Curry Squash Apple Soup

I truly adore soup season. There’s something about a bowl of soup that just makes me want to cozy up beside a fire. [of course, I'd need to have a fireplace first...]

The other thing I love about soup? My kids eat it. And love it. It’s one of the few ways my two-year-old willingly eats vegetables. Not that he knows the veggies are there… but it’s a meal without a fight, which is a big win for mama.

When it comes to favorites, it’s a toss up between my Potato Leek Soup and this one – Curry Squash Apple Soup. Both are super easy and very customizable to what you and your family like. And since I’ve already shared one recipe, here’s the other, so you can pick your fave!

Curry Squash Apple Soup

• 1 medium butternut squash
• 2 apples
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• sour cream
• cilantro
• curry powder
• sea salt
• extra virgin olive oil
• red pepper flakes *optional

Chop up the garlic cloves and throw them into your stockpot with some olive oil, sea salt, and curry powder. You don’t want the garlic to be in there too long by itself, or it will burn – just enough to start to release those yummy garlic flavors!

Chop up the squash and apples – I don’t peel the apples, just wash them.  There are so many good nutrients in the skin that you don’t want to miss out on.  Throw them in the pot, plus salt and curry powder, to taste. If you want to add red pepper flakes, do this now. It will add some spice to your soup, but you won’t need much.

Saute until the squash and apples begin to cook a bit, then add your broth.

Note: You could easily cook this in a slow cooker, you could cook it all day on low, or 4 hours on high.  If you are doing this on the stove, it usually takes about 45 minutes.

After everything is all cooked, add the sour cream and blend with an immersion blender. I usually add a big spoonful or two. The sour cream gives it a good creaminess, though I’m sure you could make the soup without it if you are a dairy-free family. You could also sub plain greek yogurt – I do that quite often.

We usually serve this with quinoa [just like with the potato leek soup!]. My two-year-old and my fifteen-month-old both eat their soup served right over the quinoa. It makes it a little easier to eat for them. The quinoa makes the meal a little heartier, which is important for some of my bottomless pit boys!

Let me know if you try out the recipe! Do you have a favorite soup recipe? Please share a link in the comments! And check out Delia’s Soup of the Day series going on this month… YUM!

Super Yummy Whole Wheat Banana Oatmeal Bread

Confession: I’m not a big baker. I l.o.v.e. to cook [like this lick-the-bowl potato leek soup], but I’m not too big on baking in general.

The big exception to the rule, though, is banana bread. Everyone around here goes crazy for it – myself included. We eat it so quickly, we’re lucky if we can get a loaf to last more than 24 hours before it’s been devoured.

I have had a recipe that I’ve used pretty consistently over the past few years [thank you to my dear sister-in-law Lisa!] But as much as I loved it, I wanted to make it my own – and to try to make it a little healthier.

So after some experimenting, I think I’ve settled on a recipe that I’m really happy with – and happy to feed my kids. It’s low in refined sugar, packs a healthier punch than your typical banana bread recipe, and leaves everyone asking for another slice.

Whole Wheat Banana Oatmeal Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup oats [edited: i originally said quick oats... don't ask me why... use regular ones, that is what i actually use!]
1tsp baking soda
1tsp salt

3 very ripe bananas – mashed
2 eggs
1/4 cup honey
1tsp vanilla
1/2 cup yogurt (I suggest plain whole milk yogurt – if I don’t have plain, I use vanilla yogurt and omit the tsp of vanilla)
1/3 cup buttermilk OR 1/3 cup milk with a squirt or two of lemon juice (allow it to sit a few minutes before mixing it in)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While it preheats, mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another. Slowly combine the two, mixing them  together thoroughly. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out dry. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for at least five minutes [which will be ridiculously difficult, because it will smell so.darn.good.] before removing it.

But this recipe doesn’t come without warning. Be careful, you might not be able to hold yourself back from eating the entire loaf in one day.

Linking up to these par-tays!

Meals Kids Love: Potato Leek Soup!

Did you see any of the Meals Kids Love series, put on by Jenny over at The Southern Institute for Domestic Arts and Crafts?  There are some great looking meals over there.  We tried the Thai noodles and the lemon pepper talapia, which were [mostly] a hit.  If you don’t include the fact that my fifteen-month-old wouldn’t even touch them.  At all. [Picture me pulling out my hair, as this happens nearly every meal.... grr]

To share in the fun, Jenny is hosting a link-up, so I thought I’d hop over there with a meal that we love at our house.

Potato Leek Soup

2 sprigs rosemary
1 bunch parsley
1-2 carrots and/or 4 parsnips
6-8 large potatoes [not the huge baking potatoes]
3-4 leeks
2 cloves garlic
2 cups water
2 cups low sodium vegetable or chicken broth
2 cups milk
1 cup sour cream
salt/pepper to taste

This recipe is super easy and quick, and it can be altered to fit your family.  I tend to not actually follow recipes, so I just threw this together one night, and every time I make it, it’s a bit different.  So if you don’t have these exact ingredients, don’t panic – you can probably wing it and come up with something yummy.

Chop up the veggies – I don’t peel carrots, parsnips, or potatoes, just wash them.  There are so many good nutrients in the skin that you don’t want to miss out on.  If you’ve never worked with leeks before, cut off the ends, and then slice them lengthwise.  Wash them once they are sliced, so you can get all the little dirtilies that might be hiding inside.  Normally, when you cook with leeks, you just use the white end, but when making soup, you can use the entire thing.  Throw all the veggies in the pot or crockpot.

Chop up the garlic cloves, rosemary, and parsley.  Throw them in the pot as well.

