"

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If I had some spare time... 

Free Kitchen Vegetable Cross Stitch Pattern 

To Print Click on the Picture to go to link & download.

Make it a great day!