Stolen Butternut Squash Soup February 12, 2012

We were invited to a friend’s house last night for dinner since we had been talking about butternut squash soup for a couple weeks, but never got around to exchanging recipes. So of course the next step was for her to just make it for me! When her husband heard she was inviting company over for “just soup” (in my opinion there is no such thing as just soup) he insisted she make something “manly” as well.  So she made some yummy chicken meatball sandwiches too, but the soup was amaaaaazing.

I never got the recipe, so I just went for it.

1 butternut squash

1 large tomato

1 onion half

3 potatoes

vegetable broth

tablespoon minced garlic

ginger

cayenne pepper

salt and pepper

I roasted all the vegetables then transferred  them into a blender with enough vegetable broth to cover them and blended until smooth.I returned it the pot and added additional vegetable broth until it was at a consistency I liked and added the spices to taste.

So it turned out to be this creamy fantastic-ness of a soup.

I added some cooked black beans, chives and raw mushrooms to the blended vegetables because I like a little something to chew in my soups. I also added a little spoonful of Greek yogurt to my bowl and stirred it in, because Greek yogurt is just good on everything.

This was one of the most fantastic soups I have ever made and I only ate like….3 bowls…

The beauty of this soup is it’s simplicity. You can basically use whatever veggies you can find in your kitchen, fresh or frozen.

I heart soup.

Excuse me, is that my water bottle? February 11, 2012

 

I bought this fantastic water bottle a couple of weeks ago and I was very excited about it. It is all cute and pink with it’s own little filter and everything. As long as it has water in it Big Sister couldn’t care less, but as soon I put some of my Wildberry protein mix in it and in flies Big Sister to take it off my hands. I tried to explain to her that it’s not juice like she assumes but water flavored with a protein drink mix, but does she care? No, no she does not.

It goes something like this:

I fill up my bottle

Big Sister watches from a distance

I put my bottle on the island and turn around

Big Sister runs in  and snatches it off the counter
But I have to give the little girl some credit because she doesn’t just take my drink and run away she offers me her cup in return.

That’s love right there. Oh well at least she is getting protein right? Even if it is my protein…

Yep, I’m Drinkin’ Apple Pie

So, I made a smoothie today and I swear it tasted just like apple pie.

You know when you read the title of some healthy food and they are called things like “Chocolate Chocolate Something” or “Ooey Gooey Something Else”, but they taste neither ooey gooey or chocolate? Well those were the thoughts going through my head when I read the title of this Apple Pie smoothie recipe.

8 oz milk

2 scoops vanilla Formula 1

1 tbsp french vanilla sugar-free pudding mix

1/2 tbsp vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)

dash of nutmeg

Throw it all in the blender and blend away my friend. I like to add a little ice too.

And there ya have it, healthy, protein packed yumminess in a cup. If you don’t believe me ask my husband (who doesn’t even like smoothies…) I brought it out for him to try and he took one sip, smiled and said, “Thank you. Where is yours?”

On another exciting note, I started using these shakes last Monday and by Thursday I had lost an inch in each thigh. That was an exciting moment for Chelsea.

Dear Fat Thighs,

Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out.

It’s Called Chocolate Mousse February 10, 2012

And you know why she called it chocolate mousse? Because no one would eat it if you called it chocolate flavored tofu!
So I have a mini-obsession with this fantastic (I also have a mini-obsession with that word…) website called chocolatecoveredkatie.com. She writes a lot of vegan dessert recipes and she talks about how good they are and the comments are all about how good they are, but for some reason I just can’t buy into it until I make it for myself and people around me think it is good.
I made this one last night and was quite impressed with it’s chocolate-moussy-pudding-ness. Besides tofu being a little expensive it was fantastic. It took me all of 5 minutes to make and probably less time to eat.
You can read the full recipe on her site, but here is the general idea of how I made it.:
Half a container of tofu (mine was nothing special, just the cheapest one they had)
3/4 c dark chocolate
1/2 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp pure vanilla
1 T almond milk
dash of tsp salt

Throw it all into a blender, I used my little on since it was not a big amount, and blend until really smooth.
Me and Big Sister ate it right out the blender! We had it with strawberries, on homemade graham crackers and just straight off our fingers. I even brought some to work and shared with the other teachers who all thought it was wonderful as well. So, all in all it was a great success and gives me one more healthy chocolate thing to nosh on!