farmer's market finds Archives

I’m not sure what I was more excited about after receiving my Blendtec over Christmas…the blender or the recipe book that came with it. Honestly, it’s still a toss up! While the blender is pretty amazing, the recipe book includes tons of delicious, easy to make meals. I mean, what’s a blender without recipes, right?

Anyway, the other day I used my blender as a meal planning tool. Before going grocery shopping, I bookmarked a few recipes to try out this week and stocked up on all the necessary ingredients. And while I want to make everything in this new Blendtec recipe book, I decided to try out the Butternut Squash Soup first. Lucky for us, there were plenty of butternut squashes to choose from at the farmer’s market.

Now, many of you may be thinking, “the first thing she decides to make is soup?” Well, yes…for many reasons. First, the recipe doesn’t call for weird ingredients that will only be used once (I hate that). Second, aside from roasting the squash, prep work was minimal. And finally, it sounded like it would pair really well with our favorite rosemary bread. Win – win – win!

So y’all, make this soup. Please. You don’t need a powerful blender. I could’ve easily made this using the Ninja or even an immersion blender (I think).

Bottom line – this soup is delicious and makes for the perfect rainy night meal. It’s everything you could ever want – smooth, creamy, and fresh. Even Vishnu, who isn’t really a soup kind of guy, said it was delicious (more than once). Win! And for those of you who don’t live in Florida, this is the perfect winter soup…it will warm your soul!

Let me know if you try it out.

Simple Butternut Squash Soup
Adapted from the Blendtec Fresh Blends recipe book

1 large butternut squash
1.5 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped carrots
2 medium sweet onions
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 pinches of the following: dried parsley, dried oregano, and dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups water
4 (14 oz) cans vegetable broth
feta cheese crumbles for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut butternut squash in half lengthwise, piece skin with fork, and remove seeds. Place cut side down in a pan. Fill pan with 1/4 cup water. Bake for 45 minutes.

While squash is baking, heat olive oil in a large pot. Sauté carrots, onions and garlic for a few minutes and then add dried herbs, salt, and pepper. Continue to cook until the onion is translucent. Allow to cool for a a few minutes. Blend together water and cooked vegetable mixture (if using Blendtec select “Batters”). Add pureed mixture back to pot and add two cans of stock. Bring heat to low and allow to simmer. Once cooked and slightly cooled, scoop out flesh of squash. Blend flesh and the other two cans of stock (if using Blendtec select “Soup” and blend for 40 seconds). Pour into large pot, stir, and simmer for a few minutes. Garnish individual bowls with a sprinkle of feta cheese prior to serving.

Make this. You know you want to. And no worries, you can thank me later.

What’s your favorite kind of soup? I’m pretty much always game for a bowl of Minestrone.

.I think the title of this post says it all. Both Vishnu and I were sick…all weekend long! No worries though, we’re feeling much better today. I honestly think we just needed a few days to recover from the craziness of the past couple of weeks. Our bodies had enough and needed us to just rest for a little bit.

Needless to say, we didn’t do too much this weekend. Friday night ended up being a movie night. We watched Live Free or Die Hard. I’m usually not a huge fan of predictable action movies, but this one was pretty good. The effects were a tad over the top, but according to Vishnu, that’s what makes for a good action movie. Whatever…yippee-ki-yay.

On Saturday, we both woke up at 8 am only to go back to sleep and really wake up at 11 am. I’m not going to lie. It was nice. However, I do think all that sleep set a rather pathetic stage for the rest of the day. We literally did nothing. Well, maybe not nothing. I did manage to get a workout in. And I made us a little pre-dinner treat with my new blender (recipe coming soon). Other than that we did nothing but sit on our butts and watch four episodes of The West Wing.

Jillian Michaels and her No More Trouble Zones DVD kicked my butt

What looks like nasty brown goop is actually a delicious dark chocolate frosty treat

After an unproductive two days, I was determined to make the most of Sunday. We got up (throats still a little sore), cleaned, and went grocery shopping. At the farmer’s market we found the world’s biggest apple (or what we thought was the world’s biggest apple)…

It was honestly HUGE.

We also found a new to us fruit…star fruit. It tastes like a cross between a really crisp apple and grapes. Vishnu was a huge fan and suggested making it into a drink of some kind next time.