What did you do this morning?

This is what I did this morning.

Kitchen Journal Thurdsay AM

4:00-4:15am
Put on water to boil and put black beans in for quick soak.(1 hour soak)

Had coffee with Mark

4:30
Cooked red quinoa in stock for salad, let cool.
Beef shanks, and grass fed ground beef out of the fridge, seasoned w/S&P. (1lb. ground beef formed into 4 patties for grilling)
Sliced tomatoes in half, lengthwise, and put 2 trays of tomatoes in 350 degree oven to roast for 2 hours.
Made 8 grain cereal in pressure cooker (15 min. total time).

5:00
Portioned out cooked cereal.
Washed pressure cooker started black beans (15 min total time). Cooled, then portioned.
Finished quinoa salad. Baby greens, heirloom tomatoes, yellow bell, black and green olives, red wine vinegar and oil, I'll add feta cheese later when I go to the store and get some!

5:30
Browned beef shanks, added 8 c. water, carrot, celery , onion, pressure cook 35 min. When this is done (currently cooking now!) I'll seperate the meat and strain the liquid for stock. Later today I'll make beef and veggie soup or stew w/noodles.
Grilled beef patties.

6:30
turned off roasted tomatoes, but I leave them in the oven for another hour.

I've been cooking alot of the same things this past week, but I'm also trying to deplete some of the stuff in my freezer. As much as I want to hoard the frozen squash soup, summer is over and squash soup needs to make room for heartier fare. Lots of tomato soup still.... here are some of the different ways I've been eating it.....

Tomato Soup w/Poached fish

I love fish or prawns in my tomato soup, and because seafood cooks so fast all you have to do is heat tomato soup to a boil, turn off heat, add fish, and cover, the hot soup will poach the fish. The bigger and thicker the piece, the longer it needs to poach. Prawns are cooked when they turn pink, snapper poaches in under 5 min., while a thick piece of halibut could take 10 min.

My version of Tomato Soup Vera Cruz is I'll make the soup with jalapeno and red bell (in the starting saute with onion carrot ans celery), poach my fish (snapper is traditional Vera Cruz), and then add sliced spanish olives (I get the ones from whole foods that are brined with red chile)

Tomato soup w/Prawns and Roasted Corn is pretty self explanatory, Poach prawns in soup add roasted corn. Tomatoes, prawns and corn are naturally sweet.

Tomato soup w/ Barley, one of my favs. I cook barley in the pressure cooker at least twice a week, so it's ready to add to whichever soup I want. Sometimes I add ground beef to this, Small meatballs would be fun, but I haven't taken the time to that, I just dice up meatloaf or a hamburger pattie!

Tomato and Carrot Soup, of course you can add a ton of diced carrots to this soup in the initial saute w/onions, and then put it all through the food mill at once. But I had some carrot soup in the freezer, so I heated them seperately (tomato and carrot soups) poured them in the same bowl for a pretty 1/2 red, & 1/2 orange soup. The two flavors were delicious together.

Tomato Soup w/Black Beans and Collard Greens. Blanche the collard greens in the soup, using the same technique as poaching fish, but at least 15 min for collards, chard 5 min. spinach 1-2 min, add cooked beans (any kind).

As you can see the combinations are endless.....

It's 7:15am and the timer for my beef shanks/stock/stew, just went off. I've used my pressure cooker 3 times already this morning, time to order another one!

My mother and sister "dropped by" the other day, and I wished I had some sort of snack I could've made for them, so next time I won't get caught with nothing to serve unexpeted guests, yesterday I made 2 roasted tomato spreads, black bean, and white bean, to keep in my freezer.

1 c. cooked beans (I used my pressure cooker, you can use canned beans however), 1 c. roasted tomatoes...I roast mine w/1-2 tbl. olive oil, S&P, and red pepper flakes (one tray = about 1 c. The tomatoes cook down as they roast.), 1/2c. stock. First in the food processor goes the tomatoes, then the beans, then thin it with stock until the desired consistency. Taste for S&P. If calories are not a concern you can thin it with olive oil (remember I used oil in when I roasted the tomatoes). You can add any herbs or even pine nuts and/or cheese (parm, feta, goat etc.)...and I can't believe I forgot garlic....how could I ever forget the garlic?

I would serve this with sliced baguette, crackers, or even veg sticks!