Vegan

Almond and Chocolate Shortbread Cookies (Gluten Free + Vegan)

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When you’re looking for food to fit specific diets or food preferences and you’re not used to cooking or baking those profiles, it’s best or easiest, anyway, to pick dishes that are naturally gluten free, for instance, or come perfectly vegan all by themselves, for another. Extra-Bittersweet Chocolate Pots de Crème is a simple, happy dessert for a gluten free eater.  No flour to replace there.  Sumptuous summer strawberries and raspberries glistening with finely minced mint fills the bill for vegans, I’m thinking, because who doesn’t like strawberries and raspberries?

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INSTANT POT Curried Cauliflower-Coconut Soup

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Whether or not I’ll stick to it, I don’t know. My goal is to use the Instant Pot (IP) for more than testing recipes for other people’s upcoming cookbooks. It’s not that I’m not a gadget person; I am–sort of. It’s not that I’m out of room…well, I almost am. If another pot this size arrives in my house, it’ll need to be stored in the trunk of my car.  In other words, to buy anything new and large will require a trip to Goodwill carrying a piece of equipment of equal size.   

                                 No IP? Stovetop directions included below recipe.

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INSTANT POT Butternut and Yellow Squash Soup

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Need a little basic Instant Pot (IP) info? Scroll down to bottom of post.

I not long ago had a chat with a fellow food writer. No need to mention names and you’ll see why.  The subject of Instant Pots came up. This person pointed out the box that had been sitting for weeks, maybe months, in his/her closet. And, yes, you know what was in that box:  an Instant Pot. (IP).  A slow shake of the head, a flutter of the eyelashes, and a tiny slide of the mouth to one side indicated distaste with even touching that parcel, much less figuring out how to cook with it. “Someday,” s/he shrugged.

What is an Instant Pot anyway? (People ask this regularly in the winter of 2018.)

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Curried Butternut Squash-Lentil Soup

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Later in the evening one night last week, Dave (better know as “the hub”) and I  decided to go out for a light dinner and drink. If you wait until 9:00 in Colorado Springs, or maybe in many smaller cities, your choices are often pizza or burgers… or a hop over to one of the all-night breakfast places.  One large brewery nearby stays open until midnight and we ran over there, ordering a glass of white wine for me and a beer for Dave, perusing the menu while we nursed our drinks. This particular food list came equipped with calorie counts and, reading through the long list of available food, I was again flabbergasted by the calories involved in meat dishes versus vegetable and grain meals–especially given the holiday time of year.

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Basil Green Bean Salad with New Potatoes (…and other green bean favorites)

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{Printable recipe for Basil Green Bean Salad with New Potatoes)

I really love, love what I have thought of as my best green bean dish, which is Lemon Green Beans. There’s little to it and I make this A LOT. It’s probably my most used “recipe” because people memorize it at my dinner table: “Cooked green beans stirred up with lots of salt, pepper, and grated lemon rind with a little crushed red pepper and olive oil.”  Great summer snack, too. I just leave a bowl on the counter. Keeps me from raiding the chips. Sometimes.  ALL ABOUT COOKING GREEN BEANS HERE.

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Pasta Primavera Soup (Spring Vegetable Soup with Pasta)

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If you’re lucky enough to live in places where spring vegetables were planted weeks ago, you could already have a crop of spinach or green onions or asparagus. Our past-frost date in Colorado Springs hasn’t yet arrived; it’s June 1 – June 10. For the first time, I’ve snuck a few things in early, but am nightly ready to rush out to bring pots in or run into the yard like a crazy woman throwing blankets over newly-planted beds.  (We have upcoming lows of 32 F this week, for instance.)

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Meatless Mondays: Curried Lentil Soup with Fresh Greens

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 Originally published three years ago, April 2, 2014 on my dinnerplace.blogspot.com site.

Once, while visiting my sister, I said, “How about some lentil soup?” (I knew I was cooking dinner.)  She shuddered and made as if to retch, all the while saying, “I love lentil soup, but…”  Turns out that years ago, when she was still cooking for her family, a very large and delicious kettle of the soup went uneaten by anyone except by her.  Days went by, the soup remained, she kept eating until….well, you might get the picture. Continue reading →