Mondays are good days. I don’t care what the Bangles say, Mondays are my days. It’s the day I get the chance to start the week right. I go to the gym, I eat right, and I get so much school work done. By Tuesday, I’m skipping out on exercising, having second helpings and coming up with excuse upon excuse not to work on pending research papers. But Monday. I love Mondays.

Last night, before heading to the gym (I was so good), I prepared a spinach salad courtesy of Rick Bayless’ Mexican Everyday. The inclusion of bacon was totally off set by the fact that I used an entire bag of baby spinach for one meal. Do you know how much iron and folic acid that is? You don’t need a multivitamin when you’re eating that much fresh spinach for dinner.

So here’s the recipe. Make it. I think we have a regular Monday night meal on our hands.

Roasted Mushroom Salad with Spinach and Bacon
(Serves 4)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Scatter onto a baking sheet
8 thick slices of bacon cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces

Sprinkle on top of the bacon and put into the center of the oven
4 cups sliced mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
1 large red onion, sliced about 1/4-inch thick

Stir after about 10 minutes, then cook another 10 more minutes, or until the onion is richly browned and the bacon is fully cooked.

While all of that is cooking, combine in a bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds
8 cups (approx. 8 oz) salad spinach
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp dried Mexican oregano

Sprinkle the mushroom mixture over the spinach, then drizzle the warmed dressing on top and toss to combine. Serve right away.
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Real Simple’s Web exclusive this week features 14 recipes for quick, easy and belly-warming soups ranging from an ultra-basic French onion to a slightly more exotic spicy sweet potato and coconut and everything in between. Even if you’re not a recipe follower (and who really needs to be with soups?), these are good for a little inspiration and can definitely be improved upon.

Lack of time and interest in long and/or involved culinary projects made the French onion, the simplest soup of all, stand out. Also, the inclusion of French fried onions in the recipe. My husband loves these things, and yes OK so do I. We’re not doing a traditional dinner for Thanksgiving this year (i.e., no green bean casserole!), so I jumped at another excuse to buy them. I used Jarlsberg instead of Swiss and cut the recipe in half (to avoid left overs and over eating). The Jarlsberg is on hand thanks to a tip on another onion soup recipe.

This was an out-of-the-ordinary morning. We didn’t get up until 10:30 a.m. Then, we laid on the couch for another half hour and talked about the weird dreams of making pancakes I had last night and how I was going to give up meat for a while. In my crazy pancake dreams, I was trying to cook in someone else’s kitchen for a group of people I barely know. I was attempting to cook on a griddle heated by a tea light candle and trying (and failing) to chop walnuts with a plastic butter knife. Finally, someone came in and in a rage threw the “griddle” at the wall, destroying what little progress I had made. I threw my hands up, walked into the room where the people for whom I was cooking were watching the same movie on about three or four different laptops (because there wasn’t a TV big enough for them all to crowd around). I told them that if they wanted to eat, we’d have to order out or just go out. One of them, the woman whose kitchen I was cooking in, got up and said, “Oh, I can come help.” So, I was doomed to keep attempting these blueberry walnut pancakes.

Fortunately, the pumpkin pancakes I made this morning were a success. I prepared them in my own kitchen and only for myself and Andrew. When he ran out to get some maple syrup and soy milk, I brewed some coffee in the French press and whipped up some orange nutmeg “butter” with Earth Balance, orange zest and freshly grated nutmeg.

Although I tend to drool over quiches and omelets, I was really happy with how these guys turned out. They were a little soft in the middle, sort of like pumpkin pie filling (which we love), but not so much that they seemed raw (which we don’t love). A pat of that orange “butter” and a drizzle of maple syrup made them just sweet enough.

Vegan Pumpkin Pancakes

Combine in a medium bowl
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
Juice of half an orange
1 Tbsp oil
1 1/2 - 2 cups unsweetened soy milk

In a separate, larger bowl whisk together:
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 - 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
3 Tbsp sugar

Make a well in the dry ingredients into which you’ll pour the wet ingredients. Whisk together until blended, adding more soy milk as needed.

Ladle desired amount of batter onto a lightly oiled griddle. Cook pancakes until edges begin to brown and bubbles form on top. Flip and allow to cook for 3 to 4 more minutes. Serve hot with the orange nutmeg butter and maple syrup. They’re great with a side of sliced apples.

Note: These pancakes are not very sweet. If you’d like them sweeter, add more sugar to the dry ingredients or just use more maple syrup.