Vegetable Soup Puree

My sister, Nancy, shared how she prepared her food ahead of time so that she had healthy food on hand when she became hungry. She had made a couple different soup recipes and brought them with her. These soups were gluten free and healthy for you, too, since they consisted mostly of vegetables.

Because I have a difficult time figuring out what healthy food I can bring to work for sack lunch, I decided that these soups would work out perfect for me since you can make a large batch, freeze them in smaller containers, and thaw them when needed.

I based my soup off the recipe found here: Oh She Glows. I gathered the ingredients I had similar to the ones in the recipe. Since I didn't have any broccoli, I used the bag of cauliflower that I had frozen a few weeks previously. I also used two baggies of celery that I had already chopped and frozen, along with half a large onion from a fresh salsa recipe.

Not knowing what to use for the vegetable broth, I questioned my daughter who was home for the weekend. She reminded me that we had this jar of vegan broth mix in the cupboard. Well then, I'm all set!

I started placing the olive oil along with the garlic and celery in a large pot on medium heat. Then I measured out the carrots and threw them in the food processor for a few seconds. I followed this format with the remaining vegetables adding a teaspoon of vegan broth base to each cup of water used in the soup.

I brought the soup mixture to a boil, then simmered for about 30 to 45 minutes until the vegetables were soft. I added the cayenne, and some sea salt and pepper to taste. I poured a small amount of the soup into the blender and pureed until smooth.

I continued to puree the soup mix for the rest of the batch.

I poured the soup into smaller containers that I could take out for my lunch and then placed them into the freezer.

Soup ... mmm, mmm good.

I absolutely love this soup! My husband said it reminded him of the Gerber baby food you buy in the small jars full of vegetables that are pureed. All I know is that it tastes great! I wondered, too, if by using the cauliflower instead of the broccoli that it has more of a mild tasting flavor and maybe why I love it so much. I will definitely be making this again!

I also wonder if you couldn't use just about any left over vegetable on hand in this soup to use them up.

Vegetable Soup Puree

1 T. olive oil

1-1/2 t. minced garlic

1 c. celery, chopped

2 c. carrots, chopped
1 head of cauliflower, chopped

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 large sweet potato, chopped

1 Delicata squash, chopped

8 c. water

8 t. vegan broth base seasoning

1/2 t. cayenne

Sea salt and pepper, to taste

Saute garlic in oil over medium heat in large pot. Clean and cut all vegetables, then put in food processor to chop into small pieces. Place vegetables into pot. Add water and remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Puree soup mixture in a blender. Store in smaller containers and freeze. Reheat when needed.


Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

Soaking Nuts

This was my first attempt at soaking nuts and it was a lot easier than I had expected. Well, I suppose when I say easier, what I really mean is convenient because I've never been a great planner when it comes to preparing food.

I found a recipe I wanted to try that called for raw almonds and I purchased the raw almonds. But when it came time for me to make the recipe, the directions required you to soak the raw almonds first.

When looking for how long to soak almonds, I learned you soak them for about eight to twelve hours! And then dry them for another twelve to fifteen hours! Like I said, I'm not a great planner when it comes to preparing food. Argh!

So last night around 8:00 p.m., I gathered the almonds I had and poured them all into a bowl. I covered them with water and placed the cover on. By the time I went to bed, I had completely forgotten about them.

This morning I woke up and after making my breakfast and busying myself with a few other things, I noticed the bowl of almonds sitting on my kitchen shelf. When I removed the cover, the almonds were almost to the top of the bowl and the water no longer covered them. Looking at the count-up on the timer, it had been close to twelve hours.

I placed the almonds on the four racks of my dehydrater and once again started my timer's count-up. I will leave it run until I am ready for bed before I remove them and freeze them for future use in that recipe I wanted to try. All-in-all this was very time consuming but very easy peasy. And definitely needs to be planned ahead of time. Happy soaking!

Update:

I have to admit that before I soaked and dried the almonds, I didn't expect them to taste any different. Actually, I had anticipated not even bothering with it at all to save time by using them raw. However, after reading that they are harder to digest raw, I decided to give it a try. Guess what? They taste awesome! In fact, my husband has been eating them steady and I'm afraid by the time I get around to making that recipe, they will all be devoured!


Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

Cherry Cha-Cha

We have a deep chest freezer and it seems everything slowly shifts to the bottom so that when you are looking for something in particular, it is buried under all the other frozen items. Because of this, we tend to buy more of that item thinking we're out. Meanwhile, some of the older items tend to become a bit freezer burnt or freeze dried. Unfortunate, for sure. My husband and I decided we needed to start using up what we have before buying any more.

Moving items around again, I found a 16-oz. tub of frozen whipped topping. Not sure how old it was but it was time to use it up since I don't even remember the last time I purchased frozen whipped topping.

My husband was after me to make some sort of dessert. I had just purchased a couple cans of cherry pie filling with a buy one, get one offer. Hadn't made Cherry Cha-Cha for years so that is what I decided to make. I rounded up the few ingredients I needed ~ half a stick of butter, half a package of graham crackers, the 16-oz. tub of frozen whipped topping, and the can of cherry pie filling. As I was rummaging in the freezer for a box of graham crackers, I actually found a half package in a plastic container! What are the odds?

I put the butter into a microwaveable bowl and placed it in the microwave to melt. Then I put the crackers in my Ninja food processor and ground them up within a few seconds. Man! I absolutely love this piece of equipment! I poured the crackers into the bowl to mix with the melted butter.

Next I poured most of the crumbs into a glass pan for the crust.

I put half the thawed whipped topping over the crust, spreading it evenly.

The cherry pie filling was next. My husband always wonders where all the cherries are in the can, since there are very few. It's mostly sauce.

