Vegetable Soup

It's the end of March and I'm craving a hot bowl of soup?? Those little days in between the bitter-cold where it's about 65 degrees out and you can walk out of the gym in shorts and not FREEZE really tease me.  I still felt like making some soup to warm up the kitchen AND drink some hot broth to release any of the cold I still have in me, so I went to Russo's and bought mounds of wonderful vegetables to melt into something creative.

Came home, and decided on a Harpoon Munich Dark beer first. Thank you Jesse, it was great.

The vegetables I used:

4 celery stalks
4 carrots
1 sweet potato
1/3 summer squash
1 white onion
1 yellow squash
1/3 Savoy cabbage (the crinkled-leaf kind)
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes
handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

Cut the root veggies up into large chunks, turn the oven up to 400 Degrees and roast them until very soft.and sweet. This takes about 40 minutes.

Also, there's no need to peel them, just wash them.  They're going into the blender.

Dice the onion and add it to about a tablespoon of crushed garlic and extra virgin olive oil that is being heated in a deep frying pan.

I tried to take a picture of my crying eyes here after I cut the onion. NONE of them came out even half way decent to share.

Sweat baby, sweat. Sweat the onions until translucent and then add the chopped up yellow squash. Then the chopped celery.

Next, I took out my large soup pot added 2 48oz cans of fat free chicken broth, the cooked onion, squash, celery, and chopped cabbage.  I turned the flame up to medium-high and put on the lid to let the cabbage slowly cook.

Out of the oven! Root vegetables are soft.

BLEND IT. Add some water to make it easier on yourself

Add the blended orange vegetables to the soup and stir!

Next, add the following spices:

Garlic powder
Dried Chives
Onion powder
Black pepper
Basil

Just add a little at a time. I honestly can't estimate how much I put in, just enough to make it taste very delicious!

Let the soup cook on low heat for another 40 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Heat it up and enjoy :)

Green Morning

"Ooo BABY," was my reaction to trying this Green Smoothie for the first time.  It's a breakfast (or in my case, my lunch) that will surprise you! I've been seeing a lot of these in the "Blog World" and wondered if I'd like them. I obviously did.

What is so wonderful about these is that you can use that imagination of yours and throw whatever comes to mind in your blender and wizz away. 

Always start with a green. Spinach, kale, mustard greens, etc.

Wash your greens well.

Today's ingredients included:
-LARGE handful of washed spinach
-1 container of Oikos plain 0% fat yogurt
-1/2 cup red grapes
-1/2 ripe banana
-1/3 cucumber
-water for thinning

Oh, and it was sweetened with about a tablespoon of this guy:

Pack it all into the blender, add your water, and blend. Start with a small amount of water and increase as you go.

Take a look inside.

Blend it well. Pour it.

I had my roommate Jesse and his girlfriend Alex try some. Only a little.

They liked it!

Cheers!

It was thick, sweet, and a pretty color green. The honey I used was a bit older, so I heated in the microwave to loosen it. We all agreed we could taste little crystallized chunks of honey. Not a bad thing though.  Newer honey or even agave syrup would work better i think.

Here's a list of other things to incorporate to make an amazing Green Smoothie:

Fruit
Apple
Pear
Kiwi
Mango
Plums
Pineapple
Any kind of berry (blue, black, straw, etc.)

Dairy
Milk (Cow's, soy, almond, hemp, etc.)
Yogurt

Greens
Spinach
Kale
Mustard greens
Collard greens
Cabbage
Swiss chard

Nuts/Nut butters
Peanut butter
Almond butter
Cashew butter
Chai seeds

Sweetener (optional)
Honey
Agave syrup

Random
Avocado (VERY CREAMY!)
Protein powder
Vanilla/Almond extract

Don't be nervous. Just try it.

Pear Tart

I wanted to bake today, obviously, so I set out to my favorite quality, convenient, and moderately-priced market named, Russo's. I recently baked with some apples and I wasn't in the mood for citrus or bananas, so pears it was. I also went to the store right from school without any kind of  game-plan besides "letting the food inspire me," haha. Well, it worked.

Here's just one little side-length of the fruit they have there. I picked 5 of the pears to the left called Bosc Pears, which have a brown and grainy skin, but their flesh is soft, sweet, and juicy.

Around the corner was the WALL of various nuts. I went with the plain and simple sliced almonds.

I also took some cool shots of the dried home-made pasta the nice lady was delicately displaying.
Well, I don't know if she was that nice... she wouldn't stop moving while I took pictures. Here's the best one...

Here is what I left with.
All brown items! The bulgur wheat isn't for my recipe, neither the kiwis...I just couldn't pass them up.
Top right is a package of Sultanas or "golden raisins."

I had to eat a kiwi before getting to my baking.
I leave the skin on now...it adds a sort of crunchy texture to the fruit and it doesn't taste bad at all!

Okay, time to bake.
Since I had the following three key ingredients (pears, almonds, golden raisins), I thought I'd make a simple butter cake to go underneath. I'll call it... "Pear Cake!!"

Pear Cake Recipe

1 lb of pears, removed seeds and sliced
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 Tbsp granulated sugar (for sprinkling)
1/3 cup sliced almonds

Glaze:
2 Tbsp melted butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp dark rum

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8-inch round spring form pan.
2. Measure 1/3 cup golden raisins in your measuring cup, leave them in while pouring dark rum up to the top. Let them soak.
3. Mix the flour and baking powder with a whisk and set aside.
4. Beat sugar and butter together.
5. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth.
6. Fold flour mixture into butter and sugar mixture with a spatula until combined.
7. Pour batter into spring form pan and spread evenly.
8. Spread the sliced pears on top of the batter and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp of granulated sugar.
9. Add golden raisins and sliced almonds.
10. Mix remaining butter, brown sugar, and rum into a glaze and pour over the top.
11. Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes or until center comes out dry on your cake tester.

Here's what you need.
Actually, there's 2 missing ingredients. Can you spot 'em?

Rum and brown sugar! Oops.

First, drown the golden raisins!

I think I've said this before, but instead of using the awkward "flour sifter" just whisk your dry ingredients to get out the lumps. So much easier.

Beat the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time.

Fold in the flour.

Spread in the greased-pan.

Onto the pears.

Take out the seeds.

Done!

Arrange them nicely.

Add everything else.

Out of the oven!

Enjoy!

Almond cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting and toasted almonds

I've been so healthy lately with my posts that I thought...it's time for something devilish. Actually, it's because I've been suffering with a stuffy head and body aches for three days. I guess it's just my body telling me to treat myself to something unhealthy and delicious.

I made an almond-flavored cupcake with dark chocolate frosting sprinkled with toasted almonds.

Not a difficult recipe at all! Just takes a little more time and a few more dishes to wash to do it from scratch than one of the boxes.

LOOK at these cupcake liners I fell in love with at Target.

Almond Cupcake Recipe

I wrote it down on an envelope, I couldn't find any paper.

It says...

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups milk


1. cream the butter and sugar until smooth. add the eggs, almond and vanilla extract and milk. in a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt, then mix into the wet ingredients.

2. fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter and bake for about 20 minutes at 375F. remove from the cupcake tray and let cool on a rack completely before frosting.


The ingredients

Wet ingredients. Dry ingredients. Combined.

Fill each lined cup about 2/3rds of the way.

I only baked mine about 16 minutes. Depending on your oven, begin checking them at 15 minutes.

Done!

Frost and sprinkle with toasted almonds!

Thick almondy-cake and a dark chocolate frosting with a crunch from the almonds on top. Yum.