Less is more

This morning we had a traditional suhoor - cucumbers, tomatoes, feta; lebneh with honey; and ful medames.  Imagine, no meat, yet we were sustained throughout the day. 

The kids have been looking forward to this - my husband makes the ful:  sauteed garlic, onions, and fava beans drizzled with olive oil.  It is filling and quite flavorful.

This all day orientation is killing me...I am not accustomed to working an 8 hour day.  My son had soccer practice tonight so I had 2 hours to prepare dinner. We have some quiche left but I thought I'd take a stab at the Ethiopian style shorba.

Of course I totally deviated from what I suspect is my friend's recipe.  I was thinking along the lines of alicha (the mild, yellow stew) so I sauteed an onion, added garlic ginger paste, a bit of green pepper and four seasoned chicken thighs (I couldn't resist).  I added the liquid and then 1 cup of oatmeal, sprinkled in some zataar and kurkum.  I simmered that and added some peas and carrots and continued to simmer for about an hour. 

The oatmeal gives the soup a creamy consistency but my shorba had a more robust flavor (probably due to the zataar) and actually served as our main course, along with some lumpia I found lurking in the freezer. 

For around $10, our family of 4 had two filling meals - it's amazing what you can do with a little creativity.  It's also tragic for so many, even these simple meals are out of reach.