Roasted Tomato Soup

This recipe comes from Kripalu. They generously share some of their recipes on their website and the Roasted Tomato Soup caught my eye. This makes a beautiful healthy homemade soup in under an hour.

Vegan Roasted Tomato Soup

Serves 4–6

4 cups plum tomatoes, cut in half
2 stalks celery, diced
1 small carrot, diced
½ medium onion, large diced
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
Pinch of cayenne
¼ teaspoon salt
Pinch of black pepper
1½ tablespoons olive oil
1 cup canned tomato puree (I ended up using sauce since I didn't have puree in the house)
½ cup canned diced tomato (I used fresh plum tomatoes, diced)
1 cup vegetable stock or water, plus additional for blending
1 cup unsweetened rice or soy milk (if you don't want to go vegan, I would add evaporated milk)
1 tablespoon red wine (I used white since that's what I had open and available)
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Toss tomatoes, celery, carrots, onion, garlic, marjoram, cayenne, salt,

and pepper with olive oil and spread on a large baking sheet.

Roast in the oven until veggies are soft and begin to brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Transfer vegetables to a blender and blend until smooth, adding stock or water as needed.

Transfer to a large soup pot and add remaining ingredients.

Simmer to heat though, about 15 minutes.

Serve topped with croutons, sprouts, or fresh avocado.

I went with the avocado. This soup was delicious.

Mother Bear Project

I listen to a lot of knitting podcasts. One of my favorite podcasts is CogKNITive. The host, Dr. Gemma, is fond of a charity called the Mother Bear Project, so I decided to look into it further.

This wonder project gives handmade crocheted or knitted teddy bears to orphaned children in Africa who have little to nothing of their own. The bears bring comfort and friendship to these children. The pictures of the children holding their bears is so moving.

Check out the Mother Bear Project Website. They ask for a small monetary donation to get the knit or crochet pattern, it's so worth it. The actual project took less than a day. I encourage you to support this charity.

Pink Regia Socks

In my continuing quest to make 2011 the year of adding more handmade socks to my wardrobe, I made another pair of toe up plain stockingnette socks using 2 circs. My Pink Regia socks on Ravelry

On this pair, I did a turkish cast on for the first time. Prior to this I've always used Judy's Magic Cast on. I have to say I think I like the turkish cast on better. For me it was a little easier.
I also used a tubular bind off for the first time. I liked that too.
C/O 16 sts. I used Fluffy Knitter Deb's Turkish Cast On tutorial. I thought it was one of the best explanations of turkish cast-ons I found.

Toe:
Row 1: k1, kfb, k to 1 st before end, kfb, k1
Row 2: K all sts
Continue increasing until there are 56 sts and begin foot
K all sts until sock reaches where the top of the foot and leg meet.

Begin Heel
R1: 1st needle (top of foot) K all sts;  2nd needle: (sole of foot) k1, kfb, k to 1 st before end, kfb, k1
R2: K all sts
Repeat thes 2 rows until 52 sts are on needle 2

Heel Flap (only done on needle 2). Do not work Needle 1
K28, ssk, k1, turn
S1, P5, p2tog, p1, turn
s1, k6, ssk, k1, turn
s1, p7, p2tog, p1, turn
continue K and P rows, start ssk or p2tog 1 st before the gap until 28 sts remain

Leg
Continue K all sts on both needles for leg until the leg is 7" or is as long as desired.

Ribbing
k1, p1 rib for 1"

For these socks I used a Tubular cast off. It made a really pretty and stretchy bindoff.

Pecan Mushroom Sloppy Joes

I was inspired by several recipes on eatingwell.com to make vegetarian pecan mushroom burgers. None of the recipes on eatingwell were exactly what I wanted, so I borrowed a little from here a little from there and added a few things of my own.

1/2 c. cooked brown rice, cooled

1 tsp. grapeseed oil

4 oz. mushrooms, diced

1 small onion, diced

dash of balsamic vinegar

1/2 c. pecans, chopped

1 carrot, shredded

1/4 c. panko breadcrumbs

dash of cayenne pepper to taste

I heated up the grapeseed oil in the pan. I sauteed the the mushrooms and onion, with some salt and pepper to taste. When the mixture was dry I put a dash of balsamic vinegar and set it aside to cool down.

Add the pecans to the pan and toast until fragrant about 4 minutes. Add to the mushroom/onion mixture. Add the carrots, breadcrumbs and cayenne pepper.

I formed the mixture into patties. They were kind of crumbly and I set the patties into the refrigerator in hopes they would firm up.

