Whenever my daughter gets sick, she asks for soup. She loves most types of soup but she especially loves soups with noodles and without meat. I am always concerned that she gets enough vegetables though so I always try to sneak them in whenever I can.

The last time she got sick she was also afflicted with a very sore throat and lost her appetite for most things. That is, until I made this soup which is a cross of everything she had and everything that is good for her.

The soup base contains all the usual ingredients for Filipino chicken soup called Tinola and since I didn't plan on using any chicken, I used chicken broth for the soup.

The recipe starts by sauteeing garlic, onions and garlic in about a tablespoon of oil. Add the chicken broth and let it come to a boil. Then add (as in this case) mustard greens, turnip root and rice noodles. Cook until the turnip and noodles are tender at which point the greens should be too. This should take about 8-10 minutes. If your chicken broth is not seasoned already, season the soup with salt and pepper.

I didn't put any proportions because it all depends on how much soup you're making. By adjusting the proportions to your taste, you can make this soup for two or two hundred :)

“Photo credit: One Fork, One Spoon”

It's that time of year again, the summer garden is on it's way out and the fall and winter veggies are slowly taking hold. One of the vegetables that always hangs around longer than any in our garden is the swiss chard. The plant we have has actually rooted a substantial trunk and now comes back every year after the last frost is gone! We don't even have to replant it and we have chard almost all year long!

This Swiss Chard Tart recipe has quickly become a favorite at our house. The girls and I love making a vegetarian brunch out of this tart on weekends. Paired with some fresh fruit and a good hearty toast, it's perfect to get the weekend started!

The great thing about this tart too is that it's flexible. You can make it the night before or even longer and freeze it. When you're ready to cook it, just pop it in the oven and you have something delicious!

Click here for the recipe for this Swiss Chard Tart.

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Wondering what kamote (sweet potato) leaves is? It's the tender tops from a sweet potato plant. Not many people realize that sweet potato 'greens' are edible and are actually very good for you. They are full of antioxidants that are supposed to be good for combating heart disease, diabetes, infections and some types of cancer. Whatever their health benefits are, there is no denying that the unique flavor of sweet potato leaves is delicious.

Normally, we prepare sweet potato leaves by simply blanching them and making what we call a Kamote salad by adding tomatoes and onions. I think that's the optimal way to prepare kamote leaves, but just for a change, I decided to make something else with the sweet potato leaves.

You can cook sweet potato leaves in every way you normally cook other greens. You can use it in soups and you can also stirfry it. The later is what we did with the last batch of sweet potato leaves we got from our garden. It's almost time to dig up the tubers so we're harvesting as much of the tender greens while we can.

Click here for the recipe for this stir fried sweet potato leaves.




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Bruschetta is one of those recipes that sound fancy and complicated but turns out to be so simple, you're left wondering, "That's it?"

All you have to do to make good bruschetta is to have a good roll of French baguette or similar type of bread. Crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside. Slice up the bread and brush it with olive oil and lay on a cookie sheet. Toast in the oven until the edges are browned slightly.

In the meantime, in a bowl mix together: chopped tomatoes, basil, minced garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil. You can modify the seasoning to suit your taste but that's all there is to it, pretty much.

You can add a layer of hummus too, like we did here, but just the tomatoes alone, especially if they are fresh and sweet from your garden, will be enough of a flavor sensation.




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Earlier in the summer we had an abundant harvest of Swiss Chard from our spring planting and that was when I discovered this recipe for making them into the pie or to put it more fancy like, a tart :)

Now that the weather is getting cooler, it's time for the second round of Swiss chard. We expect to be able to get another bounty as the Swiss chard is starting to perk up again in our garden. We'll be making this again for sure. The girls all loved this for lunch in one sitting! Now you know it's gotta be good!

Click here for the recipe for Swiss Chard Tart.



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Here's a healthy pasta dish that uses up vegetables from the garden. It's also a fast dish to make so you know this ranks high in my book. :)

Here's the recipe for this Vegetable Pasta with Alfredo Sauce.



