Vegetable Soup

Vegetable soup

Ingredients

4 tbsp butter

Vegetables

2 cups chopped leeks

2 cups diced carrots

2 cups diced potatoes

1 large onion, diced

1 1/2 cups frozen peas

Seasonings

2 tbsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp dried thyme

Grains

1/3 cup barley

3/4 cup red lentils

1/4 cup green lentils

1/4 cup brown rice

Broth

8 cups vegetable broth

3 cups garden vegetable cocktail

Soup ingredients

Directions

Sauté the veggies in the butter until softened a bit, add the salt, pepper and thyme and give it a stir. Add the remaining ingredients: barley, rice, lentils, broth and veg cocktail and bring to a boil.

Adding grains to sautéed veggies

Turn down the heat and let simmer about 30 minutes.

Vegetable soup

I bottled this batch for lunches. I can just grab one from the freezer and throw in my lunch bag with some crackers. So convenient!

6 x 500-ml & six x 1-litre jars of vegetable soup

Peanut Butter & Banana Dog Treats

Your dogs will love these! They won't even know or care that they're healthy. And your kids will love making them, too.

Healthy dog treats

Ingredients

2 cups oat flour
4 tbsp ground flax seed
1 banana
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup almond milk
Cookie cutter
Parchment paper

Peanut butter & banana

Step 1 - Shopping

Go to the Bulk Barn for ground flax and oat flour. Just so you know, the scoops in the flour bins there hold exactly two cups, so get a bit more than that because you'll need extra for rolling the dough.

Bulk Barn also has a lot of great cookie cutters, including a number of dog-themed ones of all sizes.

Cookie cutters

Go to any grocery store for a banana and some almond milk. Of course there are the 2L sizes of almond milk in the coolers, but I think you can buy smaller amounts (un-refrigerated and in boxes or cans) in the natural  food section. Just make sure you get unsweetened, not vanilla or sweetened because they make all kinds. Almond milk is healthier for dogs than cows' milk. And, you probably have peanut butter in your pantry. Also, make sure your peanut butter doesn't contain xyletol...very toxic to dogs.

The parchment paper is optional. We use it because our cookie sheet burns everything. If you skip it, just use the dry baking sheet, don't grease it.

Step 2 - Mixing

Measure the flour and flax into a mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, mash the banana. Mix in the almond milk and peanut butter.

Combine the dry and wet ingredients until a dough is formed. If it is too dry and crumbly, add more of the wet ingredients and if it is too runny, add more flour, but those amounts should work.

Mixing the dough

Step 3 - Rolling & Cutting

Sprinkle some oat flour on a pie mat or clean work surface and begin rolling the dough into an even thickness, about 1/4" thick.

Using a cookie cutter, cut out the cookies and place on a parchment paper-line baking sheet.

Cutting the dough

Step 4 - Baking

Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes.

Let cool before serving.

Ready to bake

These should store for a couple of weeks. Remember, there are no preservatives so they won't last as long as store-bought ones, so use them up! One batch made about 100 small cookies as shown above. We give our dogs three or four per day; they both weigh less than 25 lbs, so a larger dog could probably have more.

Creamy Buttercup Squash Soup

2014 Squash Harvest

Cut in half, de-seed and roast in roast pan in 1/2 inch to 1 inch of water about 40 minutes:
1 Buttercup Squash – you can substitute Butternut, but it won't be as good. Trust me on this.

Saute until soft about 10 minutes:
1 Onion, Chopped
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored and chopped
2 Tbsp Butter – the good kind
¼ Tsp Nutmeg
¼ Tsp Cinnamon
¼ Tsp Salt
¼ Tsp Pepper

Add to onion mixture:
Cooked Squash
1 Box Vegetable Broth

Cook about 10 minutes until flavors meld. Cool and puree in food processor or blender. Add back to pot and add 1 cup of water; simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

Slowly stir in:
1 Pint of Whipping Cream (Heavy Cream)

Squash soup from homegrown buttercup squash

Pete's Pancakes

Pancake from scratch

Over the years, we've tried several pancake recipes, but we always come back to, "It's no better than the mix" so we generally save ourselves the hassle and buy the "just add water" mixes. However, Monday I wanted to make pancakes to go with the vegan bacon I bought and found that we were out of pancake mix. Since it was Thanksgiving Day and everything was closed, I just looked a recipe up and happened on the best pancake recipe we've ever tried. Thanks Pete!

Here is the recipe:

2 cups flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs (beat them separately before adding to mixture)
1⁄4 cup butter, melted (1/8 of a pound)
1 3⁄4 cups milk

Combine the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then add the milk and melted butter. Add the wet ingredients gradually to dry, by creating a well in the center of the flour mixture and stirring the egg mixture in slowly. Be sure you don't over-mix; it should still be lumpy.

Let the batter sit for 10 minutes while the pan heats up. The trick to cooking pancakes is not to flip them until bubbles begin to appear in the center.

These pancakes are light and fluffy and taste fantastic. By the way, the second time we had them we were out of milk and just used water and I didn't notice a difference at all.