Too Much Food!!

The aunt I wrote about previously is now back in the nursing home and in stable condition. In the few hours I was there she had at least 20 visitors between the staff, priest, volunteers, and fellow residents. Also, being a good Catholic, I requested she receive the Sacrament of the Sick ASAP, just in case anything else happened to her. The priest from Saint Paul's Church who came was so happy I called, explaining that very few families think of doing that. So all is well, at least for now.

So that meant I could relax a bit when I finally did get home. First thing I did was pop on a loaf of tomato bread in my Zoji-mini ABM

 

I use the recipe printed on the side of the machine, using a spoon of Lighter Bake for the butter and soy milk powder for the dried milk. At the "add" beep I tossed in a half cup of the dry type of sun-dried tomatoes that I chopped up into tiny pieces with scissors, then coated with a bit of flour and a lot of garlic powder and Penzey Spices' Italian herb mix. And like any good McDougaller, I used white whole wheat flour for half the flour called for. If I used all whole wheat my husband won't eat it.

As it mixes, most of the tomatoes stay at the size I cut them, but some of the smaller pieces break up, making for a nice orangy-swirled dough with red and green flecks.

Here's the original recipe:

Makes a 1-pound loaf of bread

2/3 cup water

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tablespoon dried milk powder

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon yeast

Now why did I say "Too much food?" Certainly not because of the bread! Remember that soup I mentioned in the other post? Well I finally got around to making it for Tuesday's dinner.

But the soup and bread weren't the only things I made. I figured we'd each have a small bowl of soup for dinner and I'd save the rest for lunches for me for the rest of the week. My husband wasn't too crazy about that idea and wished ALL I made was the soup and bread, because he loves this soup so much (Thanks, Isa & Terry, once again!).

To go along with the soup I made the Right Foods Casserole. It's based on the "McDougall Right Pie" that Star McDougaller Mike Teehan shared way back in this post. How I make my version is to take a bag of (oil free) frozen hash browns (diced, not shredded), a handful of garlic cloves, a bag of chopped broccoli,

and 2 or 3 cups of the McDougall Right Foods soup cups. Quick and easy and oh, so tasty!

So yeah, way too much food for one meal, but my leftovers stash had been depleted and I had been grabbing what I could between hospital visits. At least now, with the aunt back in her nursing home, my schedule is back to  - - - well, not really back to normal. The kid has had an ear infection/water in the ear for a month now and his primary care doc wants him to see a specialist, so his ENT appointment is scheduled for this afternoon, and the aunt's house has a buyer and we still have some clothes closets to empty out (And we ran out of room for her stuff - heck, even OUR stuff - in our 5-room apartment ages ago). So I still run back and forth there between everything else. Luckily that's all that's left - aside from stuff that's being picked up by Salvation Army as soon as the realtor gives us the go-ahead.

Tonight, I plan on making another Veganomicon recipe, Tofu Florentine (Google Books link, scroll to page 72 or search "florentine"), and the leftovers from yesterday I had to promise to save for another dinner instead of lunches, so that's for tomorrow. With any luck I'll actually get that dish made tonight and have pics to share in tomorrow's blog post.