I sauteed the patties in a little grapeseed oil and they kind of fell apart when I flipped them.

I served these sloppy joes with a blue cheese dressing and homemade hamburger buns (will blog on the buns another day soon). For the blue cheese dressing I combined greek yogurt, blue cheese and a couple of dashes of worcestershire sauce.

So, they were delicious, but they did not stay formed in the patties, which is why I decided they were really sloppy joes. Next time I try it I might add an egg and see if that helps them stay together, or I may just decide sloppy joes it is and keep them vegan (minus the blue cheese dressing of course)!

Detoxing in January Week 2

By the end of Week 1, I was thoroughly sick of the meals for that week. In fact, two of the meals, I could barely choke down, so when Week 2's menu plan started I was thrilled.
I also made sure my fish choices were varied and were more of the 'steak' type of fish - tuna, mahi mahi, salmon.

Day 1: everything tastes great (except for the dreaded meal 3 - pumpkin, oats and eggs). Can't do it. I need to leave out the pumpkin.
Day 2 - 5: Things were going well, but, frankly I was a little tired of the same thing over and over again. I totally abandoned meal 3 and was eating 5 mini meals a day instead of 6. This meant I was hungry and I finally caved and abandoned the diet Friday night.

I definitely felt better and was pleased that I lost some weight. It's been 7 days now since I went off the detox diet. Doing the diet for as long as I did helped set me up to be inspired to keep up more healthy eating habits for the past week.

I would definitely do this diet again, but, for me it's more of a non-winter diet since much of what is eaten is cold or raw. I would also find a substitute that works nutritionally as a meal replacement for meal 3.

Universal Toe Up Socks made with Noro Sock Yarn

I just finished my first pair of socks this year. I used Amy Swenson's Universal Toe-up Sock pattern from Knitty: Summer 2006 to determine how many stitches I needed for my gauge and the rest was my own vanilla sock pattern.  I like to do straight-forward stockingnette socks so I can easily tote them around with  me and not worry about where I left off or have to carry a pattern.

This was my first time working with Noro yarn and in the beginning I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. It feels a little rough and stiffer than what I am used to, but, it worked up very nicely. I really like the way the colors change and am overall quite happy with the end product.

Ravelry link to my page

My gauge was 6 st/in I needed 46 stitches to fit my foot my size 8 foot (9") with a circumferance of 8.5"
I used size 1 circs.

Materials: Noro Kureyon Sock - 1 skein = 462yds/100 grams (I had 43 grams left)
Size 1 circs. I used 2 circs. Gauge: 6 sts/inch

Toe:
Cast on 10 sts (5/needle) - using Judy's Magic Cast on
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: K1, Kfb, K to 1st st before end, Kfb, K
End Row 2
Rep Rows 1 and 2 until there are a total of 46 sts (23/needle)

Foot:
K until sock reaches where the leg meets the foot

Heel
Row 1
Needle 1: Knit
Needle 2: K1, Kfb, K to 1st st before end Kfb, K
Continue until 2" shorter than total length of foot. I ended up with 44 sts on Needle 2.

Turn Heel:
Do not work stitches on Needle 1 (top of foot)
Needle 2 (Heel Flap): K 46, K2tog, K1, turn
Sl 1, P5; SSP, P1, turn
Sl 1, K until one st before the gap, K2tog, K1; turn
S1, P until one st before the gap, SSP, P1, turn
Repeat purl and knit rows until there are 23 sts. (original number of sts)


Leg:
K until the leg is the desired length.

Finish:
K1, P1 rib for 1"

Bindoff
I used slipslipkit.com miraculous elastic bind off.

Detoxing in January 2011

I am doing a 21 day detox diet which is primarily protein and produce. I have been feeling bloated and draggy from not eating correctly over the holiday season. Right now, I'm on day 5 and am finally beginning to feel better.
Week 1:
Day 1: No problem. I was all fired up and ready to go and had 'I can do this' attitude.
Days 2 and 3: I had a headache. It was probably caffeine withdrawal. I had no idea I had been ingesting enough caffeine to actually get a withdrawal headache. I was also a little nauseous. Two other people who are doing the same detox diet told me on Day 3 they felt more energy. Yes, I am jealous.
Day 4: Headache gone, but, wanted to give up. Nothing tasted good and it took all my willpower to get through the day.
Day 5: I'm down 6 lbs. It's unbelievable to me how much toxic sludge I must have been carrying around in me. I'm feeling pretty good today, although I'm still a little tired. I am feeling more motivated today to continue forward.
Days 6 and 7 will be more of the same food and then Week 2 starts.

Wish me continued luck!