Seasonal Soup

This recipe started out with butter, heavy cream, and oil...why would you ever need all three?  After making healthy changes I think it tastes so much better.  If you're going to make squash soup shouldn't you taste squash?  And some tasty freshly grated spices...

 Butternut Squash Soup

Bake (or boil) 4# butternut squash, 1 very large or 2 medium

Sautee 1 large chopped onion in veg. broth with 2 bay leaves.

Add the squash and the rest of the can of veg. broth

Add:  4t brown sugar

           1-2 T  fresh ginger, grated

            1-2t  cinnamon

           1/4t  fresh grated nutmeg

            1/4t  fresh ground allspice

            1-2 t salt, pepper to taste

Blend with hand blender until creamy but a little chunky

Add 1 cup almond milk, more if you prefer a thinner or creamier soup

Serve with a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil 

A plate of julienned veggies added crunch and more nutrients.
The beets were from the farm market and sooo good and sweet!

                                      

Welcome, Dawn!!

The title, "Welcome, Dawn!!" sounds like new beginnings, a new day, right?  It also expresses my happiness at introducing my very good friend Dawn to this blog.  She has recently adopted the Nutritarian style of eating and  I asked her if she would help with the blog.  She's a great cook and artist so we intend to have fun with this!

Dawn was visiting this weekend and our breakfast this morning was a simple combination of bulgur wheat and quinoa cooked in a rice cooker together.  I chopped up an apple and heated it up with some fresh (or frozen) whole cranberries and a pinch of fresh grated nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar.  This made a great topping for the grains.  Next time I'll probably add walnut pieces and almond milk.  Yummy and quick!

Cranberry Apple cereal topping

         Tip:  make more grains than you need for one meal and use the leftovers for another.  Save 15-20 min.

Quick Mushroom Potato Soup

I had a few potatoes left from Robin's garden, Baby Bellas were on sale and this is what they became:
Quick Mushroom Potato Soup


Sautee in 1T oil:  1 large onion, chopped
                             3 cloves garlic, minced
                             8 oz baby portabella mushrooms, sliced
Add:  1 can vegetable broth
          3 small potatos, cubed
Season to taste with Oregano, Basil, Thyme, S&P

Blend with a hand blender until creamy and a little chunky.
Add 1c almond or soy milk (plain).  Serve.

Travel Eating

 Being a nutritarian or vegetarian in Austria would be a major challenge.  After three weeks spent living as the locals live I narrowed it down to the top three challenges.


1. The most common Früschtük (breakfast) is cold cuts and cheese with white bread.  When I tried to explain to someone that I don't eat much meat at home she looked at me in astonishment and said, "Then what do you eat for breakfast?!"
     Solution: in a word, Müsli (muesli, like granola)


2. After repeated attempts I could not get a salad with just veggies and dressing on the side.  The closest I got was this salad with eggs and cheese.  The creamy dressing was on the side all right but the greens were tossed in a generous serving of oil.  Once I even ordered a "lean gourmet salad" or Schlankschlemmersalat and received the same fare.  By the way, I did order it myself and handled the pronunciation amazingly well to the accolades of my fellow diners!
Solution:  I would keep trying.  Maybe if I asked for a salad without dressing rather than "on the side"?


3. Snacks.  They always involve meat, usually processed, fatty, and organ meats like liverwurst, and cheese and eggs.  These offerings look quite beautiful esthetically but you can see what I mean.

Thick chunks of cheese and meat, sausage and smoked bacon

A variety of cold cuts, bacon, eggs

Liverwurst, assorted pates of liver, fish and cheese

Then there are the comfort foods served by wonderful friends and family...

Weisswurst, (white sausage) and
fresh baked pretzels with beer at
Erika and Wolfgang's house

Wiener Schnitzel
 (traditional fried pork cutlet dish from Vienna)
lovingly made by Hermi Weitschegger

Solution:  eat all the veggies and sample the rest in very small portions and eat slowly sipping the wine and enjoying the lively Austrian music and conversation!


P.S. I chose not to address the dessert issue here....  

Chocolate Sachertorte, 
a popular torte originating in Vienna

frittierte Krapfen

Fresh home baked apple streudel!
That's me and Hermi

Apfelstrudel

Thirsty

A couple of months ago I realized I've been drinking less water.
 I was never an "eight glasses a day no matter what" person
 but I  often drank water if I felt tired, thirsty or hungry and it adds
 up over the day.  I may have figured out why I've been
 drinking less the past several months.



First, I'm consuming very little in the way of prepared foods including canned soups, frozen dinners or restaurant fare.  These all have a lot of salt.  Second, when so much of my diet comes from fresh produce I get a lot of fluids naturally from the food.   Does that sound like a reasonable explanation to you?

Garden Goodies

A co-worker brought some fresh produce from her garden into the office and I took full advantage.  I went home with three green peppers and 3 large zucchinis.  I grated two of the zukes and measured 2c portions into Ziploc bags for baking zucchini bread this winter.

I used the rest  of the veggies for Stuffed Peppers with Tomato Sauce.  The stuffing was shredded zucchini, carrots and baby bella mushrooms with brown rice, a few whole wheat bread crumbs and McCormick Perfect Pinch Mediterranean Herb seasoning.  I stuffed halved peppers and covered them with a sauce made with Progresso Hearty Tomato Soup.  I topped it with a sprinkle of grated Romano cheese and baked til bubbly.  I can think of lots of ways to vary this recipe with other grains, veggies and sauces but this was a great place to start!

Delicious Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

Spinach Onion Tart

This was supposed to be kale but I used spinach.  The recipe was from one of McDougall's books which are usually good but this was really blah!  I should have followed my instincts and used more herbs and garlic in the veggies.  I would use my whole wheat pizza crust recipe next time, too.  This crust was made from scratch with whole wheat flour and yeast but no seasoning at all and  by the time it  browned was way too dried out.  It has potential so I'll try again some time.