Indian Inspired Lentil Soup

We had this filling soup with Naan and it was just YUMMY!!!

Ingredients:
4 cups organic vegetable stock
2 cups water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 cups red lentils (rinced)
baby spinach
2 tsp curry powder (I used store bought.. if you are adventurous and like to make your own curry blend - go for it)

Instructions:
1. heat oil, add onion and saute until soft and brown. add garlic and saute for a couple more minutes.

2. add stock, water, curry powder and lentils. Stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 35 - 45 minutes.

3. Add spinach and cook for another 5 minutes (until spinach is wilted).

4. Serve and enjoy.


I got this recipe from a book and altered it a little for my own tastes.. next time I make it I will be altering it a little more.. the plan is to add some carrot or sweet potato (for a little sweetness) and a can of diced, organic tomato.

Tomato, Tofu and Spinach Pasta


This one came out about perfect on the first try.

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 firm tofu, cubed
1 large onion, diced
1 large celery stalk, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 can organic diced tomato
baby spinach
2 cups vegetable spiral pasta (dry)

1. cook & drain pasta

2. heat oil, add tofu, onion and celery, saute until onion and celery are soft

3. add garlic and canned tomato, simmer to allow some of the liquid from the tomato to evaporate and then add the spinach.

4. Once the spinach has wilted, serve over pasta and enjoy!

Recent Recipes

Cara-Lea here.

We haven't updated in a week, life just got a little nuts. I have 3 new recipes to update with.
First up - Indian Mango Tofu


Ingredients:

1/2 block extra firm tofu, cut into cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
3 bok choy leaves, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 onion, diced
1/2 bottle Patak's Mango Chicken sauce
1 cup aztec rice mix (colusari red rice, long grain brown rice, split peas, amaranth)

1. cook rice.

2. heat oil, add tofu and saute until golden brown

3. add onion and bok choy, saute until soft.

4. add garlic, saute until soft.

5. add Mango Chicken sauce and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes

6. serve over rice and enjoy

A couple of notes on this one - the Mango Chicken sauce is named for the dish it is MEANT to be used for. There is NO chicken or any meat in the sauce. It is appropriate for vegetarians, but not vegans as there is cream in it. The aztec rice blend is something we found in our local "Bulk Barn". It is quite tasty, but any rice or grain product could be used.

Who are 2 Chix? Allow us to introduce ourselves.

I'm Cara-Lea. I am 36 years old and I have struggled with my weight for my entire life. I currently weigh 323 lbs, which I am admitting to publicly because I personally think keeping secrets doesn't help anyone. I don't know what I would like my goal weight to be. I have never weighed less than 200lbs as an adult, so while I know I want to weigh less than 200lbs, I truly don't know what weight I would feel healthy and happy at. I also found out recently that I am prediabetic and that scared the crap out of me.

I am a devoted animal lover, and since childhood I have struggled with eating meat. I have tried to go vegetarian more than once in the past, but I have always gone back to eating meat. Why? In typical "me" fashion, I jumped in without looking and tried to be perfect right from the start. Yeah.. good luck with that one. A couple of months ago, I found myself in a place where I was thinking about going veggie again. I was also looking at my weight and feeling seriously unhappy about it. So this time I have a plan. Gradual changes that I can live with.. forever. I have already given up beef and pork (except bacon) and I am working my way towards giving up bacon, chicken and eventually fish as well.

And I'm Suzanne. I'm 37 years old. I've never really had to worry about my weight (I know, lucky me, right?) and to be honest I've spent most of my life being pretty complacent about my activity level and what I was eating. However... I'm starting to find that I'd like to be healthier. I don't mean skinnier - that's not what I'm worried about. I just want to be more fit so that I have more energy and daily activities (like my job - teaching) don't take as much out of me!

Part of being healthier means working out, or at least being more active. This is hard considering I'm on my feet at work all day and I work on the 3rd floor of a building with no elevator! The hard thing is finding activities I like. Rollerblading is fun but can honestly only be done half the year (yay for Canadian winters!). Walking the dogs (3 greyhounds) is also good. I enjoy yoga and pilates even if I'm not overly flexible, and some of the Wii exercise "games" can give a reasonable cardio workout. So on my journey to a healthier life, I need to keep searching out activities that I like and can fit into a busy daily/weekly schedule.

In terms of eating, I'm not planning to go completely vegetarian. There are days when I enjoy a good steak! That said, I did have a grilled portobello mushroom this past weekend when I could have had a steak, and it was only partly because I'd had an upset tummy the day before. What I do want to work on is cutting down on the processed crap that is soooo easy to grab for lunch. I don't eat a lot of fast food, really... but it's so much easier to grab a frozen dinner in the morning than put the effort into making a healthier meal.

So there we are, in a nutshell. Welcome to our blog!