What I Cooked: Pt. Two

This week wasn’t heavy on cooking as my husband was out of town for work a few nights. When he is away I try to distract the girls by letting them pick dinners - this time they landed on our favorite pancakes and Pu Pu platter night. I love me a good Pu Pu platter since it means zero cooking for me! So here are a couple recipes I DID cook as well as one of our favorite ‘treats’ we made as well.

Curried Vegetable Soup:
If you follow me on Instastories, you will have seen the making of this soup. It was completely thrown together from what I had in my fridge/pantry and it turned out freaking fantastic! If you don’t already, come join me on instastories (shameless plug! www.instagram.com/pureandessentialliving) for more day to day shenanigans.

1 small onion diced
2 cloves garlic
1 large zuchinni chopped
6/7 carrots chopped
3/4 celery stalks chopped
1/2 head cauliflower chopped
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tsp garam masala
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can coconut milk (full fat)
6 cups water
1/5 cups red lentils
pepper to taste

Saute onion in small amount of coconut oil until translucent. Add in all chopped veggies and saute another min or two. Stir in curry powder and garam masala until veg is coated. Add diced tomatoes, coconut milk and water. Once combined, stir in red lentils and bring to a simmer. Simmer for at least 20-30 min before serving, or if making ahead, remove from heat and let sit a few hours for flavors to come together, then heat through before serving. I also blended roughly 1/3 of the soup in a high speed blender (immersion blender would work too) before serving. Season with pepper as needed.
Serve topped with hemp hearts and nutritional yeast.

Vegan Banana Bread Pancakes
This is one of our favorite pancake recipes, but as per usual, I make a few alterations. I use flax meal instead of hazelnut meal and omit both the maple syrup and chocolate chips from the batter. We love topping them with peanut butter and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Lentil Spaghetti & Home Made Tomato Marinara
This was another completely winging it recipe (sensing a theme yet?) but I found a sorta, kinda, not really similar recipe if you want something more legit to follow - link in title. This is roughly what I did below:

1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
3 carrots diced
1/2 bell pepper diced
1 can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup red wine
3 large handfuls baby spinach
1/3 broccoli/kale slaw
1 tbsp italian seasoning
2 tsp chili flakes
Fresh ground pepper
Couple of spoonfuls of pasta water

Saute onion in small amount of avocado oil. When translucent, add garlic, carrots, bell pepper and saute another minute or two. Add crushed tomatoes, red wine and italian seasoning. Stir to combine. Stir in brocolli/kale slaw and spinach. As greens start to wilt, season with pepper and chili flakes.

As sauce simmers, cook lentil pasta to package directions. As pasta cooks, take a few spoonfuls of the pasta water and add to the sauce to help bring it all together.

Three Ingredient Brownie Bites
These are a huge favorite in our house. This also works as a great base recipe to add extras to or change up as wanted. I substitute tahini for the peanut butter often to make them school friendly.

3 ripe bananas
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup cocoa or cacao powder

Mix all ingredients together in a food processor or high speed blender. Scoop into muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. For mini-muffins (our personal favorite) reduce bake time to 12-15 min.