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I call this a healthy meatball soup because of the abundance of vegetables in it. It is hard to believe that this Albondigas Soup can be at your table within an hour.

This one is made from pre-made frozen Italian Style meatballs from Costco, our newest favorite item to buy. See my previous post for Four Foods For Friday. The addition of chayote squash and carrots to this recipe gives it a refreshing taste which sets it apart from the creamy heaviness of most meatball soups you run into. Try it out, you just might light it! (Click on the photo for the recipe) BTW, we served this up with some homemade pupusas which we will post a recipe for later.



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I haven't had much time to cook lately, thus the lack of updates on the food front. My grandmother, lola as we called her, sadly passed away this month and I had to go to California to be with the family.

Simple dishes like this opo squash reminds me of her. She was and is a great influence in the way I cook, eat, and my attitude towards food in general. When we were growing up, she always cooked this type of squash sauteed with a bit of pork or shrimps. Sometimes she made it saucy sometimes she made it dry or with noodles. I do all those methods too but when I'm in a rush and just need to get a vegetable on the table fast, this is my latest method of choice: (click on the link for the recipe)
Opo Squash in Tomato Sauce




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I had one eggplant and a couple of zucchinis so why not put them together for a quick and tasty stir fry, I thought. So I did, and it was good!

Want to try out something that is different and refreshing especially after all the Thanksgiving turkey and all the rich trimmings? This vegetable dish is perfect for that. Just get you a bowl full of rice and put this Eggplant & Zucchini stir fry over it, and you're good to go.



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Our garden is now officially dead for the winter save a few herbs and greens. What we have now are the last of the squash. They should hold for a couple of weeks, at least until Thanksgiving. I'm hoping the acorn squash, especially, will hold until then because I want to back some more up for Thanksgiving.

Baking an acorn squash is the easiest way to cook it, I think. You don't have to peel it, which can be a pain in the butt, all you do is half it, take the seeds out, season it, bake it and it it. I baked these babies when I made some spicy sitaw (long beans) from our garden. The sweetness of these squash provided just the right contrast and as you can see in the photo below, the vegetables were so good on their own that you didn't even miss the meat.

To bake the acorn squash, simply sprinkle each half with coarse salt & freshly cracked black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and bake at 350 degrees F until tender, around 30 minutes.

The other vegetable on the plate is fried okra in case you were wondering.



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As my title says, this is an easy peasy recipe for Baba Ganoush, a Middle Eastern dish made from roasted eggplants. Just before posting this recipe, I found another website that covered how to make this dish in much more comprehensive detail. Click here to see how baba ganoush is really supposed to be done.

If, however you want my easy recipe, click here for Easy Baba Ganoush.


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What do you do when you have zucchini over running your garden? The easiest is to share. Gain some major brownie points with your neighbors by giving your bounty of zucchini away. What if your neighbors stop answering their doorbells and go the other way when you come down the street with a bagful of zucchini?

This, my friend, is the time to start putting them up for the winter. Cut them up, bag them in your desired portions (mine would be for five people) and freeze them. When I cut them up, I try to anticipate what I'm going to use them for. If I'm going to be sauteing them as a side dish, I cut them in segments about 1/8 inch thick. Some that I plan on using in stews and sauces (they're great in spaghetti sauce), I cut them up in 1/4 inch dice. I also cut some in larger pieces, 2 inch length sticks that I plan on making fried zucchinis later. When I freeze zucchini, I just cut them and freeze them. Some people blanch them first before freezing but I think this makes them too soggy so I don't. Try both ways and see which one you prefer.

If you need ways to cook up your zucchini, try these recipes:
Fried Zucchini
Pan Fried Zucchini & Vidalia Onions
Zucchini Fritters
Zucchini Basil Muffins
Ratatouille<

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These long beans were harvested right from our garden and we decided to cook them up spicy as part of this vegetarian plate I had last week. This veggie plate consisted of fried okra, baked squash and spicy long beans. Of course, you know they just have to be paired up with rice. :)

I had gotten tired of eating meat and even though I had fried some delicious southern fried chicken when I made this dish, I decided to forego the meat and just stick to the sides. It made for a very satisfying dinner and still carried with it variation in taste, color and texture.

