Sylvia's Scenario

Soup season seems to last longer than we'd like to admit.  But, yes, it's still soup season.  We're having spring fever around here and, yes, the weather is getting warmer, sunnier, and overall just very nice and pleasant outside.  But I'm still craving the warmth of a hot soup.  We had this minestrone soup recently and everyone loved it.  My sister made it at her house but she's not sure where she got the recipe so I'll just give her all the credit. Her preparation of this dinner was a job well done! She and her husband live in Washington D.C. and they were also having spring-like weather but a dinner of hot soup still tasted really good to all of us.  We planned this trip to see Nick who spent a week there for work.  We jumped at the opportunity to go see him since it's a lot closer than going to Spain.   Plus, my sister lives there and she and her husband are a lot of fun and it's so nice to get caught up with each other's lives.  We saw N...

Today, I made a recipe that will give me some variety for eating squash.  I've never been a big squash fan probably because I never seem to find a squash that is sweet.  Spaghetti squash is one that usually has no taste to me but it's always substituted for pasta for those avoiding carbs or gluten which I've never been a fan of.  I have tried it with spaghetti sauce and even ate it last weekend when we had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner with the grandkids.  But again, I'm not a real fan.  Give me real pasta, please!  But I admit, I did like this recipe which is a spaghetti/spaghetti sauce substitute and I would definitely make this again.   This is such a good carb recipe that I would actually use it as a vegetable side dish, too.  The sauce really jazzes up the bland squash.  I made it for lunch today and ended up eating two helpings it was so good.  The sauce has lentils and spinach in it so it is super healthy and full of fib...

We are getting our hot weather now - welcome summer!  We actually have no rain in the forecast for the coming 10 days.  Really?  After that, everything will get back to our Seattle normal.  In the meantime, I am going to enjoy our summer weather.  I am posting this new recipe from  Hannah Freese, RD  that is my new favorite summer salad recipe.  I made it last weekend and it actually tasted better during the week after it sat for awhile when all the flavors had time to blend together.  So, be sure and make the whole recipe because it tastes really good leftover.  I've been eating beans everyday as part of Hannah's eating program and now this recipe is my new go-to bean dish.  Before, I was eating homemade refried beans everyday.  I buy the pinto beans in bulk and put a cup or two in salted water on the stove to cook in the morning. I use enough water to cover the beans to about 2-3 inches.  They cook about 3 hours until so...

We had this for dinner last night after three days of rain so we needed a dinner to spice things up.  This recipe hit the spot.  It uses Thai Red Curry Paste that makes the recipe super easy, yet super tasty.    I use this same curry paste in  Thai Chicken Green Curry , a recipe that I make a lot.  It adds such a great flavor with minimal work so I highly recommend using it.  I got this recipe from  Hannah Freese, RD  so you know that the paste has all natural ingredients because her diet does not include any processed foods.  I can definitely feel the difference eating this way.  I actually put away all the Halloween decorations and immediately got out the Thanksgiving decorations in just 2 days. I have so much more energy eating this way.   It's the same thing that happened last year when I packed up all the Christmas decorations in one day and Bruce was shocked how much I got done. Before this diet I would get so tired ...

Our weather has cooled off, at least temporarily, so today I made soup.  Imagine that.  Just a few days ago, we had hot weather and smokey air from wildfires but it only lasted a couple of days and today the weather was typical Seattle weather.  We love the cool, marine-layer morning clouds that end up burning-off by afternoon, ending up in the high 60's.  That is a typical day here.  I was actually cold!  So, I pulled out this soup recipe from  Hannah Freese, RD  that I've been eyeing lately because it looks so healthy.  When I served it, Bruce asked what makes it taste so rich; was there a lot of butter in it? or cream?  Neither.  It's nutritional yeast and the hemp seeds.  Nutritional yeast has a nutty and cheesy flavor to it, thus the title of this soup as "cheezy".  Vegans often use it in place for cheese.  I buy it at Trader Joe's in the spice section and Hannah Freese, RD uses it in a lot of her recipes. ...

  Today, the fall weather really kicked in and it was a curry-kind-of-a-day.  This is another recipe from  Hannah Freese, RD  that we had tonight and it really hit the spot.  I've been enjoying the walks around the neighborhood that I take with my neighbor and I always end up taking many photos.   We always walk down this street and the sun was just starting to set the other day and it was gorgeous outside.  It was funny, too, because we were just talking about how neither one of us have the urge to travel or even go anywhere during this pandemic and how lucky we are that we aren't restless like so many folks.  Then she says, "Well, here's why!  Just take a look...we have all this right before us.  Seriously, why would you want to leave this? !"   We had to stop and laugh at ourselves for the timing of our conversation.  Of course, not everybody has gorgeous views like this and we both do feel fortunate to live where we do. ...

This is another lighter version of a popular dish, macaroni and cheese.  It's adapted from Weight Watcher's again where 1 cup of this dish will provide 6 points.  I made this dish for our latest visitors who were here from Minnesota for three days.  Bruce's nephew, his wife and three kids were here taking in our local sights after visiting the San Juan Islands and the Olympic Peninsula.   We had so much fun with them here and especially with their children.  Children bring a whole new dimension into the household and I loved it.   We babysat on Saturday night while mom and dad went to Depeche Mode concert.  Babysitting meant popcorn and movies... During their visit, we had lots of ping pong tournaments  family dinners sightseeing visiting Farmer's Markets spending time at playgrounds riding the water taxi and the monorail and just enjoying this marvelous time of year. ...