It’s day two of cooking for me and feel like I’m back to my old self.  I made myself a wonderful bowl of homemade ramen.  Check it out.

(The trick is the sweet sake and dab of peanut oil to keep the pot from boiling over — yummy). I have no set recipe for this because I make it by taste using whatever I have in the fridge and pantry.   For dinner I made some pea soup seasoned with smoked salmon bits from a recipe I got from “The Healing Cookbook (Healthy Heart).”  I originally got this for my mother-in-law to cook for my husband’s grandmother, but then I discovered that it just wasn’t worth it (don’t have anything nice to say about her cooking) so I kept the book.  Anyhow, this book is filled with tasty, low calorie, low fat dishes — great food even if you don’t have a heart problem.  Last night we had the artichoke with garlic potato dip and those were the best garlic mashed potatoes I’ve ever had.  Who’d have thought the mild tang of lemon could do so much for potatoes.  The potatoes were light because no butter or cream was used and full of flavor from the garlic and the chicken broth.  Sooo good.  As for the pea soup … this I had to modify a little because I didn’t have all the ingredients.  I substituted green onion for leeks and I used fresh dill instead of dill seeds.  I also had to add more salmon and a pinch more salt to tame the overwhelming flavor of the peas.  Not only was the soup tasty, but because you don’t cook the life out of the peas, beautiful looking too.  Anyhow, get this cookbook.  I’ve tried many of the recipes in it and I haven’t gone wrong yet (for my self — my husband was very peeved at the coucous stuffed portobello.  He like the mushroom, but coucous for whatever reason pisses him off no matter how I disguise it.) It’s only $2.59 used on Amazon — buy it!