What's For Dinner? Feb Week 1

I watched the movie Julie & Julia last night and I'm feeling inspired. Yes, partly for cooking simply because I love food! But mostly for writing. I always wanted to be a writer when I was a kid and I just love the feeling of getting my thoughts down on paper. I think that's why blogging is so fun for me. I've kept a journal since junior high, so this is really just an extention of that. And now I feel like less of a dork for blogging about food - LOL.

So here's my most recent challenge: I'm on the hunt for a really good tomato soup recipe. I love tomatoes. They are what I craved in both my pregnancies and their flavors are so vast with potential for many things. But I never thought I cared for tomato soup, likely because the "standard" tomato soup comes in a can with a Campbell's label on it. Nothing wrong with that if it suits you - I just didn't care for it. But then I tried a couple different versions of restaurant tomato soups and fell in love. I actually prefer them a little bit chunky (ala Panera Bread) with garlic and herbs and perhaps some croutons. Remember the one I tried with white beans back in November? Blech! That one was definitely NOT a keeper. I'm not necessarily opposed to white beans in tomato soup, just not as a dominant flavor. So I've found another recipe to try: a roasted tomato soup from (surprisingly) Family Fun magazine again: http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/roasted-tomato-soup-699298/. It is a smooth texture, but it calls for fresh tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and s&p and then roasted in the oven to bring out their flavor. I love using my emersion blender for easy blending and my Le Creuset stock pot makes any soup look pretty.

So we'll call this Tomato Soup Challenge - week 1. :) I've already got it prepared and I'm serving it on Tuesday night with some croutons and shaved Parmesan. I'll report back on what my testing committee (Craig & Will) rate it.

Also this week:
1) Chicken fettucine Alfredo with salads, garlic bread and cookies 'n cream pie - we had this on Sunday night and it's one of Craig's favorites. Pretty rich though - gotta' hit the treadmill after this one. :)

2) Taco salad - nothing too exciting but it's easy and another one of Craig's favorites. And I guess I'm just feeling like being a nice wife this week.

New for Sophie this week: I boiled some whole wheat macaroni noodles (I like the Hodgson Mills brand) for a finger food on Sunday. Those may still be a little big for her - I think I'll cut them in half in the future. And since we never got around to broccoli last week, that'll be this week. I'd also like to incorporate some spices into her meals a little more regularly now so I'll play around with that. P.S. she didn't really care for the baby omelet last week. I think egg yolks are a strong flavor for babies, but I'm going to keep trying different variations here and there to see if she changes her mind. Her current favorite meals are probably: cottage cheese with sweet potato, avocado with banana, cereal with yogurt and fruit, and Cheerios!

Here she is eating her avocado dices with Cheerios. Will saw them and said "I want that!" I knew he hasn't cared for avocado in the past, but I gave him a piece and he put it in his mouth. Then he made a "yuck" face, spit it out and said "I don't like 'adacado'." Ah well, Sophie loves them!

Not really sure what this face was all about... I think Craig was trying to get him to hold a grape between his teeth for a silly picture and he wasn't interested.