Pumpkin Quinoa Soup

This soup is amazing. You may think it sounds weird, but it is savory, tangy and deliciously smooth. It warms one up, while being filling and satisfying. Plus, it's incredibly easy to make and saves well for lunch leftovers.

This recipe is not my own, though I modified it slightly (as all cooks do). The lovely Sarah Desjarlais created this soup and has allowed me to post it here as it fits perfectly with the theme of this blog. Thanks lady!

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small to medium onion
1 quart vegetable broth (recipe originally calls for chicken which you can use if you're not vegan)
2 15 oz cans pumpkin puree (or 1 29 oz can)

Water
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dry rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup uncooked quinoa



In your soup pot, sauté onion in olive oil over medium heat until onion turns clearish. Add vegetable stock, bring to a simmer. Stir in pumpkin until smooth, maintaining a simmer. Add 1 quart of water, nutmeg and rosemary and stir to incorporate. Simmer anywhere from 1/2 hour to 3 hours (the longer you simmer, the more water you will need to keep adding to reach your desired consistency. Just watch it and don't let it cook down too thick.) Taste test, add salt and pepper. Remove from burner and let cool for a few minutes. In a heat-resistant blender, puree until smooth. 20 minutes before ready to serve, add quinoa and bring to a soft boil, stirring occasionally. (Cooking the quinoa will cook off about 1-2 cups of liquid.) Make sure it doesn't scorch on the bottom. Taste test frequently and adjust salt/nutmeg/water levels.


Serve with avocado or feta cheese (if tolerated) on top.


Enjoy!

Sweet Potatoes

I love sweet potatoes. Just ask my coworkers. I probably eat them 3-4 days a week at lunch. They say, " Really Bethany? MORE sweet potatoes?" Sweet and savory. Roasted in the oven to a light brown crunch on the outside and tender on the inside. They are just so delicious. And I can't get over how healthy they are.

I avoid eating "normal" potatoes, and I searched for a while to find a good replacement carb for recipes. I cycle regularly to work, so I still needed some sort of carbs to power my rides. Sweet potatoes are rich in vitamin A and are almost fat-free.  One baked sweet potato has approximately 135 calories, making it a good source of energy.

When preparing sweet potatoes, wash the skins and cook thoroughly. They are ground vegetables and are subject to a food poisoning known as botulism.

Roasting:

When roasting, I slice in half lengthwise, then slice into 1/8" to 1/4" pieces. Place on a cookie sheet and mix with 2-3 tbsp olive oil, and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Bake at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until tender when poked with a fork. (Rosemary and other herbs are also delicious on sweet potatoes. Experiment!)

Eat roasted sweet potatoes as sides with meals, on salads, in egg scrambles for breakfast or on top of brown rice pasta dishes.

Pear Bake

I came home with several bags full of pears today and it seemed that the only appropriate thing to do was prepare and bake them. I read an article that said if you bake pears, they should be firm, or they'll turn to mush. Basically, not as ripe as needed for straight-up eating. The one's I had were perfect.

Ingredients:

4 medium sized pears, sliced
2-3 tsp lemon juice
1-2 tsp coconut sugar
1 cup gluten-free oats
1/2 cup maple syrup (real maple syrup, not Mrs. Butterworths)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Begin layering pears in a small round baking dish. I used a 6" ramekin. When there are 2-3 layers, sprinkle with a little lemon juice and coconut sugar.

See those little brown flecks in the picture? That's how much sugar you're sprinkling on. Not much at all.

I know it seems weird to put lemon juice on fruit, but the lemon juice and little bit of sugar will bring out the flavors and natural juices of the pears.

Continue layering the pears and every 2-3 layers sprinkle with juice and sugar. At this point, the pears and juice will start smelling AMAZING :)

In a separate bowl, mix together oats, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt. Pour on top of mixture in ramekin.

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes, or until pears tested with a fork are soft and topping is browned. This is scrumptious by itself or with a small scoop of coconut milk ice cream. Sometimes I save these bakes and eat them for breakfast as a special treat.

Fresh Apples

Go to Hood River. Buy fresh, cheap fruit. Be healthy. Done.

Banana Bread & Vanilla on My Cookbook

It all started with vanilla on my cookbook.

I was attempting to bake banana bread for the first time by myself. My family's kitchen was very small at that point in time (we remodeled it later) and I was prepping right inbetween the phone and the stove. The cookbook lay on the counter below me, guiding me each step of the way. Above this counter was the spice and baking cabinet. On the very top shelf, was this beautifully shaped jar of vanilla. Real vanilla. As in my mom's good friend brought it back from Mexico as a gift, real vanilla.

You see where this is going.

I was in an...'awkward' stage at that point in my development. I was gangly and tall for my age (that's another story). I reached to the very top shelf to get something; I really don't remember what.

Crash, all over the cookbook that lovely jar of vanilla went. My mom wasn't angry at all, but very gracious. We cleaned everything up, checked the banana bread for glass shards and wiped down the cookbook. She said the cookbook was mine now and it kinda became a joke. Funny thing is, I really don't use it much, but for a recipe here or there.

To this day, that cookbook still has faint hint of vanilla buried in the binding. And because my mother was understanding and let me bang around in the kitchen, even when I made messes, I now love cooking, baking and food. And I'm blogging about it :-)

So now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the release of the treasured banana bread recipe. I've tweaked it quite a bit, and I encourage you to do the same with any recipe you find.

Ingredients:

2 cups coconut sugar
2/3 cup organic vegetable shortening (I use the brand in this picture. You can buy it at Fred Meyer for $5 or $6 and it lasts for a while. If you can tolerate dairy, use butter!)

5 eggs

2 tbsp vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp cinnamon

2 tsp nutmeg

8-9 bananas (the riper, the better)

2 cups brown rice flour

1 1/3 cups almond flour/meal

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cream (mix thoroughly with an electric hand held blender) sugar and shortening in large bowl. Add eggs and mix until fluffy. Add vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Peel bananas and mash with a potato masher or fork in a small bowl. Banana should still be slightly chunky. Do not over mash them, please!

Add bananas to sugar-cream mixture and mix.

Add all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder) and mix.

If you are using tin or metal baking pans, grease the pans with shortening or a spray-on olive oil.

Pour batter into two loaf pans.

Bake for about 1 hour. Bread will be dark golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted will come out clean.

Let cool for a few minutes before enjoying ;-)