Instant Pot Lemony Red Lentil Soup

Sautee a big chopped red onion in olive oil in the Instant Pot.

While that is cooking, boil a kettle of water and whisk about 5 teaspoons of Vegetarian Better Than Bouillon into 5 cups of boiling water.

Add to the onions 2 cubes of frozen Trader Joe's garlic and two cubes of frozen ginger -- or use fresh if you have it.

When garlic and ginger are mixed through the onions, add two tablespoons of tomato paste and a heaping teaspoon of paprika and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and grate in some pepper. Before this starts to stick, pour in the hot broth and stir well.

Add a cup and a half of rinsed red lentils and a couple of handfuls of baby carrots chopped into bite sized chunks or a big carrot or two, chopped up.

Set Instant Pot to pressure cook for 15 minutes and then let it slowly release for 8 minutes. 

Remove lid carefully and blend the soup with an immersion blender.

Stir in the juice of a big lemon.

Serve with crusty buttered seeded baguette or some other tasty bread.

Instant Pot Sweet Potato, White Bean, Vegetarian Sausage and Kale Soup

Slice two Trader Joe's Italian vegetarian sausages.
Sauté in Instant Pot for a few minutes in a little olive oil till browned.
Remove sausage and set aside in a bowl.

Sautee a chopped onion in a bit more olive oil. After a few minutes, add 2 cubes of frozen Trader Joe's garlic and a cube or two of frozen Trader's Joe's ginger. (Or fresh.)
Grate on some lemon pepper as this cooks.

Add in a large sweet potato or two smaller ones, cut up in small cubes.
Grate on a little salt and pepper.

Add 5 or 6 cups of Veggie Both (whisk Vegetable Better Than Bouillon into boiling water).

Set Instant Pot to pressure cook for 8 minutes and let it release for 10 mins.

Open lid carefully and add a generous amount of chopped Tuscan kale.
Add a can of white beans, drained and rinsed.
Set Instant Pot back to sauté mode and cook for about five minutes to soften the kale.

Stir in the sausage and serve with rosemary crackers and peppered goat cheese medallions.

Very simple, very good granola

Pre-heat oven to 300.

On a cookie sheet, mix well:

5 cups of rolled oats (not the quick-cook type)
1 to 1.5 cups of slivered almonds
.5 to 1 cup of sesame seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
several twists of pink sea salt

Drizzle olive oil over the top. Then drizzle either maple syrup or honey to taste.
Mix well.
Pop in oven for 10 minutes
Stir again and bake for 10 more minutes
Stir again and bake for a final 5 or 7 minutes. Be careful not to let the almonds get too dark.
(Total baking time  approximately 25 mins.)

Remove from oven and stir and let cool.

When completely cooled, add in a good quantity of chopped dried slab apricots. (I like to use Blenheim from Trader Joe's.)

Store in a sealer container or ziplock.

Serve with sliced nectarines or peaches and milk.

Blueberry Pancakes and Vegetarian Sausages

For two people... (double if desired)

Heat a little olive oil in a medium frying pan. Put in vegetarian sausages and quickly brown the outside to get a good texture. Then turn down and continue to cook.

Beat 3 eggs.
Beat in 1 T olive oil and 1/2 cup milk.

Add in 1 cup Trader Joe's multigrain pancake mix.

Microwave a cup of frozen blueberries until slightly warm. (Or just use fresh.) Add into pancake batter.

Heat a large frying pan and add a dab of butter and spread around.
Ladle in four pancakes. Flip when the show little holes.

Makes about 8 pancakes.

Serve very hot with butter and real maple syrup and the sausages.

Fusilli with roasted baby asparagus and grape tomatoes

Bring big pot of salted water to boil.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash a pound of baby asparagus and cut it into 2 inch lengths.
Wash a box of plum or cherry tomatoes and cut in half.

Spread asparagus on about 2/3 of a big cookie tray and the tomatoes on the remaining 1/3.
Drizzle with olive oil, grate on lemon pepper, and add a cube of frozen garlic in the middle of the asparagus and another in the middle of the tomatoes.  Pop in the hot oven.

Add fusilli to boiling water and stir often.

After a short time, take the vegetables out of the oven and stir the melted garlic into the asparagus and into the tomatoes so it coats them as much as possible. Grate on more lemon pepper. Pop back in oven.

Drain the fusilli when it is al dente and stir in a little olive oil.

When the asparagus and tomatoes are nicely roasted (asparagus tender, tomatoes soft and full of flavor), take them out of the oven.

Fill each person's bowl with fusilli and top with asparagus and tomatoes.
On each portion, shave on some Trader Joe's Uncommon Cheddar, add 4 or 5 green and black olives, and add more salt and pepper if desired.

Overnight oats with berries

To get ready tomorrow's breakfast, in a glass jar with a lid or a ceramic mug with a lid, combine:

1/2 cups rolled oats (preferably the slow cook kind)
1/3 cup of milk or cold water
1/3 cup whole milk plain yoghurt
1/2 - 3/4 cup of frozen berries ... I use a mix of raspberries and blueberries
optional: 1 teaspoon of maple syrup

Stir well, put on the lid, and place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, stir again and top with toasted whole hazelnuts or any toasted nut of choice.

Instant Pot Mujadara

Thinly slice two large yellow onions.
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large frying pan and caramelize the onions. Grate on some sea salt while cooking. Stir frequently.
When onions are almost fully done, add in 3 minced cloves of garlic or 3 frozen cubes of Trader Joe's garlic and cook until garlic is done.

Rinse and dab dry:
1 cup brown basmati rice
1 cup whole green lentils

Boil water in kettle.
Whisk 3 teaspoons of Vegetable Better Than Bouillion into 2 2/3 cups of the boiled water in a big glass measuring cup.

Heat a little olive oil on the Sauté mode in the Instant Pot.
Add in the rice and lentils and stir around for several minutes.
Turn Instant Pot off.
Add the vegetable broth, stir, put on lid and make sure lid is in the unvented position.
Set for 15 minutes of pressure cooking.
Let it decompress for 10 when pressure cooking is done.
Open lid carefully (press the vent with a wooden spoon to let it finish venting).
Evenly mix the rice and lentils.

Serve in bowls with topping of caramelized onion and garlic mixture.
Add freshly grated pepper.
Offer olives on the side.

Serve with a simple salad such as arugula and cherry tomatoes.