Totally vegan roasted vegetable and barley soup

Okay, all you Lenten fasters. Here is a vegan recipe that is so filling and delicious, even the heartiest, manliest eater will be stuffed with one bowl! Do you have a blender? Good. Do you have lots of vegetables? Good, good. Do you have barley in your pantry? Let's get started!

Ingredients:

2 peeled and cubed carrots
1/2 bunch of steamed kale
1 bunch of coarsely chopped asparagus
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 yellow onion diced
12 crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves of minced or pressed garlic
salt, pepper and olive oil to drizzle over vegetables
1 cup of barley
1 can of garbanzo beans
7 cups of vegetable broth (or chicken broth if you are not vegan)
Your preferred spices. I added oregano, basil, thyme.
**If you would like to use other vegetables, go ahead! This is just what I had in the fridge.

First things first, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roast vegetables on a large lipped cookie sheet or baking pan. Drizzle olive oil over vegetables, sprinkle salt and pepper, and mix lightly with hands. Roast in oven for 45 minutes, or until potato pieces are tender to a fork.
While veggies are roasting, cook 1 cup of barley with 2 cups of water over stovetop in large soup pot for about 20 minutes. Drain and set aside. When veggies are done, add to soup pot. Add broth, herbs, kale and garbanzo beans to mix and simmer over medium/low heat for 30 minutes. Transfer 2 cups of soup to blender and puree. Add puree back to soup and stir. Taste test and add salt and/or pepper if needed. Should be a thick soup, perfect for these rainy winter days!

Kale and Mushroom Turnovers

If you like Greek spinach spanakopita, you will LOVE my kale and mushroom turnovers! And they take half the time to make! For the hardcore Lent fasters, you will have to skip this recipe since it has goat cheese in it, but if you are like me and eat vegetarian during Lent, it will do just fine.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of kale
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
handful of crimini mushrooms (or white mushrooms)
1/2 cup of crumbled goat cheese or crumbled feta
salt & pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 package of puff pastry sheets (you can find them in the frozen pastry aisle)

Pull pastry sheets out of box and let rest at room temperature. When they are fully defrosted, unfold them and cut each sheet into 9 squares. Meantime, chop kale and place in a large frying pan. Add a tablespoon of water, cover and let steam at medium/high heat for a few minutes. Set aside in a large mixing bowl. In the same frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. Add diced onions and mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and sautee until tender. Add to kale in mixing bowl. Also add the goat cheese to mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly. Add a spoonful of filling to each pastry square, fold into triangles and seal the edges. Bake at 400 degrees for around 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes 18 turnovers, perfect for a tea party, baby or wedding shower, or appetizers for a home-cooked dinner!!! They turned out scrumptious!

Maybe Ukraine?

We got an e-mail last night from our adoption agency, letting us know that they have changed their mind about allowing families to switch over to another country and not giving them the agency fee credit. AGCI has said that so many families have been frantically calling them, asking if they could switch to Ukraine, Bulgaria or Russia, and wanting to know why their agency fee would have to be repaid. So they have graciously come to their senses and written to all of us to say that a $3000 credit would be given to any families who wish to bow out of Ethiopia and switch over. We would still have to start over from scratch, filling out an all new application, new dossier and updated home study, but at least we don't have to pay another agency fee.

So Daniel and I are scratching our heads, wondering what to do. We could stick it out and see what happens in Ethiopia over the next couple of months, or we could switch to Ukraine and start the process over again. I hate having to make a choice between two things that are not good options. I don't want to do either of these things! I want my Ethiopia adoption to go as planned! Well, actually, let's back up. I want to be pregnant!!! But we can't have everything we want, so we must make a choice soon, before we get our Favorable Determination letter from Homeland Security and owe more money for the Ethiopia adoption. A third option would be to scrap international adoption altogether, cut our losses, and join the Foster-to-Adopt program through Alameda County, which has its own host of problems.

