Oh hey, 2014!

How’s week one of the new year going for everyone? We are in hibernation mode here in Ohio, which has given me lots of time to reflect on what to do with my time in the next 12 months (or rather the next 5 months, since new babies have a way of shifting your priorities).

To help me get my head on straight, I have been going through Lara Casey‘s Make It Happen series; it’s a goal-setting series that I absolutely recommend. Especially if you’re like me, AKA you have a huge desire to get your act together for the new year but have no idea where to start. I’ve got a lot of ideas swimming around in this head and Make It Happen has helped me to organize it all. So, yay, new year! And hooray for a new recipe today! Finally got off my duff and picked up my camera.

This soup was inspired by a lovely lunch I had with my friend Jillian (see how awesome she is below) at Wheat Penny here in Dayton. We sampled a little cup of their curried carrot soup to start our meal; it was grand. I love that curry powder gives such a distinct, comforting taste but doesn’t make things too spicy. For my at-home version, I used all the orange veggies we had on hand- carrots, butternut squash and sweet potato. Pumpkin would also work well; you can use what you have in any combination.

This soup works for a whole variety of diets and is almost impossible to mess up. It would be great with some crumbled bacon on top, or even some homemade croutons. You could kick up the spice by adding some thai red curry paste, too.

And beyond tasting good, this soup has great nutritional benefits:

• Healthy, filling fats
• Cold/Flu-fighting onions, garlic and turmeric
• Orange veggies filled with Vitamin A to boost the immune system
• Bone broth; rich in gelatin, vitamins and minerals and anti-inflammatory

A special thanks to my sweet friends Jillian and Megan for making this post happen- they came over to my house today and did all my dishes PLUS cleaned my fridge! It was amazing, and it motivated me to pull out the camera and get this post up. A clean kitchen = no excuses for this lady. Thanks, girls- you are such a blessing to me! I am ready to re-pay you in soup.

5.0 from 3 reviews

Curried Winter Soup with Carrot, Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash

 

Print

 

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Soup, Main Dish, Appetizer

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• a few tablespoons quality fat (grass-fed butter, ghee, coconut oil, lard, tallow)
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (optional)
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• ½-1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 tablespoon turmeric (optional)
• 6-8 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 large butternut squash; peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped (you can substitute more carrots or squash if you’re on GAPS or avoiding starches)
• 4-6 cups of bone broth (enough to cover the veggies in the pot)
• plain whole milk yogurt, for serving (optional, you can substitute full-fat coconut milk if you’re dairy-free)

Instructions

1. In a large stockpot or dutch oven, melt down the fat. Add the onions and garlic and saute until they begin to soften. Add the spices and let cook a few more minutes.
2. Add the carrots, squash and sweet potato to the pot, followed by the bone broth. Add enough broth to cover all of the vegetables. Bring it all to a boil.
3. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are fork-tender, about 20-30 minutes. When the veggies are soft, use an immersion blender to blend the soup until smooth.
4. Serve warm with a generous drizzle of yogurt.

#version#

I’m pretty much on a diet of chopped vegetable dishes. Every meal I’ve eaten in the past two weeks has either consisted solely of a) potato salad, b) green bean salad with basil, sautéed radishes, and hunks of mozzarella, c) citrusy coleslaw, or a hearty helping of one of those next to some protein that I was mostly eating just to stave off devouring a giant bowlful of one of those salads. Now that tomatoes are starting to come in? Oh boy. Watch out. Is it possible to eat all of your daily calories from tomatoes? Can I try? No? Okay, I’ll throw in some grilled corn on the cob slathered with homemade lime mayonnaise and queso añejo. And some peaches and cherries. That’s fine. God I love summer.

Gazpacho is a little difficult for me. On the one hand, it’s probably one of the best soups you can eat. On the other hand, it seems a little shameful to purée fresh, ripe, local (expensive) heirloom tomatoes. Maybe that’s because I don’t have any of my own in a garden in my back yard. I kind of feel that they’re like precious gems and to adulterate them with anything more than some coarse sea salt and a basil leaf is to somehow cheapen them. But when it’s terrible and hot and gross out, gazpacho is something to live for.

Since there’s not much to gazpacho, you must use good tomatoes. Don’t put off this recipe until the winter or something. Go out and splurge on some beautiful tomatoes. And if you have them in your garden, you are lucky and please send some to me. And as with most traditional and iconic recipes, there are a hundred versions, all hotly contested as being the one perfect one I’m sure. I don’t have too many strong opinions on what vegetables should or not should be included in gazpacho and what the levels of vinegar and oil should be. I do strongly feel, though, that using tomato juice is a no-no. I mean, you’re trying to celebrate gorgeous summer tomatoes. Why would you mix them with bottled tomato juice? Gah. But if you want to leave out the cucumber and red pepper, or add in some parsley, go for it. Topping gazpacho with a hard boiled egg is also extremely acceptable.

