Episode 60 - It's a Miracle!

By: Kristy on Wednesday, September 14, 2011

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Have I told you about our dog?  I should because she is awesome.  Her name is Roxie and she is a 90-lb bundle of puppy-faced love.  Check her out:

What a cutie!

If you own a dog you know that there's nothing that makes a dog's day like a trip to the dog park.  Even mentioning the word "walk" in our house results in a display I like to refer to as the "doggy happy dance" - ears perk up, tail entire butt end wags, and dogs love for owner increases about 200%.  It hilariously entertaining until someone accidentally mentions the magic "w" word when not intending to, resulting in the "doggy guilt trip".  Worst. Thing.  Ever.  Anyways, we took our Roxie dog out to the Arboretum and the Experiemental Farm in Ottawa this past Sunday and made a little date out of it - nice long walk and a trip to the best sandwich place ever where we had a couple of monster sandwiches (Diavolo for Dawson and a turkey, prosciutto and provolone for me) and a few cannoli.  Oh my, if you have never tried a cannoli from Dirienzo's you haven't really lived.  You should probably run out and get one right now.  Seriously.  Now.  It is sweet, creamy, stuffed-cookie-like-thing heaven.  Mmmm cannoli.

Bein' all lovey in public

In any case, as if cannoli weren't miraculous enough, I have an another miracle for you - miraculous soup!  This soup is guranteed to make your house smell delicious.  The smell of it wafting through our house brought Dawson's dad into the kitchen where he looked into the pot, saw the crap-load of kale I had just dumped in there and said, "you know, that smells so darn good I'd eat it even with all that green stuff in there".  Wow.  Anything that can get that man to eat something green is obviously a miracle.

The leftovers and even better the next day!

Miracle Soup

1 tbsp olive oil
3 hot Italian sausages, casing removed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 tbsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 pinch of each salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups dried red lentils
6 cups low-sodium broth (beef, chicken or veggie)
3 cups kale, roughly chopped

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat.  Add your sausage and break it up into little pieces with a wooden spoon.  When it about 50% cooked add your garlic, onion, carrot and celery.  Cook until they get that "I'm starting to cook" sheen - 5-8 minutes.  Next add the thyme, pepper flakes, salt and pepper, stir to coat everything nice and evenly then add the lentils and the broth.  Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Let simmer at least 15 minutes to let the lentils cook through.  In the last 5 minutes wilt in the kale.  It will look like a ridiculously huge amount of kale, but I promise, it'll all go in!  Done!  This soup is pretty hearty so it's a meal all on it's own, but try it with some crusty bread if that's your thing!

Now, if only I could come up with some sort of miracle that pays my bills without any money leaving my account I'd be all set.  'Cause you know what doesn't pay very well, internet?  Dietetic internships.  In fact, they pay exactly $0.00.  You just can't buy enough fancy cheese for $0.00.  I expect my cheese stash to dwindle significantly in the coming months.  Le sigh.