Dinner Simplistic

Most evenings, IF I cook dinner for myself, I have a somewhat unwritten rule that it cannot encompass the use of more than one pan. I never knew this about myself until I was reading one of the short stories within "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant" and the writer was describing her friend and I had a light bulb moment that, yes, that it how I, too, manage cooking for myself. But, being that I was ambitious today and being that it feels like Fall and I wanted to cook and prep for the week to avoid the necessity of Health Choice or Lean Cuisine hell at lunchtime--it was a multipan kind of day--and that meant dinner for tonight as well.

Now, this is not something I normally do, but I'm so in lust with the dinner I had this evening I feel the need to share (and for those wondering why I'm eating so early--as it is only coming on 6:30 EST, let me say, dinner was a lunch/dinner combo and we are back to Standard time... which means at 6 p.m. it is now dark outside and my body thinks it 7 p.m. still).

Thai Pumpkin Soup

In your very nice soup pan, add the following

2 cups water
1 chicken bouillon cube (or vegetable, if preferred)
1 cup mango puree
2 cups pumpkin puree
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons vinegar (preferable rice, but I only had balsamic--it worked)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup fresh cilantro (or about 2 tablespoons dried--which is what I did lacking fresh)
3/4 teaspoon of ground ginger (though, again, I think fresh would be much better here)
1/2 cup evaporated milk
crushed red pepper to taste (I used about 1/2 teaspoon, which added flavor and a heat in the aftertaste)

So, someone more apt at this kind of thing would tell you how to put this all together, but well, I just threw it all in the pot, stirred and cooked on low heat for about 20-30 minutes.

Next, I made a Pomegranate Ricotta Dish:

1 cup low fat ricotta (admittedly, the original recipe that I nabbed this concept from called for hand packed fresh ricotta, but I wasn't heading to the Italian Market today for that)
1 cup pomegranate seeds
1 tablespoon honey
splash of vanilla extract
dash of cinnamon

Mix, chill and serve. Really, it's yummy.

So there you have it... my dinner this evening and probably a lunch or two this week as well.

And because I cooked pumpkin today, I now have toasted seeds cooling in the kitchen... because no, I did not use canned pumpkin or mango for the soup, one reason why it probably turned out as good as it did. Which means, the soup alone used a pot and a steamer, the soup pot itself, a food processor, cutting board and several knives. So, it was a cooking day and a dishes day--and my hands are showing it. It is definitely not a case of "Madge, I soaked in it".