Add all the liquid to the pot, as well as some salt/pepper.

This is my favorite broth to use.  So, so yummy.  I’ve made this soup with either vegetable or chicken broth, and both turn out great.  If you are a dairy-free family, you can easily leave out the milk here, just add more broth and/or water.

If you are going to cook this in a slow cooker, you could cook it all day on low, or 4 hours on high.  If you are doing this on the stove, it usually takes about 45 minutes. [If you are really short on time, saute the veggies for a little bit before adding the liquid, and the soup should be cooked even faster.]

After everything is all cooked, add the sour cream and blend with an immersion blender.  If your kids have an aversion to anything green (because this does have a green tint to it!), adding more sour cream will cover that up.  You could even skip the sour cream all together, but I like the little bit of creaminess it gives the soup.  Sometimes I don’t add much at all, other times I add more.

Loved by even the pickiest of eaters!

Delicious!  If your kids don’t like the texture of soup, my youngest loves to eat this mixed with quinoa (which also adds some protein).

This does make a LOT of soup – enough for our family, plus leftovers, plus some to freeze.  Which I always do, because it will make a super fast meal on those “um, it’s 5:00 and I haven’t even thought about dinner yet” nights.

Happy souping!

That’s My Team!

Well, if you didn’t hear, the Packers made it to the Superbowl.  This happens to be a big deal in our house, because 1. we live in Wisconsin and 2. I grew up in a die-hard Packer fan household.  It doesn’t matter that I have only watched a game or two this season (though I did watch the last one!) …. or that I can only tell you the names of two of their players.  That’s beside the point.  We are true fans.

To celebrate the win, and to entertain my three-year-old (who, in all honesty, could care less about football and spent the entire game looking at Daddy’s iPhone – woops!), we made playdough in Green and Gold.

If you’ve never made homemade playdough before, you really need to.  For starters, it is SO easy.  It takes about 15 minutes, and most of the ingredients you are likely to have on hand.

Back in my kindergarten/preschool teaching days, I used to make a lot of playdough, and now I do the same for my own kiddos.  Besides being much cheaper than the store bought kind, I’m not as worried if one my kids takes a bite – it will probably taste gross, but it’s not harmful.  This recipe came from a fellow teacher (though I’m not sure where she got it).

Homemade Playdough

Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 cups water
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons oil
2 Tablespoons cream of tartar
A few drops of food coloring

Mix all the ingredients well.  It will look like this:

Cook for 10-15 minutes over low heat (or until it has thickened).  Stir frequently.  Knead on wax paper – but be careful, it will be hot!  Let it cool before keeping it in an air-tight container or a resealable bag.

A few tips:

• You can definitely cook it for too long, and if you do so, it will become a little bit too dry.  So watch closely that you take it off the heat before this happens.
• If you are a little short on some ingredients, it doesn’t seem to make a huge difference.  I’ve made this numerous times when short on salt or cream of tartar, but the playdough has always turned out fine.

I made two batches – so the recipe makes as much as you see in green or yellow.  Get cookin’ and get ready for hours of at least a few moments of entertainment!

Go, Pack, Go!!

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Arugula Pesto Chicken

I do not consider myself a foodie.  But I love food.  I really love to cook, but I hate following recipes.  I do, however, like to find new and interesting ideas, giving them my own spin.

One day after picking up the produce we get each week with our CSA I was faced with this dilemma:  what do I do with fifteen million pounds of arugula?  Okay, not really fifteen million, but a lot.  And this was the third week in a row.  Don’t get me wrong, I love arugula.  Its peppery goodness can really spice up a salad or a pizza.  But I needed a little inspiration.

So, I turned on the Food Network.  It just so happened that the show Guy’s Big Bite was on, and what was he making, but an arugula pesto chicken.  Since chicken is on the menu pretty much every night, I decided to give it a try.

I didn’t follow the recipe.   Partly because well, I just don’t do that.  But also because I didn’t have the ingredients… or the time to go to the store to buy them.  Check out his recipe if you want to try what Guy made.

For my pesto, I used arugula, toasted almonds, lemon juice, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and salt.

Did I mention that I tend to not measure things?  Ever?

I toasted a bunch of almonds in the toaster oven.

I slightly chopped two ginormous cloves of garlic.

I filled the rest of the food processor with arugula.  I have a smaller food processor and was only making three leg/thigh pieces of chicken — use more if you need to.

I juiced half of a lemon, then added a bunch of olive oil.

So pretty!!  After I pulsed the food processor a bit, I ended up adding more arugula, olive oil, and a bit of salt.

Yummy!

Then, I took the pesto and (thanks to Guy’s brilliance) stuffed it under the skin of my chicken leg/thigh quarters. (If you prefer boneless/skinless chicken, try stuffing this inside the chicken instead)  I put a little bit of butter on each piece of chicken (to make the skin crispy).  Then I baked it at 375 for 45 min.  I was also roasting veggies, so I moved the chicken to the lower rack after 45 min., turned the oven up to 400, and baked for another 15.  After that, I let the chicken rest under foil while I broiled the veggies for a few minutes.  **I have no before/after picture of the chicken because well, who wants to see a picture of raw chicken?  (Not me!)  And who can take an after picture of beautifully cooked chicken while also feeding entertaining a nine-month-old and almost three-year-old?  They don’t understand “Just a second, Mommy’s going to take a picture of this food, so I can blog about it later.”

This was a big hit in our house.  I definitely recommend trying it – or some variation of your own.  Because I wouldn’t be me if I told you to follow what I did exactly.

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