Sister Jean's Lenten Diary: Week 2

Sunday: Stir-fried pepper couscous:
1 small onion, coarsly chopped
1 red, yellow and green pepper, cut into strips
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 package couscous

Flash fry the vegetables until browned but still crisp in olive oil.
Cook couscous to yield two cups.
Add couscous and beans.
Season with curry powder.

If you have acid reflux--so many of us do as we age--ditch the green pepper and curry powder. Substitute soy sauce and firm tofu if you want.

Monday: I used to love cabbage soup, but hadn't made it in years. It's fun because once you have the basic, simple soup, you can play around with seasonings and ingredients:

4 cups tomato puree, tomato juice or V-8
1.5 cups of coarsely chopped green cabbage
1 small coarsely chopped onion
1/2 cup quick barley

Saute the vegetables, add the tomato puree and simmer about half an hour.
Add barley and simmer until done.

Variations: Add 1 can drained and rinsed kidney or black beans; 1/2 cup uncooked lentils or orzo; chopped carrots or yams; cubed tofu.

Seasonings: You can go Mexican, Italian or just use sage in this.

Top with low-fat sour cream or plain yogurt cheese (to make yogurt cheese, dump some yogurt in one of those reuseable coffee filter baskets and drain over a plastic butter tub overnight). Lower the calories of cream cheese or sour cream by cutting in yogurt cheese.

Tuesday: Long day at work. Snacked on pretzels, yogurt, bagel and cream cheese, and ate WAY too much cheese ravioli with Prego marinara for supper.

Had a daydream about the hamburgers at the Boulevard Lounge, a hangout for the afternoon shift I used to work many years ago. Must fight temptation. Must watch "Super Size Me" again and fight the temptation to eat Our Animal Friends.

So often it seems we "hunger and thirst" for meaning in our lives and feed that hunger instead with junk food, doesn't it? OK, so much for being "deep. "

Wednesday: Potato casserole
Slice 3-4 potatoes, skins on, and layer in a baking pan.
Microwave until potatoes are just barely tender.
Top with a thin layer of broccoli heads and sharp grated cheddar. In that order.

Zap until cheese is melted and potatoes are tender.

Thursday: Egg salad sandwiches and lettuce salads. Every day can't be creative, you know.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday: Friday's pizza and movie night at the Mother House. Tonight it's mushroom/onion pizza and "Strangers with Candy. Saturday's pancake night and Sunday is a belated celebration of St. Dewi of Wales (one of Sister Jean's faves who has no connection with animals whatever).

St. Dewi's Day Dinner
Welsh rarebit (pronounce it "rabbit")
Bring the bottom of a double boiler to a slow boil. In the top, combine a tablespoon of butter and flour until it's smooth. Gradually pour in a half bottle of beer, whisking slowly until it's combined with the roux. Add 1.5 cups graded cheddar. A good cheddar, nice and crumbly so you hardly have to grate it. Stir all that up until it's smooth and add more beer as needed to make it pourable.

Pour the sauce over five cups stale bread cubes and bake until it's all heated through.

Creamed leeks
Slice three large leeks (white part) and rinse well. Put in a large iron skillet with some butter and fry them up. I like them a little brown, and then turn down the heat and saute until tender. Stir in 1/2 cup of heavy cream and stir in until thickened.

Buy some scones at the store for dessert. And say it right: "skahnz" not "skones."