That’s it. That’s my gazpacho. It’s wonderful. You can certainly chill it if you need some extra cooling off, but I think room temperature allows the flavors to be their best. Unless room temperature means boiling, which it would be here if my air conditioner ever stopped working. Some garnishes you could use if you haven’t already started to dig in, are finely chopped cucumbers and red peppers, parsley, toasted almonds, and crumbled/chopped hard boiled egg.

Seriously gardeners, send me your tomatoes. I hear that you have wayyy too many to eat. Pretty sure.

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho (Guest Post)

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

 

Author: Julia Campbell, The Crankin’ Kitchen

Recipe type: Soup

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2.5 lbs heirloom tomatoes, chopped
• 1 medium cucumber, seeded (cut in half width-wise then in quarters length-wise and seeds cut off) and chopped
• 1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped
• 1 red pepper, seeded, deveined, and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1½ tsp sea salt
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

Instructions

1. Mix together the vegetables in a large bowl.
2. In a blender, purée garlic, salt, olive oil, and vinegar. Scoop about half of the vegetable mixture into the blender. Blend until smooth, in batches if necessary.
3. Pour blended veggies back into the bowl of chopped vegetables and mix.

3.1.09

Last week, I shared my favorite summer chicken recipes. Today, I’m back with 16 ways to use the humble sweet potato. (I’m actually not eating sweet potatoes right now, but for some reason, I am still craving them and hoarding sweet potato recipes like it’s the end of the internet. It’s only a little heartbreaking to look at those gorgeous photos. Some day..)

Lots of great options here- fries, chips, soup, stuffed potatoes, and BROWNIES. Get to pinning!

Row 1: Thai Sweet Potato Stacks, Sweet Potato Almond Butter Muffins, Slow Cooker Beer Pulled Pork-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes, Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Cherry Salsa

Row 2: Sweet Potato Breakfast Biscuits, Brown Butter Sweet Potato Doughnuts, Paleo Sweet Potato Brownies, Garlic Butter Sweet Potato Fries with Creamy Feta Dip

Row 3: Roasted Grape, Goat Cheese and Honey-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes, Sweet Potato and Pineapple Salad, Black Bean, Sweet Potato and Red Quinoa Soup, Sweet Potato Pulled Pork Sliders

Row 4: Homemade BBQ Sweet Potato Chips, Baked Sweet Potato Falafel, Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup, Loaded Black Bean Sweet Potato Boats

Good day, darlings!

I have been noticing some trends on my Pinterest recipe boards and I thought I might take some time to share my latest favorites with you. I’ve been all about collecting summery chicken recipes, so here are 16 tasty meals to get that protein in this summer. There’s something for everyone- kabobs, burgers, wraps, salads, crock pot meals and a garbage-free CHIK FIL A KNOCK OFF RECIPE. So yeah, something for everyone.

Cluck, cluck, cluck.

Row 1: Chipotle Chicken Kabobs with Avocado Cream Sauce, Caribbean Chicken, Cheddar Jalepeno Chicken Burgers with Guacamole, Crockpot Tex Mex Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Row 2: Grilled Chicken Salad with Chipotle Honey Vinaigrette, Barbecued Chicken, Thai Grilled Chicken Breasts, Raspberry Chicken Thighs

Row 3: Greek Chicken Burgers, Cashew Chicken Mango Salad, Garbage-Free Chik Fil A Nuggets, Slow Cooker Jerk Chicken

Row 4: Pineapple Chicken Kabobs, Pineapple Grilled Chicken, Paleo Jalepeno Chicken Burgers, Tropical Quinoa Lettuce Wraps

Are you guys feeling neglected? I know I’ve been doing a lot of work over on Modern Parents Messy Kids lately- it just ended up that a bunch of my posts were happening around the same time of the month. I’m sharing the links for all the salad recipes pictured above over there today, so if you’re in need of some salad inspiration- click on over.

If you’re wondering what’s new with me, I am waist-deep in preparation to begin the GAPS Intro Diet to begin healing my stomach. I have been stockpiling meat, chopping and freezing veggies and making broth like nobody’s business. I am just waiting on a few more things (mainly beef tallow from a local farmer) and then I’ll be ready to begin. I plan on sharing my journey, tips and any recipes I find useful along the way. I think it will be essential for my healing process to document things here, and maybe it will be helpful to some of you as well.

Any encouragement you have to share about healing through diet is welcomed! I will surely be drawing strength from the Lord to get through the introduction stages- it will be nothing short of a miracle if I make it through without sabotaging myself (i.e. eating handfuls of chocolate chips during nap time). Thanks for sticking with me while I work through this health issue- it means a lot to know that I am not alone!

Oh, and also- check out my two newest sponsors on the right sidebar- Jessica Lynn Writes (she has a yummy new baby, go see!) and All Natural Me.