Lentil Soup

I really enjoy watching Sara Snow on TV as she really is an advocate for natural, pure living. This is her recipe for lentil soup. Go to www.sarasnow.com for all of her great cooking recipes and lifestyle tips! I added yellow squash in the mix and used green lentils instead of red. This is such a simple recipe too! I put everything into my iron cast dutch oven and within one hour, we had warm, healthy soup. I am hoping this makes my husband feel better who is feeling under the weather. Serve with warm fresh bread or grilled cheese :)

Lentil Soup

INGREDIENTS
1 quart chicken stock (I used vegetable broth)
1 quart water
2 cups red lentils - rinsed (I used green lentils)
1-2T olive oil
2 onions
3 cloves garlic
5 carrots
4 stalks celery
½ pound potatoes (optional)
2 zucchini
1 28oz. can diced tomatoes
3 teaspoons salt
Pinch of each of the following: Cumin, Bay leaf, Dried or fresh parsley, Oregano, Thyme

INSTRUCTIONS:
Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil and allow to cook for 45-60 minutes.
Chop together onions garlic cloves, carrots, celery, potatoes and zucchini.
Add vegetables into the pot.
Add 1 can diced tomatoes
Add salt, cumin, bay leaf, parsley, oregano and thyme to taste.
Allow to simmer 10 minutes more.
Serve piping hot with warm whole grain bread.

Note: 1 quart = 4 cups

ENJOY!!

Asian Slaw Salad

With the last few days with the surprisingly high temperatures, I was looking for a cool, crisp, fast lunch. Here is a healthy and satisfying salad using fresh vegetables. I added some additional veggies from my refrigerator to add more nutritional content.

Here are some additional veggies we added: red peppers, cucumber, mandarin oranges, and for protein almonds. I bought all of the ingredients, including a pre-packaged broccoli slaw at Trader Joes.

Tip: I saved and recycled jars from jam to store this and future homemade dressings. For the dipping sauce,/dressing we put everything in a blender and stored in the glass jar.

Ingredient List
Serves 4

Dipping Sauce
6 Tbs. rice wine vinegar
3 Tbs. low-sodium soy sauce
3 Tbs. chopped cilantro
2 tsp. dark sesame oil
1 1/2 tsp. grated fresh ginger

Slaw
1 8-oz. pkg. shredded cabbage and carrots (about 4 cups)
4 Tbs. chopped cilantro
1 green onion, sliced (about 2 Tbs.)

Directions
To make Dipping Sauce/Dressing: Whisk together all ingredients in small bowl, and set aside. I blended all ingredients after whisking together.

To make Slaw: Toss together cabbage and carrots, green onion and cilantro in bowl (and any additional veggies). Fold in 3 Tbs. Dipping Sauce. Divide remaining sauce among 4 small bowls, and transfer to serving platter.


You can serve this dish with potstickers, or add some tofu or grilled chicken to the salad for added protein. Enjoy! Let me know how you like this dish!

Welcome to my first blog!

This is the first entry to my butterfly kitchen and what a perfect day, Earth Day, to reflect my personal mission and goal with this site. Today and always I strive to preserve mother earth, encourage recycling and energy efficient technology, love and protect all of earth's creatures and appreciate and practice love, peace, and joy in all that I do. This blog will illustrate my daily, weekly or monthly experiences and highlight my celebration of life. You will experience with me some of my 2009 goals to more fulyl enrich my life.

One of my goals for the year 2009 was to experiment and be a more experienced cook. You will see some of my recipes I try and would like to share with you, my family and friends. The fun part will be the combination of both vegetarian and meat dishes as my home enjoys both cuisines. I, being a vegetarian now for five years and my husband, Gary, is a meat eater. I fully support his choice in cuisine as does he, but we always try to eat organic, free range and products that are as cruelty free as possible.

My second goal for 2009 was to live a more "green life." One of the ways I am going to do this is by participating in home gardening for organic vegetables and fruits, advocate recycling, and so much more. We just planted our garden! We are looking forward to our tomatos, cucumbers, red/yellow/green peppers, eggplant, fresh herbs (cilantro, basil, parsley, mint, lavender), zuccinni, yellow squash and our fruit trees-plums and peaches!

More goals, memories, and experiences to share. Thank you for sharing in the joy of creating this page. I hope to be more connnected to you and provide some great cooking tips and recipes as I practice along the way.