Chickpea Noodle Soup for the Soul

Chickpea noodle soup
Red leaf lettuce salad with carrots, tomatoes, toasted pecans, and balsamic vinaigrette
Multigrain bread with Earth Balance and honey
Oranges

The soup was really yummy and was reminiscent of another chick-ish noodle soup. Here is what I did:

Chickpea Noodle Soup

1 soup starter
1 15oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup chopped portabello mushrooms
4 cups water
1 1/2 t thyme
1/2 t marjoram
1 t garlic powder
freshly grated pepper to taste
salt to taste
8 oz pappardelle noodles, broken
1 cup loosely-packed chopped fresh spinach

Combine first 9 ingredients in a soup pot and simmer for 30 minutes or so until flavors blend. Add noodles and spinach and cook until thick and noodles are tender. I used vegan sprouted wheat pappardelle from Trader Joe's. If you aren't using a soup starter, use about 2 cups vegetable broth and saute about one chopped carrot, two celery stalks, half an onion, and two garlic cloves--but you really should make soup starters!

After dinner I tried my first date-sweetened baked goods--banana muffins. I first followed a recipe to make a date puree. Then I added it to the muffin mix. I doubled the date puree recipe and put the extra in the freezer in one-cup batches for later use. The muffin recipe makes a whole lotta muffins--24 regular muffins and 24 mini muffins. I wrapped up five per package and tucked those in the freezer, too, for when we want a little baked goodness. The muffins were yummy--definitely not sweet, but it was nothing that a little honey on top couldn't cure.