In the meantime, I have been feeling quite depressed. For a few months, I was starting to feel better, actually allowing myself to feel excitement for our adoption. Up until two weeks ago, I was starting to finally feel myself again. I have wanted to put workout clothes on after work instead of straight to pajamas, have gotten my full appetite back, and things were starting to look up. But now I feel like I've gone back to how I was feeling two years ago, right after I had my first miscarriage. Hopeless. I'm doing all the things I'm supposed to be doing during depression: Yes, I'm seeing a therapist. I'm eating healthy, keeping busy, spending lots of time with family and friends. I'm watching funny movies that will make me laugh and reading light, silly books instead of my normal heavy literary works.

But in the late hours of night, when all is quiet in our house, when all I hear is Daniel and Max and Chica sleeping, I feel a deep pain that I just can't explain. I am mourning something that never existed. I've never been one to feel like God is trying to send me messages, but I have a nagging feeling that maybe now God is trying to tell me something, and I don't like what He is telling me. Why would God give me such a strong desire to have children and then not allow me to have them? Am I fighting against a tide that is too strong for me to overcome? My birthday was on Wednesday, and I made a deal with myself that I would escape the baby troubles for one day, so I was doing very well, until I went to my parents' house for dinner and my brother and his wife showed up with their baby. Babies have a way of being the center of attention everywhere they go, and the whole evening just made me very sad. I didn't end up escaping my troubles and went home feeling generally crappy.

On another note, we took a trip to Yosemite this weekend with our relatives visiting from Argentina, and here are some amazing pictures I took with my cheapo digital camera:

Going "veggie" for 40 days

Growing up Catholic, Lent was a time I looked forward to challenging myself to give something up -- or sometimes add something -- in my daily living for 40 days. No meat on fridays and giving up TV, swearing (it's not like I swear much anyway), eating candy, etc...this is what my past Lents looked like. It was a fun little project, and then on Easter I could go back to my TV and candy.

One year I decided to take my dog Max on at least one long walk EVERY DAY, something that is difficult to do with the March rains. Another year my friend Jeannie gave me the idea to not say anything negative about myself or another person for Lent, which turned out to be quite tedious. Imagine, that was Jeannie's New Year's resolution for the entire year! She's aetheist but spent that year acting more "Christian" than me by a long-shot!

Not until I married Daniel did I realize that I was completely missing the point of Lent. In his church they are not just giving up meat on Fridays. It's no meat for the entire Lenten season. And not just no meat....they go vegan. I'm sorry, but I'm just not a vegan kind of gal. I need my ice cream, dagnabbit!!! The idea is that if you are not spending as much time cooking intricate meat dishes but instead having soups, beans, salads and breads, you will have more time to be mindful of prayer and silence. The rub is that if you are accustomed to cooking up a quick chicken breast with some rice for dinner, cooking vegan takes way more planning, creativity and organization, leaving me less time for prayer and quietude. We've made a compromise that this year I will cook vegetarian, not vegan meals, and I've come up with a list of 9 meals for the next 40 days that I will just make over and over again in a rotation, that way I can have more time to enjoy the Lenten spirit. So here is the veggie lineup:

1. Curried Butternut and sweet potato soup
2. Greens & beans with homemade pizza
3. Vegetarian Chili
4. Lentil soup
5. Barley and roasted vegetable salad
6. Frittata with roasted vegetables
7. Three-bean salad with spinach and baked bread
8. Mushroom and kale ragu over polenta with a fried egg
9. Split pea soup with grilled vegetable sandwiches (or grilled cheese)

I will make three of these recipes per week, and we will have leftovers in between. I see this working! Any ideas out there for more easy vegetarian recipes? I also need to get back into the habit of praying/meditating. These past two years have slipped away from me in terms of prayer because of my miscarriages, finding out I couldn't have children, etc. I stopped praying because I was so upset with God, and at times wondered if there even was a God at all. I am feeling better day by day, but I haven't been able to find a prayerful ritual like I used to have. This Lent will be a good opportunity for me to start again.

Socks and Chica

Here is a sock I'm knitting for Daniel. That's why it looks so loose on my foot. You can see Chica in the background licking her bum...gross!

Here's Chica in my craft room but soon-to-be baby room (well, not so soon! Probably a year away. Better make use out of it while I can, haha!)

Quilts and pooches

Max wanted to show you a new quilt I've been working on here and there.

Here are some finished squares!

I've had this fabric in a box for years! Glad to put it to use. I'm planning on hanging this quilt above our bed.