Spinach and Orange Salad

Isn't it great that oranges are ripe and available at grocery stores in the winter? Wanting to make use of this fruit, I decided to add it to spinach salad. Then I thought that maybe I could come up with a vinaigrette that would have some orange flavor in it, too. Voila--a new salad is born! If you want a bit more color in your salad, you could also add some raisins or craisins.

Spinach and Orange Salad
serves 2 to 4 adults, depending on portion sizes

Ingredients:

• 1 6-ounce bag of baby spinach
• 1 naval orange
• 1 Tbsp. fresh-squeezed orange juice
• 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsp. honey
• 1/8 tsp. sea salt
• dash of ground black pepper
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil

Instructions:

Cut the orange into slices and then into bite-size pieces, but reserve part of the orange for the vinaigrette. Squeeze that part of the orange so that you have 1 tablespoon of juice. To make the vinaigrette, add the orange juice, balsamic vinegar, honey, sea salt, and pepper to a small bowl. Then whisk in the olive oil.

Place the baby spinach in a salad bowl. Pour the vinaigrette over the spinach and toss to coat. Transfer the spinach to salad plates and place the orange pieces on top of the spinach.

Split Pea Soup

Well, I meant to post this around St. Patrick's Day, but the month of March kind of flew by. I had fun experimenting with soups this winter and am still making them since our spring has turned cold again. This soup brings back memories of my times in Germany, where I discovered how good a soup with peas in it could be. While experimenting with this recipe, I realized that the key to making a great split pea soup is to use lots of bacon. Lots. I know on the recipe it looks like quite a large amount of bacon, but please don't skimp on it and use less. The bacon is essential to the flavor, and if you need more help rationalizing the amount, it comes out to just two slices of bacon per serving of soup. So enjoy your bacon-filled split pea soup.

My sources of inspiration for this recipe are from the New York Times, One Frugal Foodie, and allrecipes.com.

Split Pea Soup
serves 6 adults

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. dried green split peas. Check the bag to make sure it contains only peas. Some brands, like Goya, include added ingredients to give the peas a ham flavor, but these contain corn.
  
• 12 ounces of bacon (like the Classic Sliced Dry Rubbed All Natural Uncured Bacon at Trader Joe's) or, if your bacon comes in 8-ounce packages like Applegate Naturals Sunday Bacon, then feel free to use 16 ounces for the soup. Another corn-free bacon is Hormel Natural Choice 100% Natural Original Uncured Bacon.
  
• 3 to 4 stalks of celery (about 1 cup diced)
• 2 medium onions (about 1 cup diced)
  
• 4 medium carrots (about 1 cup diced)
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 8 cups of chicken broth. That is 64 ounces or 2 cartons of Imagine Organic chicken broth or Kitchen Basics Original chicken cooking stock.
  
• 2 bay leaves
• optional: hot dogs. We eat Applegate Farms hot dogs because they are the only ones I've found that are free of corn and lactic acid starter culture (which could come from dairy and/or corn).
  

Instructions:

Place the peas in a bowl filled with water to soak. Cut the bacon into 1/4-inch-wide pieces. Place the bacon in a large 6-quart pot over medium heat and cook until browned. Remove the bacon from the pot and place on a paper towel.

While the bacon is browning, dice the celery, onions, and carrots. Add the vegetables to the pot containing the bacon drippings and saute over medium heat until softened. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant. Stir in the black pepper and thyme. Rinse the peas thoroughly and add to the pot. Finally, add the chicken broth, bay leaves, and half of the cooked bacon, and stir.

Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the peas are tender and beginning to fall apart. Transfer 6 cups of the soup to a blender and puree. (Because this is quite a bit of soup, it's best to do this in two batches and just put 3 cups of soup in the blender at a time. Wearing an oven mitt, hold the blender lid on tightly so that hot soup does not explode all over your kitchen. Just ask me how I know these things.) Then return the pureed soup to the pot. Add back to the pot the bacon that had been set aside, and stir.

If you would like, boil some hot dogs, cut them up into bite size pieces, and stir them into your soup. Or you could eat the soup without the hot dogs. It's good either way.

Gluten-free Bisquick Pancakes

During our Florida vacation I wanted to make cooking breakfast simpler than it is at home. Therefore, I decided to use some gluten-free mixes instead of making everything from scratch. One of the mixes was gluten-free Bisquick, which I used for making pancakes, albeit modifying the recipe on the Bisquick box because of Sabrina's egg allergy and our dairy intolerance. I also added some ground cinnamon to the batter because I like the way cinnamon in pancakes tastes. I think the resulting pancakes were quite good and worth making again. Even so, I'll reserve the Bisquick for vacations and other special occasions because it's more expensive that the Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour that I buy in bulk. In addition, the Bisquick isn't quite as healthy since the main ingredients are rice flour, sugar, and modified potato starch. But who thinks about what's healthy when they're on vacation, right? Speaking of not so healthy, one morning we topped our pancakes with chocolate syrup. Yum, yum.

Gluten-free Bisquick Pancakes
makes about 8 pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup gluten-free Bisquick
• 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 medium to large banana)
• 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. plain almond milk
  
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp. canola oil

Instructions:

Add the Bisquick mix to a medium bowl. Microwave the milk until warm and pour into the bowl. Mash the banana on a plate or in a food chopper and add it to the bowl as well. Finally, add to the bowl the ground cinnamon and canola oil. Whisk until completely combined. Let the batter sit for ten minutes.

While the batter is resting, place a large non-stick pan over medium heat and let it heat up. When the pan is hot and the batter has rested for ten minutes, make a tester pancake using 1/4 cup of batter. Cook the pancake for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Then cook the rest of the pancakes, using 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake.