Sweetness in the Sand

Here's my Facebook post about this soup:

Healthy Soup Creation on the stove: Vidalia onions sauteed with garlic, EVO, ground cinnamon, ground basil, salt, and pepper. Add in peeled and par boiled sweet potatoes and 2 cartons of organic veggie broth. Bring to boil and simmer the heck out of it. It smells great so far. Should be ready by lunchtime.

Although my beach buddy Diane couldn't believe it (and was a little grossed out), I chilled this soup and ate a HUGE tupperware container on Nantasket beach on a sunny Saturday. She doesn't know what she was missing!

BBQ Chicken...No Soup for You!

Switching up the Healthy Creations with BBQ chicken, beans, and onions in the crock pot. Not sure I'll be able to eat it but I am determined to cook all leftovers. Did I mention that I started composting, too?

Creamy, Creamless Potato Soup

Facebook status update:  Made a creamy, yummy potato Healthy Soup Creation. Saute celery, garlic, EVO, and garlic in the bottom of the stock pot. Add in washed and cubed dozen (or so) white and red skin baby potatoes (skin on). Add 2 cartons of organic veggie broth and bring to boil for about 5 min. Add dried rosemary, chopped basil and pepper.... Simmer for 30 minutes. Blend on high until pureed then return to simmering stock pot for 30 min.

This soup is really good chilled or hot. My friend Laurie loved this soup but was not at all shy about adding salt. I wasn't insulted since she was right. :-)

A Fruity Pre-Dawn Disaster

My UC medication gets me up at the crack of dawn.  Truly. Sometimes it's 4:30am and I force myself to stay in bed until at least 5:00am. I'm not sure why. Getting up before then just seems OBSCENE and reminds me of my days as a Newswriter on Morning Edition after college which I loved but  kicked my butt physically.  Since I'm not used to being a morning person, I find myself wandering the house with my new-found energy, looking for stuff to do until the kids get up. The storage part of my basement has never been more organized and the freezer and fridge are filled with Tupperware containers of soup.

Here's my Facebook status update after one of these early morning adventures:  Just made my first Healthy Fruit Soup Creation: 1/2 a bottle of Kefir which was a gift from my friend Julie, about 1/2 a seedless watermelon, ground ginger (maybe 3 tablespoons which was WAY too much), 1/2 a fresh squeezed lemon, a peeled cucumber, and a can of peaches in pear juice (drained first). If only I still had cilantro for flavoring and garnish. Must keep the herbs stocked!

This was a failed experiment. I'm not sure if it was the Kefir, the fruit, the overload of ground ginger, or what, but this did not taste great and caused me some serious UC symptoms. I will NOT be repeating this recipe.

Zupa de Plaintains Delicioso

Here's my Facebook update from my plantain soup which was inspired by The Cooking Channel's "Simply Delicioso"--one of my favorite food shows hosted by a lovely Latino woman with the unlikely name of Ingrid Hoffmann.

The Plantain soup is to DIE FOR: Saute sliced plantains, garlic, fresh basil, salt, pepper, celery, carrots, and onions in the base of a stock pot. Then add in three cartons of organic vegetable broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Then ladle soup (a blender pitcher's worth) into the blender pitcher, blend it, add it back into the stock pot, and simmer for another 30 minutes or so. Yum.

My friend, Laurie, who is not shy about added salt when needed or saying, "Ya, not my cup of tea," LOVED this one and took home a tupperware container.

 

Soup Jam

Digging my cold pureed zuchinni, apple, and garlic soup and my Pandora quick mix: Beck's Modern Guilt...Gorillaz' Tomorrow Comes Today...Radiohead's Just. Mmmmmm.

Free Soup!

My landlord dropped off a bag of squash from his gardener neighbor. I made a cold squash soup with fresh ginger and basil.