Amazing Butternut Squash Soup!

I don't know if it's possible to tell you how easy, delicious and healthy this soup is, but I'm going to try. Other than salt, pepper and water there are only 8 ingredients involved in making this soup and they are are so stinkin' good for you. Let me share with you the star ingredients involved in this recipe:

Butternut Squash

Sweet Potato

Carrots 

Apple

Onion

Amazing right? When most people think of soups made solely with vegetable (and in this case a fruit!) they think of bland and watery. Let me tell you that that is the opposite of how I'd describe this soup. It's thick, full of flavor and filling. Your mouth can't decide if it's sweet or savory and keeps begging for another bite. 

I haven't made many soups in my day, but the more I try out different recipes and experiment withe them, they are becoming less intimidating. I love that I can make a big ol' batch and freeze some for a quick meal later in the week. Soups are also so versatile. You can easily switch up the spices and veggies of one recipe and come out with a new soup that is completely different, yet delicious. 

Yep, I think I'm on a soup kick. 

Can I also just share with you that the night I made this soup I had five guys in my cave of an apartment trying to get a humongous executive desk out of our guest bedroom, through our teeny, tiny hall and out the back door? It was craziness but they did it! And it also just shows how easy this soup is to make, because the chaos around me wasn't a problem at all. 

Butternut Squash Soup

(Serves 8)

Ingredients:

• 1 large butternut squash (about 20 oz.), cut in half and seeded.
• 1 sweet potato
• 2-3 carrots, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 apple, peeled and chopped
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 5-6 cups water (depending on how thick you like your soups)
• 2-3 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• Pepper to taste
• Optional: pepitas for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Poke holes in your sweet potato and place it along with the cut and seeded butternut squash on a baking tray. Place them in the oven for about an hour until they are soft and can be easily pierced with a fork.
3. While they are roasting, sauté the carrots, onion and garlic in a large sauce pan over medium heat until the onions are soft. 
4. Add in the apple chunks, vegetable broth and water, reduce the heat to low and let it sit until your squash and potato are done roasting.
5. Once the squash and potato are done, remove them from the oven and when they are cool enough to handle peel off the skin of the potato and roughly chop it up. Then scoop out the flesh of the squash and place everything in the pot with the carrots and apple.
6. Bring the soup to a boil and then let everything simmer for about 30 minutes.
7. Using an immersion blender (or by carefully pouring sections into a blender like I did), blend everything until smooth. Let the soup cook until it's as thick as you like. Add in more water if you want it a little thinner. You can't go wrong!
8. Now for the salt. I know it sounds like a lot, but it really makes the soup. Start by adding 2 teaspoons and add more if you desire. I used about three teaspoons. Also add in the garam masala and fresh ground pepper to taste. Stir until thoroughly combined.
9. Serve warm with some fresh bread and a salad or just enjoy it solo!

Notes: If you like a sweeter soup you can leave out the garam masala, but I think it really adds so much depth to the soup.

Adapted from High Infatuation.

Start by roasting the squash and potato in a 400 degree oven for about an hour.

While the squash and potato are roasting, sauté the carrots, onion and garlic until the onion is soft.

Then add in the apple, vegetable broth and water and let it sit. 

Once the squash and potato are fork tender, remove the skin of the sweet potato.

Place the flesh of the squash and the potato into the pot with the carrot and apple mixture. 

Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and let everything cook for 30 minutes.

Blend with an immersion blender and then add in the spices.

Top with pepitas and enjoy!

Eat Consciously,

Faith

A Day of Eats

After being in Tennessee for a week, traveling long hours in a car, eating too many pretzels and not getting enough sleep it was so nice to have a day off of work on Monday to rest, recuperate and exert some energy outside. I slept in until 8:30 (I know, I'm a wild one) and started the morning with an orange and a bowl of oats with chia seeds, ground flax and a dollop of almond butter. It's hard to not have some kind of nut butter with my oatmeal these days.

After digesting I went for a 7 mile run in the beautiful Florida air. It felt so good to run long and slow after being in the car for 19 hours on Sunday. Afterwards, I refueled with some chocolate soy milk from Trader Joe's and stretched.

For lunch I made a curry quiona wrap with hummus and spinach in a whole wheat pita pocket, also from TJ's. 

I love the ingredients in these pita pockets:

I put peas and raisins in my Curry Quinoa and it's delicious. Sometimes I'll just put it on a bed of spinach for a salad.

For an afternoon snack I had an apple with "peanut butter" made from peanut flour and water...

...and an orange. We have a ton of apples and oranges in our house so I felt like I needed to do my part in eating them. Don't mind if I do.

For dinner I cleaned out some of the frozen veggies that have been in our freezer since before Brett and I got married (Yikes!). I made some brown rice and simmered the veggies with this Green Curry Sauce from TJ's.

I also made some breaded baked tofu to go with it and the whole meal was delicious and came together so quickly! 

I was still pretty exhausted from such a long day driving on Sunday so Brett and I just went on a walk around the UCF campus and went to bed early. 

