Lemon Tuna and Pasta

Sorry, no picture. I was too busy eating. But here is another quick and tasty meal I wanted to share. I more or less made it up myself (inspired by a few recipes I saw online).

Ingredients:

1 package of linguine
2 lemons
1 cup of heavy cream
1-2 cups of frozen peas
2 cans of white tuna (tastes better)
1 small red onion
2-3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Start boiling your pasta.
2. Next chop the onion and mince garlic and sautee in some oil.
3. Add cream to the onions/garlic mix.
4. Zest your lemons, and juice them and add both the zest and juice from both lemons to the cream mix. Also add some salt and pepper.
5. Just before your pasta is done, add your drained tuna and frozen peas to the cream/garlic/onion/lemon mix. Then add your drained pasta. Mix everything well, and let it simmer for a little bit until the peas are soft enough, but still a bit crunchy (2-4 minutes).

Preparation time: 20 minutes?

Enjoy your meal.

Corn and Poblano Chowder

Voila, the result of my fist chowder. I have to say it was a rather traumatic experience including burning the food - twice, cutting my finger pretty badly, and splattering myself with chowder, and then burning myself as a result. But, if you skip all those incidents when you make this, you will have a very delicious chowder. The recipe may look a bit intimidating, but I really think it's not that time consuming or hard to make. The worst part is probably that you can't really leave the soup unattended for too long.

My main recommendation for this dish would be to chop everything that needs to be chopped BEFORE you start cooking! I think that was my downfall. And I wouldn't leave the soup unattended for too long. I left it for 10 minutes or so without stirring, and it burned pretty bad. Anyway, here goes:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of butter
2 medium sized onions - chopped
4 cloves of fresh garlic - minced
3 chili peppers - chopped finely, seeds and stems removed
5 tablespoons of flour

4 cups of frozen corn (you'll need about one big bag of frozen corn total
2 cups of vegetable broth

3 cups of vegetable broth
2 cups of cream
4 cups of cubed red potatoes (about 1/2-inch cubes, about 5 average size potatoes)
2 poblano peppers - chopped, seeds and stems removed
11/2 cups of diced carrots (about 3 big carrots)
11/2 cups of sliced celery (about 3 big ribs)
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups of corn

Directions:

1. Make sure you have all your veggies chopped, minced, whatever.
2. Blend 4 cups of corn with 2 cups of broth - make sure it's really well blended, so it's pretty much a smooth, thick liquid. Let it sit. You'll add it to your chowder later on.
3. Melt your butter, sautee onions, garlic, and chili peppers with it. Don't chop other veggies while doing it because you'll burn your onions, which will turn your chowder into a brown mess...
4. Slowly add your flour to your onion mix once everything is sauteed well. Mix everything well, and sautee the whole mix for a few minutes.
5. Now slowly stir in the remaining broth. Make sure you keep stirring while you do that so you don't get any lumps. Once you have it all in there and smooth, add your corn puree stuff. Mix in well, and bring it to a full simmer for a few minutes, then add the cream.
6. Now you'll add the potatoes and poblano peppers, and stir/simmer for 5 mintues, then add the carrots and celery, stir and simmer for 5 minutes, and then add the corn, and stir simmer for about 5 more minutes.
7. Once everything is in, you just want to stir the chowder regularly so nothing burns, and taste the potatoes to make sure nothing overcooks. Once the potatoes are tender enough you're ready to eat.

Chickpea Salad

Here is another recipe that I love. It's also healthy, fairly inexpensive, and easy to make.

Ingredients:

1-2 cans of Chickpeas
2 cans of tuna
1 nice fresh big bunch of parsley
3-4 tomatoes
1 small red onion (or bigger if you like red onions)
olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Get out a big bowl. Open your chickpeas and tuna, drain all of them well and toss it in the bowl.
2. Chop up your parsley and add it to the bowl.
3. Chop your tomatoes and red onion and add it to the bowl.
4. Add some olive oil and salt and pepper to taste (it usually needs a fair amount of salt, but taste first and then add more)

Toss it all up, and you're done. You can also add some chopped cucumbers if you like.

Mexican Lentil Stew

I don't know what to say about this dish. It's healthy, it's cheap, and it's easy. I can't say I love it, but every time I eat it, I end up surprised that I do enjoy it. The main reason why I'm posting this recipe is because this is one of Sophia's favorite dishes. She'll seriously eat easily 3 bowls full of this stuff. I figure if one child likes it, it just may be a hit with other kids.

Ingredients:

1 cup dry red lentils (I use whatever lentils I have on hand)
2 cups water
1 T olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 T minced garlic (or less, but I like a lot of garlic)
1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chile powder
1 can diced tomatoes (sometimes I add more, or just add plain tomato sauce - not pasta sauce though)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 tsp. green Tobasco sauce
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (you can do less lime, but I often use more - it's really what makes this dish any good in my opinion)
1/2 - 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Boil lentils in 2 cups of water, until they're somewhat tender.
2. In another pot, sautee onions, garlic and celery until mostly tender, then add all the spices.
3. Now add to the onion stuff the broth and tomatoes as well as lentils (which should basically have no liquid left in the pot). Oh, and don't forget the tobasco.
4. Cook on low heat (simmer) until everything is tender. Chop up your cilantro in the mean time, and squeeze our limes. Add the cilantro and lime juice when the stew is ready to eat.

We often add a spoon of sour cream and some grated cheddar cheese on top of our bowls, which I think is delicious, but it's good either way.