La Famille Aubergine

The last three eggplants from this summer's garden cuddle up on our kitchen counter.
I think this photo would make a good Christmas card: Joyeux Noel!

Barley & Veggy Soup

1 cup chopped onion
3 stalks celery, choppped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 cup uncooked barley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs (I used sage), or 2 teaspoons dried (sage, thyme, marjoram)
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 cans vegetable broth (or chicken or beef broth)
1/2 c. white wine (I use cooking wine - no temptation to drink it - but it's high sodium)

Put all the ingredients in your crock pot, stir, and set the crock pot on low for 8 hours. Or, put all the ingredients in a stock pot and cook on the stove on low heat for 2 hours.

Serves: many!

SOUP - Pros and Cons

I have bad-mouthed soup so many times because liquids like soup generally provide little or no satiety for a bandster, but I'm eating (without chewing) my words now. After a year of experimentation, I finally concluded that I just cannot eat solid food when I'm at work. Usually I have a 15 minute break, but even when I work a longer shift and get a longer break, I'm just too distracted, pressured, anxious or whatever to eat solid or even soft food. I get stuck or PB and have to stop eating even though my tummy is still grumbling and/or I haven't had enough fuel to power me through the rest of my work day. So this past week, I tried several instant soups (you just open them and microwave them) with Unjury chicken soup protein powder mixed into them. The tomato soup was fine, but I was starving hungry an hour later. Creamy chicken soup and Italian wedding soup worked very well. So I decided it's worthwhile to make my own soup (thereby reducing the sodium content) to take to work for lunch. My first project was a barley and veggy soup. Barley is a whole grain that's soft but chewy when cooked, and goodness knows I need all the veggies I can get. We had this soup for supper tonight and it was great!

Zesty Roasted Potatoes

Since I discovered what havoc white potatoes cause my blood sugar, we don't have them very often, but my husband loves roasted potatoes and now that the weather is cooling off (daytime temps in the upper 80's instead of upper 90's), I decided to make some potatoes to go with the lamb roast my husband cooked on the grill today.

2 tbl olive oil
1/4 c. lemon juice
2 tsp Emeril's green hot sauce
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cumin
4 medium potatoes (I used red potatoes, but gold or white would be fine)

Preheat the oven to 400F. Spray a roasting pan with cooking spray.

Scrub the potatoes but do not peel. Slice each potato lengthwise, then into eighths.

In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, lemon juice, and seasonings. Add the potato wedges and toss until the potatoes are well coated.

Put the potato wedges in the prepared roasting pan, reserving the marinade in a measuring cup. Roast the potatoes for 20 minutes. Drizzle some marinade over them and stir until the browned sides are facing up. Roast the potatoes for another 15-20 minutes or until evenly browned.

4 servings