Category Archives: butternut squash apple soup

I Eat REAL Food!

     Exercise of the day: I woke up with a headache and sat around for a while sipping tea before I decided that if I was going to feel like crap anyway, I might as well feel like crap at the gym and get a workout out of the way and I’m really good at writing run-on sentences. I fueled up with some carbs:

1 slice of 9 Grain from Great Harvest with some peanut butter and mashed banana. I have no idea how those chocolate chunks found their way there!
     I got onto the elliptical and did the random cycle at level 7 for 40 minutes, then did 30 assisted pullups and 30 tricep dips. I used the evil/wonderful foam roller and tried not to cry as I rolled out my IT bands, then went out and did a few “woodchopper” core weights. Halfway through the workout my headache was GONE! 
     I had an icy Monsta when I got back with 6 cups of spinach, 1/2 cup of soymilk, 1/2 a frozen banana, 1 lemon and 1/4 cup of frozen blueberries. Soymilk has protein in it… Probably not enough for a post-workout refuel though. I also had some reheated butternut squash apple soup with a dollop of goat cheese – yum!
     I spent the day cleaning the house, doing laundry, CLEANING OUT MY CAR (something I haven’t done in over six months) and making hummus!
The can of garbanzo beans gave me some trouble, but I sorted it out.
And the hummus is chillin’ in the fridge, waiting to have fresh bell pepper slices dipped into it.
     I made baked sweet potato fries for dinner.
Half of a huge sweet potato sliced, sprayed with olive oil and sprinkled with garlic salt, then roasted at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
     At work I got a lovely gift from a lovely friend.
Chocolate covered strawberries from Godiva! Thanks, Jose!
I also started this book: The French Don’t Diet Plan. I really, really, REALLY recommend reading this! I’m only a few chapters in, but this is so interesting! The author, Dr. Will Clower, talks about how the French can seemingly eat everything in sight: bread, cheese, wine, chocolates, and not gain weight, and how their diet differs from the typical American diet.
“They eat real foods, we eat food products.” – Dr. Will Clower.
     If you read the ingredient lists on different foodstuffs, it’s shocking to see how many unpronounceable ingredients, chemicals, dyes and preservatives actually inhabit the products that we put into our body. For instance, let’s look at the ingredients on a simple loaf of Wonder Bread:
I don’t want to put exthoxylated mono and diglycerides in my body – I researched them and STILL don’t know what they are!
Lucky for me, I have a Great Harvest down the street. The ingredients in this loaf? Fresh-ground whole wheat flour, water, yeast, salt, honey and oatmeal. That’s more like it!
     I’ll be going through this book and sharing on my blog as I go along! I’m making a conscious decision to only eat food with real, whole ingredients – starting with making my own ketchup tomorrey! Stay tuned!
How many things in your fridge contain crazy chemicals or dyes? 
My count – seven out of twelve on the middle shelf alone. Yikes.

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Filed under butternut squash apple soup, elliptical, Godiva, Great Harvest, gym, headache, hummus, sweet potato fries, The French Don't Diet

Butternut Squash Apple Soup!

I did a lot of cooking yesterday, but decided not to bombard you with every recipe in one post. I felt that the bread pudding needed to be shared first because it was so epic, but here’s another dish that is a saga in itself. Bonus: it’s vegan!



Butternut Squash Apple Soup with a bite! – Printable version HERE
(adapted from Martha Stewart to be vegan/vegetarian)
1 tbsp Nucoa
1 onion, chopped
1 butternut squash
3 apples
1 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp cumin seed
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
A pinch of ground cinnamon
A pinch of ground nutmeg
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1/3 cup soy creamer
     1. Assemble your ingredients. (I didn’t have all the ingredients that Martha’s recipe calls for so I just grabbed whatever I could find in my kitchen.)
Everyone ready?
     2. Combine all your seasonings into a small dish.
Mise en place, baby!
     3. Slice your butternut squash into rounds, trim off the skin and scoop out the seeds.
M-m-m-macro!
     4. Chop the squash rounds into inch-long squares.
     5. Peel, core and chop the apples into the same size squares as the squash.
     6. Heat the Nucoa (or olive/vegetable oil) over medium heat in a large pot, then add onions and sautee until transparent (about four minutes).
     7. Add the chopped squash and sautee for another fifteen minutes.
     8. Throw in the chopped apples, spices and vegetable stock, then top with water until all the vegetables are just barely covered in liquid.
     9. Bring the pot to a boil, then set it to low, uncovered for 40 minutes.
     10. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup.
If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can transfer the soup into a blender and blend it in batches until smooth.
I left some texture in mine so it didn’t feel like I was eating baby food.
     11. Stir in the soy creamer and add some freshly ground black pepper.
PRETTY!!!
     12. Ladle into a bowl and top with any garnish you like: sliced jalapenos for extra bite, caramelized pecans or, if you’re not vegan, a small scoop of goat cheese for a little extra tang.
D-Lish!
     This soup is delicately sweet and comforting with a hidden spicy bite that warms your stomach and makes you want to stay on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket all day, reading a book or watching the Food Network.
I LOVE AUTUMN!

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Filed under apples, butternut squash, butternut squash apple soup, Martha Stewart, vegan, vegan soup, vegetarian