There you have it. Monday's eats!

Check out other people's daily eats over at Peas and Crayons for some creative ideas!

Cranberry Apple Muffins

A couple posts ago I wrote about my painful 11-miler that I ran while in Virginia. Well, unfortunately the pain hasn't left and has concentrated to my right Achilles tendon. When I walk I can feel it rippling (that's the best word I can think of to describe it). If I point and flex my toes the tendon seems to click back and forth. Hmmm. Can't be good. 

Because it hasn't been feeling great, I've been too afraid to run for fear that I'll make it worse. I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to run my half-marathon on Dec. 7th, but we'll have to see what happens with the Achilles. Since Saturday, in order to get in some cardio without putting too much strain on my ankle, I've been walking, swimming and...biking! It's been forever since I've taken my road bike out for a spin and it was so life-giving. I forgot how much I love biking, especially this time of year in Florida. 

While I'm worried that I won't be able to run the third half-marathon that I've tried for, I am thankful that I finally took my bike out of the house. I'm planning on doing a half-ironman in April, so I'd have to start training for the bike soon. Now I'm excited to increase my mileage. 

Like the hot pink shoes? It might be the last color I would choose on my own, but they were the only ones that were available when this model of Nike Frees came out. They've grown on me though.

Enough about injuries and biking. Let's move on to these muffins! My mom used to make these cranberry apple muffins for events where she had to bring a snack and I always hoped that she would make extra so us kids could eat some. When I started getting interested in baking and cooking I asked my mom one day if I could make them for her. It may have been my first time making muffins and I love it...and the results! I'm usually not much of a fruity, baked-goods girl, but these are delicious. 

I had forgotten about them until I saw fresh cranberries at the grocery store a while back. I then remembered that my mom had given me the recipe so I decided to experiment a little and swapped out some of the ingredients so that they'd be vegan. The kitchen smelled amazing as they were baking and I was instantly brought back to my younger years with my first bite. I'll definitely be making these again.

Cranberry Apple Muffins

(Makes 12 servings)

 Ingredients:

· 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

· 1/4 mashed banana plus 2 teaspoons liquid stevia OR 1 cup dry sugar

· 1 flax egg*

· 1 cup coarsely shredded apples

· 1 T. orange zest

· 1/4 cup orange juice

· 2 cups whole wheat flour

· 2 teaspoons baking powder

· 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

· 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

· 1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped

· Optional: 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

*To make a flax egg whisk 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons of water and set aside for five minutes

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a muffin pan and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the apple sauce, mashed banana and liquid stevia together.

3. Add in the flax egg, shredded apple, orange zest and juice.

4. In a separate bowl whisk together the dry ingredients, from the wheat flour to nutmeg.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.

6. Add in the cranberries and nuts if using and stir until just combined.

7. Divide the batter among 12 muffin cups and bake for 15-20 minutes.

8. Breathe in that fresh cranberry smell and eat one warm!

 Eat Consciously,

     Faith

Sweet Potato and Apple Oatmeal

I woke up at 5 A.M. this morning so I could eat, digest, stretch and go for an 8-mile run. Now that my runs are getting longer, I've decided to prep a little more instead of waking up, heading straight out the door and having to deal with sleepy legs. I left around 6:30 while it was still dark. I actually think the darkness made me a bit dizzy because it kept me from having good depth perception. As the morning wore on though, I started to feel better and picked up my pace even. It was a great run overall and I was definitely in need of a good second breakfast afterwards to keep me full the rest of the morning.

This oatmeal was just what I needed. It's sweet, subtly savory and oh-so-filling. And, might I add, delicious.

I had bought a couple of sweet potatoes and a big bag of apples a few days before leaving town with high hopes that my husband and I would eat them all before leaving. Wrong. It was the day before we were supposed to leave and it looked like we hadn't made a dent in the bag of apples and I still had one sweet potato left. So I started looking up recipes that I could use both in and found a recipe for these oats. I tweaked a few things and was very pleased with the result. The sweet potato gives these oats a beautiful fall color too. I hope you try this combination!

Sweet Potato and Apple Oatmeal

(Makes 1 serving)

 Ingredients:

· 1 cup water

· 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

· 1/2 small apple, chopped small

· 1 small sweet potato, cooked and mashed*

· 1 teaspoon brown sugar

· 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

· Splash of vanilla extract

· Optional: ground flaxseed, chopped nuts, almond milk

*I usually clean my sweet potato, poke holes in it with a fork and cook it in the microwave for four minutes. Then I cut it in half, scoop out the flesh and mash it.

Directions:

1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Add the oats, chopped apple and, if using, ground flaxseed. Reduce the heat to medium-low, stir well and let cook for about 3 minutes.

2. Add in the mashed sweet potato, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract and mix until the sweet potato is well incorporated. Let cook about 2 more minutes or until it reaches your desired consistency.

3. Pour oats into a bowl and top with nuts and almond milk.

4. Eat your fill!

Eat Consciously,

     Faith