I spread the remaining whipped topping on the top of the cherry layer and sprinkled it with the remaining graham cracker crumbs.

Oh yeah! A quick and easy dessert.

Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

Easy Guacamole

Because I'm working at eating healthier, and because I've read so many articles on how healthy avacados are for you, I decided to purchase several when they were on sale. I've never bought avacados before this and found myself not knowing how to use them. Where to go for recipes and ideas? Why, Pinterest, of course!

I was inspired by The Endless Meal to make some guacamole. According to her blog, you only need avacados, limes, garlic and salt to make guacamole. All other ingredients are optional.

I've had guacamole in the past and wondered if you don't have to acquire a taste for it since I'm not that huge a fan. But, I already purchased the avacados and only ate one so needed to use four more up. I started by skinning and halving three avacados.

I happened to have half a leftover lime in my refrigerator, but because I needed juice from a whole lime, rather than squeeze out the juice, I decided to use the entire half lime.

I removed the seeds from the avacados and placed them along with the lime into my food processor. I then added 3/4 teaspoon of minced garlic and 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke. The ends of a tomato were left from dinner so I threw them into the mix, as well. And processed.

I scraped the contents into a covered container and I'm already done. Easy!

How did I like it? Hmmm ... not crazy about it. Maybe I added too much liquid smoke or maybe it was just missing an ingredient, like sugar. LOL. Or maybe, I just don't have that acquired taste for avacado after all. I may have to keep working on that and update you all. Now, I just have to figure out a way to use it up. Any ideas?

Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

Gluten Free Cinnamon Toast Crunch Wannabes

I've been wanting to try this recipe for some time and finally got around to it this past weekend. The recipe originated from this website blog: I Breathe I'm Hungry. I gathered the necessary ingredients. Milled flax seed, coconut oil, hemp seed, ground cinnamon, and apple juice.

Uh oh, I did not have any apple juice on hand. What to do?

Well, I had a bunch of apples from our apple tree that were bruised and going soft. Here they are. Rather nasty looking, huh? I wondered, would it be possible to squeeze my own apple juice? All I needed was a half a cup.

I really didn't have anything to lose as we had so many apples that these were going bad. So I cut them all up and threw the in my Ninja food processor to juice them up.

Well that didn't work like I had hoped. I was hoping they would be all juicy like the tomatoes, onions and peppers for my fresh salsa. See Easy Fresh Salsa. I decided to try and squeeze the juice out. Since the food processor didn't work, the next thing I thought of trying was the garlic press.

Oh my. It's gonna take a lot more than that to reach a half a cup. Let's try heating the apples in a saucepan. Add about a half cup water and turn on the heat.

Now that's much better. Next I used the spoon to remove the juice for that half a cup I needed.

I suppose I could have used a strainer, but a little apple didn't hurt anything. With a little cinnamon and sugar I used the remaining apples for applesauce.

I filled my measuring cup halfway with apple juice and added a tablespoon of coconut oil to the hot juice to melt for easy mixing.

I measured out the remaining ingredients and mixed them up.

Then I added the juice to the dry ingredients.

And thoroughly mixed all the ingredients together.

I placed a piece of freezer paper on top of a cookie sheet and scaped the dough onto the freezer paper.

Then I rolled the dough out as thin as I could, which was about 1/8" thick rather than the required 1/16" thick. I found that it started to fall apart if I went any thinner. Maybe my dough was a bit too wet because it seemed to stick to the rolling pin.

Once I rolled as thin as I possibly could I placed it in my preheated oven to bake at 300 degrees for the required 15 minutes.

When the 15 minutes were up, I removed the pan to slice the dough into small squares and returned it to the oven. I shut the oven off and left it continue to bake for an additional 60 minutes. When I pulled it out, it was still a bit moist so I turned it over and placed it back in the oven. I heated the oven to 200 degrees and then turned it off and left it in for 15 more minutes. Then I removed the pan and broke them along the cut lines into these cute little squared cereal wannabes.

How did they taste? I thought they were delicious! But then, I am used to eating a lot of flax seed and hemp seed. And I absolutely love hemp seed! My son and daughter-in-law happened to be here and I had them taste it. They said it tasted too healthy! Haha! Now that's a given!

Gluten Free Cinnamon Toast Crunch Wannabes

1/2 c. milled flax seed

1/2 c. hulled hemp seed

2 T. ground cinnamon

1/2 c. apple juice

1 T. coconut oil

Measure out and combine dry ingredients together in a bowl. Measure out apple juice and coconut oil and add to dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Line a cookie sheet with freezer paper and place dough onto paper. Roll dough out to 1/8" thick. Place in preheated 300 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove pan and score dough into small, bite-sized squares. Turn off oven and return pan to oven for an additional 60 minutes. Remove pan, flip dough over and again return to oven. Heat oven to 200 degrees and then shut oven off. Leave in for 15 minutes or until dry. Remove and break into squares. Enjoy!


Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

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Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

North Carolina Trip Photos

My trip to North Carolina was wonderful and I hope that I can return there soon to visit my son and his family. I haven't had a chance to go through all my photos yet, but here are a few of them. Hoping to add more later.

Around the Fort Bragg area, everywhere you went, there were trees.

Besides spending time with Jesse and his family, my favorite part of the trip was seeing the Atlantic Ocean.

The sandy beach went for miles.

The kids squealed with delight when the waves came into shore.

Jesse also drove me out to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where we found an upside down house.

And guess who we ran into at the Mellow Mushroom in Fayetteville? None other than, "The Terminator"! Now how cool is that?

If Jesse stands six foot three, how tall do you think the Terminator is?

Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!