Big cook

Recently I had to spend a few days away from home. I still wanted my husband to have good, nutritious food while I was away, so I decided to do a "big cook."




First on the list was mushroom-barley soup. This is from a recipe I picked up a few years back from "Mother Earth News." My husband loves this dish!

I cut up a bunch of veggies. The squash was local, the zucchini was regional, and the rest were just plain ol' organic. We do the best we can!

This is a pan of kale being sauteed in garlic powder and vegetable broth. We simply cannot locate kale in our hometown, much less organic. But thankfully this year I decided to grow some. And, in the hottest part of the summer, it continues to grow. I am very surprised by that.

I took part of the raw veggies I mentioned before and steamed them. Those were combined with brown rice for a quick stir fry. The raw veggies were eaten with hummus.

This is the brown rice he ate with the veggies. Whenever I need rice, I make a full batch in my rice cooker (8 cups) and freeze it after cooling. It it so convenient whenever we want some rice to just pull out a hunk and defrost.

This is another of my hubby's favorites. It's a wonderful recipe called African Peanut Stew, taken from "Vegan Planet." Serve over whole wheat couscous and sprinkle some chopped peanuts on top (and a sprig of cilantro if you like an herbal garnish) and you have a yummy and filling dish.

It's not the best picture, but here is the result of the big cook:

-Four pint jars of mushroom-barley soup (after hubby had pilfered a bowlful-lol.) We store them that way because they seem to keep longer in the fridge that way. I think it has to do with the fact that they cool faster individually than when it's in a big bowl. Also, my husband reheats them at work and they don't spill out of the jars like they do in a bowl.

-A bowl (for then) and 2 bags of kale to be frozen and eaten later this year.

-A bowl of steamed veggies

-Big bowl of raw veggies

-Large bag of brown rice, frozen, to be used as needed

-A few days worth of Peanut Stew.

I was happy not to have the guilt of leaving my hubby with frozen pad thai and spaghetti while I was gone!