Sunday, January 10, 2010

Butternut Squash Soup...with a twist!

I tried a new recipe for Butternut Squash Soup but modified it based on another favorite recipe of ours. I will post the recipe as it is listed on AllRecipes.com with my modifications listed below. It was OUTSTANDING by the way!!



Ingredients

* 6 tablespoons chopped onion
* 4 tablespoons margarine
* 6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
* 3 cups water
* 4 cubes chicken bouillon
* 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
* 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese


Directions

1. In a large saucepan, saute onions in margarine until tender. Add squash, water, bouillon, marjoram, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Bring to boil; cook 20 minutes, or until squash is tender.
2. Puree squash and cream cheese in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan, and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

Outcome: This was a totally awesome soup with the following modifications:

* used 1 whole yellow onion

* used only 2 tablespoons of butter

* cut the squash in half. Removed seeds and stringy stuff. Baked face down in the oven on 400 for 45 minutes. I didn't measure the amount of squash that I had but it originally weighed about 3lbs.

* Increased the water to 4 cups

* Used non-chicken chicken broth (can get from Whole Foods or Sprouts).

* Didn't have any marjoram - didn't miss it

* Upped the amount of Cayenne pepper to about 2 teaspoons (I didn't measure it...just dumped it in, lol).

* added a bit of garlic powder (again, I didn't measure it)

* added about 1 teaspoon of Curry Powder (didn't measure this either)

* used only 1 package of low-fat cream cheese

* added 6-8 oz of heavy cream (per recommendations on the reviews)

* Oh and I also added a diced pear when I added the squash to the water. Since the squash was already soft, I waited for the pear to soften (about 20 minutes) before blending. I hate transferring soups to a blender and all that mess so I just used my electric beater and it worked just fine. It was probably chunkier than if I had pureed it in the blender but it was certainly delicious!! EVERYONE loved it!!

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How it all started....

Russ and I always knew we didn't eat enough fruits and vegetables but never really gave it a second thought. Besides, who has time to cook lush, healthy meals?? Russ has had high blood pressure and was told it's in his genes and that changing his diet wouldn't help him much. Well, I'm here to tell you that that's a bunch of hog wash. He was averaging 150/100 or so WITH MEDICATION!! In just 4 short weeks of changing our diets, his blood pressure is hovering around 135/80!! He's still on the medication...we want to give it another month or so before weaning him off the medication. But isn't that great!?!

So we have a NetFlix account and have it set up so we can watch a certain selection of movies instantly. Russ was browsing through the documentaries one night and came across the movie that changed our lives - The Beautiful Truth. If you get the chance, watch this movie. Here's more info on it: http://www.thebeautifultruthmovie.com/

After watching this amazing movie, we went on a journey over the next few weeks that lead to a total lifestyle change for not only Russ and me but the kids as well. We've cut out all meats from our diets, cut WAY back on ANYTHING that is processed, switched to Soy and almond milk, cut out all sodas, read labels and stay away from MSG and High Fructose Corn Syrup. We've been using our juicer twice a day and are working on increasing that to 4-6 times a day.

Not only has Russ's blood pressure come down, but my rotator cuff injury has started to make HUGE improvements! I can stretch my arm out in front of me and touch the top of my head! I haven't been able to do either of those things since October. Our teenagers face is starting to clear up and my psoriasis is much less severe than it's been in years. I'm totally sold and haven't missed meat one bit!