Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Avocado & Kale Smoothie

What to do with a ripe avocado on short notice? Avocados are yummy, versatile and satiating but I find they have a very small window of ripeness in my kitchen.  I took an unexpected day off of work, so I was able to haul out my juicer. I juiced a pink grapefruit and a tangerine then added the avocado and kale to blend it all up in my knockoff magic bullet (which works just great, by the way). It was a little tart, so maybe next time I would only use half a grapefruit and two tangerines.

Avocado & Kale Smoothie

-juice of 1 pink grapefruit
-juice of 1 tangerine
-1 Tablespoon lemon juice
-half an avocado, roughly cubed
-approx 1/2 cup packed kale leaves

Blend and enjoy! Add 1/4 cup of water if too thick.



Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Roasted Squash Soup


Last night I made the Gold Rush Soup with Chickpea Croutons from www.mynewroots.org, and of course it came out fabulous! It's a soup made by roasting butternut squash, garlic cloves and onions in the oven and blending them with hot broth. A little time-consuming to prepare with all of the peeling and chopping--and lucky me--Johnny helped out and peeled all the garlic! I have no patience for that type of itty-bitty peeling work, but he did an awesome job. The vegetables roast quickly at 400F, just be super super careful with the blending part, because I almost burned myself with hot soup exploding through the lid of my blender.

My personal alterations: I tossed in dried Herbs de Provence and Thyme before roasting the vegetables, due to lack of fresh. I used the Better Than Bouillon (the No-Chicken variety) for my broth, which I brought to a simmer with water, turned off the heat and stirred in the dried turmeric. Personally I found the turmeric make the soup a little bitter upon the first spoonful, but after that all I could taste was yummy. Guess I'm still a turmeric newbie. I also recommend making the Chickpea Croutons the day before to cut down on after-work prep time.

Tonight's dinner, and our single meat dish for the week, will be my Grandma Sophie's favorite: Sausage Corn Chowder. I have already defrosted my sausage in the fridge, and my goal tonight will be to make this chowder without the use of creamed corn! For a long-term goal I'm trying to get away from using canned products. Hard to do in the winter.

Pumpkin Lentil Soup

I'm having a productive evening: I served Pumpkin Lentil Soup from the freezer for dinner, made more Ham & Veggie "Pot Pie" from my previous post, chocolate chip cookies from scratch, and put rice and beans in to soak overnight. Oh yes, and an absolute mountain of dishes! Technically I still haven't finished those.

I'm going to go back in time to November when I was obsessed with this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens for Pumpkin Lentil Soup. Recipe can be found here: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/pumpkin-soup-with-lentils/

This soup is very easy to make and quick-cooking (because the red lentils cook quicker than other varieties!). But I do recommend finely chopping the onions! Enjoy