Click here if you'd like the recipe for these spicy beans.


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My youngest daughter loves soups; yep, even in the heat of summer, she'll eat soup just like her momma. Whereas her momma loves meaty and spicy soups, she leans more on the creamy and meatless side. We cooked this one up together one afternoon when she was craving something soupy.

Here's the easy peasy recipe for this Potato, Carrots and Peas Soup...


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My youngest daughter loves soups, especially blended soups lately, so you’ll be seeing more of these type of soups until she gets out of this phase She also doesn’t want any meat in her soups. This was her latest favorite. I used cremini mushrooms for this but you can use any variety of fresh mushroom available.

Click here for the recipe to this Mushroom Soup.



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I'm not sure if someone who doesn't eat vegetables would suddenly love eating them after watching the Sproutwells, but whether you're looking to encourage someone to love veggies or just love to be entertained, this new show will certainly fit one of your needs. Watch the sproutwells video below and I bet you'll be smiling before it's over. I'd love to see what the other characters are going to be like. I hadn't seen a full episode before. Have you?

I think this show would be quite entertaining for adults and kids alike. I for one would love to be Mrs. Arty Choke. A pretty flower that is a little plump and bottom heavy with a pleasant personality. So long as you don't make her mad because deep inside she has an arsenal of meanness that can choke you. :)

How about you, what vegetable would you like to be on the show? Want to share the video on your blog? Make sure you leave a comment below so I can check it out.

Even if you've never tasted it before or don't even know what Ratatouille is, I'm sure you've heard of it especially after the animated movie of the same name came out. When you are served up ratatouille the first time, you either love it or are 'ehh, what's the big deal about it other than the fancy name?' Well, I've had ratatouille before the movie, and I had the later reaction. I wasn't really too crazy about it. It was nothing special and the eggplants were usually not cooked well and had that bitter, itchy aftertaste. Maybe it was the way it was prepared that I didn't like. Because when I made this dish this time, I loved it. WE all loved it!

This first dish was polished off in one sitting, believe it or not. I've never had a dish of zucchini without needing a left over container go in the fridge. These were the best zucchini ever. I cooked this last week and just cooked some more last night. That's how good it is.

Click here to get the recipe...



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I recently received this huge green book in the mail, courtesy of Birdseye Steamfresh. It is a veritable bible on vegetarian cooking. I love it!

It's a comprehensive book on not just cooking the vegetarian way, but also all about the different vegetables there are. I have this book on my bedside table right now, to inspire me to cook more vegetables. And isn't it a great coincidence that our garden will be putting out lots of veggies soon :)

If you don't have a garden but still would like to get your fill of vegetables, try out the new frozen product from Birdseye Steamfresh. Now I am not a huge fan of frozen vegetables, but I have to admit, these were not bad. They are certainly way better than other frozen vegetables we've tried before. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they steam right in the bag, but whatever it is, it certainly improved the way frozen vegetables taste.


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Summer is truly here for sure. The girls are out of school, and the temperature has been flirting with the 100s for days. Yesterday, we stayed inside in the air conditioned housed but my poor husband we out in the heat working with his cousin. He says the heat index where they were working was 107 degrees. It was so hot that I didn't really feel like cooking.

On days like these, salads and cooking outside is the only solution to not heating up the kitchen, and this grilled eggplant salad is substantial and refreshing. Perfect for days like this.

See the recipe for Eggplant salad...



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We’ve been eating too much meat and not enough vegetables so last weekend, we cooked us up a preview of things to come in our garden. We can’t wait for summer! In the meantime, we had to content ourselves with market bought veggies. This is a quick and easy vegetable medley that can be a meal in itself...

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