What We Ate: a seasonal reminder of dinner at our house.

We had dinner with our regular crew on Sunday. We've been eating dinner with them for 5 or 6 years on the 3rd Sunday of the month and they are among our very favorite people in all the world. The theme for Sunday was soup and bread. I brought Spicy Chickpeas  as a "winter salad" and potato leek soup... I know it's not much to look at but it tastes wonderful especially if you chop some chives or parsley for the top and add some hot butter bread on the side. Best of all, it really only has 5 ingredients - including seasoning - (which is the requirement for my mom to make it. And she's one of my three readers - Hi mom!) This recipe is adapted from Simply Vegetarian Pleasures . The original is called Leek and Potato Chowder and includes both milk and sour cream. My dairy free version is as follows: a leek or two depending on size (it really doesn't matter - whatever you have on hand) sauted in olive oil until it looks like this: A ...

It's still January. It's cold but the light is coming back and spring WILL come again even though it's hard to imagine right now. Thankfully, will still have remnants of summer in the freezer and on the canning shelves. If you don't have cooked chicken in the fridge, pop a frozen breast in the instant pot for 25 minutes with a half a cup of water. Make sure to salt and pepper liberally. Open a two cans of navy beans (or pull some cooked beans from the fringe - instant pot recipe guidance here ) Find a half pint of salsa verde (on the canning shelf or from the store). Open a box/jar/can of chicken stock. Mix it all together in a pan and let it simmer for 10 minutes or an hour. Serve with avocado, cilantro, tomato, and/or sour cream. Add rice, tortilla chips, biscuits or corn bread on the side for more heft.

I've been traveling a couple of days and it's January in Wisconsin. This combination can be brutal. Imagine my surprise when I arrived home to Lentil Soup with Sausage  made in the instant pot and ready to go! I found this recipe earlier this year because I'm still looking for instant pot recipes that make dinner easy. This once was a hit ~ easy to make, so satisfying, not overly heavy and perfect for cold, dark and snowy days.

We are not, for the most part, eaters of red meat. We have a great source for chicken (free range, anti-biotic free, rocked to sleep nightly with chicken lull-a-byes - you know the type), but have had a harder time finding a consistent and convenient source for beef. And also we were vegan last year for 7 months whenever we ate together as a family. But that's for a different post. All this means, I make chili twice a year. This recipe is just mine, based only on years of experimenting with lots of different recipes and figuring out what we like and what we don't. It's also highly dependent on what we have in the pantry. One whole sweet onion, chopped. One pound of grass fed, organic beef. 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 zucchinis - partially skinned - and chopped 1 can (or two cups) kidney beans, drained (haphazardly) 28 oz can of crushed plum tomatoes with juices. 2 t cumin 2 t chili powder 1 t salt (more to taste) 1/4 t black pepper freshly ground (more to taste...