More Soup

When I was routing through my freezer for lunch today, I had completely forgot that I had already planned to make soup for dinner. I debated making something else, but with a bare fridge and no $$ I decided to stick with my original plan. I like soup, so having it twice in one day does not bother me. 🙂

My soup was inspired by what I found at my grocery store this weekend…

A precut & gutted butternut squash! This was perfect for me because A) I don’t have to worry about cutting it and B) I don’t have to worry about having a zillion butternut squash left overs! Publix had other random squashes that were precut so I will have to look into that for next week.

After all of the great butternut squash recipes I saw last week in the secret ingredient contest, I knew I had plenty of great recipes to try this squash on. WIth consideration of what I already had on my fridge I decided to give Lauren’s Spicy Butternut Squash Soup a try.

I altered the recipe so it only produced two servings and substituted ingredients with what I had on hand.

Here is my version of Lauren’s creation:

• 1/4 Butternut Squash
• 1 Small Sweet Potato
• 4 Carrot Sticks
• 1/2 Yellow Onion
• 1 Garlic Clove
• 1/2 cup Okra ( I told you I would be putting it in everything)
• 1/2 cup Shredded Summer Squash (also trying to use up)
• 3/4 can of Vegtable broth
• 1/2 cup Fat Free Milk
• S & P
• Cumin
• Oregano
• 1/2 chicken breast
• Gorgonzola Cheese (for topping)

I followed her directions from there. I added the milk when I added the vegtable broth and only let it simmer for 10 minutes before I took the hand blender to it. I added the chicken to the soup after the hand blender and I topped the individual bowl of soup with the gorgonzola cheese. This really produced two perfect serving sizes.

On the side of the soup I had a piece of Whole Wheat Toast, which I used to wipe the bowl clean. 🙂

You like my half toasted piece of toast? This bread has a hard time fitting in my tiny toaster. Oh well, it works!

The soup was awesome! I really am a HUGE fan of butternut squash now and I am excited that I have the other half of butternut squash in the fridge waiting to be made into butternut squash fries. 🙂 Thank you Lauren for posting a great recipe!

After my dinner I decided to experiment with my Pumpkin Bars for dessert.

I cut one in half and slathered Peanut Butter on one half and Low Sugar Strawberry Preserves on the other.

I was really craving something fruity which is why I chose the preserves, but ever since Erin suggested the peanut butter on the bar, it has been on the back of my head to give it a try. Let me tell you, Erin is a GENIUS! The Peanut Butter on top made the bars AMAZING!!! But doesn’t peanut butter make all desserts amazing?!? I am definitely feeling better about these bars now. Thanks for the suggestion Erin!

This afternoon I had a serving of Kashi Vegetable Roasted Crackers and a Laughing Cow Cheese Wedge for my afternoon snack.

I picked these crackers up for FREE thanks to my Kashi Coupons. It was my first time trying the vegetable crackers and I must say I really enjoyed them. I liked the extra flavor these crackers had and look forward to future enjoyments.

I have dishes waiting for me in the kitchen. 🙁 I guess I have put them off long enough. Good night everyone!