Oddball Brunch

- leftover steak fries, reheated in the oven
- sweet potato fries with a side of real maple syrup
- Pacific foods, home style tomato soup
- morningstar breakfast patties
- grape juice with bubbles

Hamburger Stuffed Bread II

Of course, I can't make anything twice the same way...

I started with some extra virgin olive oil and about 1/3 pound hamburger in the Le Creuset skillet. Added 1 clove garlic, sliced, and about 1/4 cup red wine. When it was brown, I added 1 can condensed tomato soup, oregano from the garden, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and some garlic powder. Oh, and four color peppercorn.

Layered it into a hollowed out baguette with some cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350, in aluminum foil, until the family gets to the table.

DON'T do what I always do. I cut the bread in half. You want more of a deep hole, like a boat, instead of two French bread pizzas.

Soup and crackers

Still no homecooking, but I hope to get inspired before this evening. It looks like lunch will be at 2 p.m. today so we opted for a light lunch not to interfere with dinner.

V-8 Tomato Herb soup and whole wheat Toasted crackers...

We've never tried the soup before and the crackers are the last pack left from Nana's birthday party...

Oeuvo Diablo

A long time ago when I was still a reporter on the beat in Phillipsburg, we used to have breakfast at The Mercantile. Vito made a scrambled egg and cheese wrap with a sour cream/dijon/dill sauce to die for.

Today I made something reminiscent of that dish, with tomato soup, for lunch.

I toasted my tortillas in a skillet, with olive oil and some garlic pepper. I scrambled the eggs and cooked them with frozen parsley from my garden. Then, I placed the eggs in the wrap with a sprinkle of garlic pepper and a sauce 3 parts ranch dressing to 1 part horseradish mustard, well stirred.

Soup and munchees

Oh my goodness. Our meals today came out of BOXES. We had those delicious Amy's Organic Pockets for lunch. For dinner, we had Wegman's bisque-style cream of tomato soup in the aseptic container. And Health is Wealth Spinach Munchees.

This was the first time I ever had this particular soup. Previously, the only tomato soup I would eat was Pacific Foods Cream of Tomato but I can't find it anymore. I detest the Campbell's condensed. But Wegmans had the most intense flavor I have ever tasted in tomato soup. And it was chock full of vitamins A & C. And sodium, but you can't have it all.

Peorogies with spinach and feta & roasted red pepper tomato soup

My daughter had one of those hollow leg days, where she eats and eats and eats.

 When I had a yogurt, she ate half. She ate half her daddy's banana, then a ton of broccoli, then most of her peanut butter sandwich. When we got home, about an hour later, she ate half my leftover pork with apricots and one mini-egg roll.

Since my lunch had been pilfered, I poured some of this cajun trail mix I bought at Aldi. She ate half that too. I normally make my own trail mix (not as yummy as Gayle's), but this big bag was $3 and I liked that it was spicy, something different for the old taste buds.

During my site visit to Northeast Middle School, one of the girl's shared her potato chips with my daughter about half (if not more) of the single serving bag.

For dinner, I made Pacific Foods organic tomato and roasted red pepper soup with parmesan goldfish and Wegmans spinach and feta peorogies with sour cream. They were incredible!!!!!

Another photo from lunch

I used to have a blog... but it was a long time ago and this photo utility is giving me trouble... But here it is... The final product:

Ideal lunch for a dreary day

We are approaching desperate (and maybe destitute) in the status of our pantry. I used the last of our fresh veggies the other night when I finished the carrots. I haven't made bread in several weeks and we've been consuming too many deli bagels... which are almost gone anyway. 

So, while I had some dough for French bread on the rise, I threw together a batch of vegan cornbread and planned to augment it with Pacific Foods Organic Cream of Tomato soup and berry-no sugar added applesauce. I think it's Mott's Healthy Harvest. I don't usually buy individually portioned items, but I like this applesauce. The Healthy Harvest usually doesn't have HFCS (I always read the labels to check) and the blueberry and country berry flavors have 25% RDA vitamin C. Great for those *Darn, we haven't gone grocery shopping in weeks* states. And I could save beaucoup d'argent if I would eat Campbells instead of Pacific Foods, but I find Campbells utterly repulsive. And with Pacific Foods I don't have to have milk on hand to reconstitute it. And yes, I often have no milk. Hence the tendency to have favorite vegan recipes on hand.

But the muffins... I thought of cornbread last night, but opted for almost-Vegan Pumpkin Belgian Waffles instead. (adapted from the Post Punk Kitchen, cool vegan site.) My recipe is adapted from a vegan cooking class I took at a local community college with Eileen Bresslin. One of the keys to success is to have the oven preheated to 350 degrees, because the muffins won't rise if the heat isn't ready when they are.

Cornbread muffins:

Makes 18 small muffins (like those in photos)

1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 cup soy milk (or cow milk, if you're not going for vegan)

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or white, in a pinch)

1/4 cup (or a little less) vegetable oil (I use canola)

1 can corn (liquid in tact, I use no-salt-added)

soy bacon bits (optional)

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients including corn (liquid and all). Stir liquid into flour, quickly and just until mixed. Get into muffin tins and in the oven ASAP. Bake at 350 30-40 minutes.

1 quart of Pacific Foods Cream of Tomato soup. Three individual servings of applesauce which I get when they're on sale (3 packs of 6 servings for $5). Total of five muffins. Tap water to drink. Remaining muffins: six went into freezer, seven got wrapped and stored in the pantry. I'm working late tomorrow so we'll all take a couple for a late afternoon snack.