Meatless Monday

Mondays at our house are usually catch-up and clean-up days. I try to catch up on emails or appointments and try to get laundry and cleaning done. Since it is a pretty busy morning, I try to plan something easy for dinner so I can focus on cleaning in the morning and play time in the afternoon. All around the Internet you see all sorts of posts for Meatless Mondays, a movement to lessen the grocery bill and eat less meat. We have a lot of pasta or salad nights here but Mondays just lend themselves to quick, easy, inexpensive meals so we are rolling with it.
I have been trying to plan my menus out as much as possible to reduce the "run to the store last minute and drop $50 bucks each time" little side trips we take a lot around here. So for this Monday I planned a Meatless Monday meal of Big Bold Summer Soup and cheese quesadillas. We loved this soup the first time I made it and I grabbed the majority of the ingredients at the Farmer's Market on Saturday so I am anxious to get all of this in the pot. I was planning on adding black beans this go round but forgot to get those at the store. So strike the bean addition.

I made this a little differently than the original recipe. I wanted to cut out the tomato boiling part because I found it really didn't work that well anyway. I think this soup was the original inspiration for me to put the tomatoes in the crockpot a few weeks ago so since that has worked out so well (yes, I'm a little obsessed, its ok, I'm seeking crockpot therapy) I put the tomatoes in the crockpot with a little bit of olive oil, 4 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper and cooked on low for about 4 hours.

I roasted my pobalnos and jalapenos in the oven under the broiler and this is by far, one of my favorite things to do. They smell SO good and come out all blistery and popping, just delicious. I put them in a plastic bag or Tupperware container, whatever you have to trap in the steam, and let them sit for a bit, and then peel the skin off. The steam helps pull the skin away so it makes the job a bit easier.

I mean seriously. Look at them. I love them. I want to eat them. Get in my belly.

All chopped up and ready to rock.

And the jalapenos all roasted up and cracklin' good.

An easy way to trim corn from the cob is to put in on top on a bowl inside another dish or bowl and all of ther kernels fall into it (instead of on your floor...ahem, back to the corn). Once you have cut the kernels off, take the back of your knife and scrape the "milk" out of the cob. It is the sweetest part of the corn. Your welcome. (You will thank me later, so I'm just being polite here.)

See all that corny milky goodness? De-lish.

Everybody in the pot:

Topped with avacado and cilantro:

Dinner is served. Soup, cheese quesadillias, and pineapple and blueberries.

(Forgive my Instagram photos, still waiting for a new lens. Sigh)

Here is the link to the original recipe from a very lovely blog called Local Lemons. I have changed it up just a little bit, but this is genius in a soup pot.

Big Bold Summer Soup

3 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cob
2 pounds of tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
1 medium red onion, peeled and chopped
2 poblano peppers
3 jalapeno peppers
Handful of chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons of butter
Sea salt
1 sliced avocado



Place tomatoes in crockpot with garlic cloves. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper on top. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. (See original recipe to boil tomatoes.)

Roast pobalnos and jalapenos under the broiler until charred.

Cut corn from cob.

Melt butter in skillet on medium high heat. Saute onions until translucent. Add peppers, corn, cilantro, salt to taste and tomato mixture from crockpot. Cook on medium about 15 minutes. I used my immersion blender and just roughly chopped everything up.

Ladle into soup bowl and top with avocado.

Mine made 4 good size bowlfuls.

Enjoy!