Day 26 of 30 - Squash and Crab Bisque

Today was an indulgent day of eating.  I guess I still can't help myself when there's such delicious food in front of me.  I had leftover shepherd's pie and I made this fabulous Squash and Crab Bisque..... definitely went for seconds with the soup.  definitely didn't need that second bowl.  but...... definitely worth it. 

I neglected yoga all weekend because of unforseen circumstances.  This week threatened to prevent me from going to class, but after some coaxing and finagling, I am having my cake and eating it too.  Today was hatha monday.  I'm not used to hatha so i was really nervous.  It was challenging to hold poses for longer than i was used to, not to mention i haven't quite broken in the new mat yet so it's still a little slippery.  Makes the jump ups a *little* tricky with the looming threat of slipping.  I got a fantastic workout just trying to maintain good form in downward facing dog.  Today's class was based on concentration.  Concentration in your practice, focus in your practice.  We did a lot of balances, focusing on a single point, used that focus to drive our bodies to practice something a little different in our transitions. 

One thing that really struck me was the way your body has preferences.  The way you cross your arms-- is it right arm on top or left arm over?  The way you cross your legs, the way you clasp your hands, flexibility in your shoulders, open-ness of your hips.  The instructor asked us to cross our legs the opposite way to have equal opening, practicing with our legs crossed one way and making sure to do the same with our legs crossed the other way, the same for the clasping of our hands.  It brought a lot of attention to the way certain things felt so unnatural one way, and natural the other way, and it really made me think about the asymmetry in our bodies.  I appreciated the balance in the practice, between theory, learning, and movement as well as the way we tried to concentrate on our bodies and it's symmetry or asymmetry.

foggy ride home

I've been at this new studio for less than a month, and it already feels like I've found such a great new home.  I love the people there, and it's been so warm and welcoming.  And of course, warm and welcoming was the theme of today's dinner.  It was a warm and balmy mid 50's today.  96% humidity = relatively dense fog.  i LOVE fog.  it is so romantic.  and beautiful.  and leaves you alone with your emotions and thoughts.  just you, your heart, your mind, and the fog.  I think the humidity really got to me though, because despite the high temperatures, I was still chilled to the bone.  Hence, the soup.

Squash and Crab Bisque

Ingredients
8oz crab meat
1 largeish acorn squash (any delicious squash here will do, actually)
1 med onion
3 stalks celery
1-1 1/2 c chopped carrots
3-4 c vegetable broth (or chicken broth or home made broth)
1 c coconut milk
1 1/2 T ghee
salt
pepper
water

1.  Preheat the oven to 375F.  Cut squash in half and place in a baking dish with 1/2 inch of water, cut side down and place in the oven.  Bake until the squash is tender to fork.
2.  While the squash is baking, chop the onion, celery and carrots and sautee in ghee until the onions are translucent
3.  When the vegetables are fully cooked, add the broth and simmer for ~15 min then take off the heat.
4.  When the squash is done cooking, scoop the flesh out from the skin and place in soup. 
5.  Blend the soup in batches until it reaches a consistency that you like
6.  Add cocnut milk and crab chunks and simmer briefly.  Salt and pepper to taste

so delicious!

I'm really excited about this soup.  It's really simple but it'll be easy to jazz up with any spices or to have with a salad or cauliflower rice.  This pot comfortably made about 6 servings.  I think I probably had 2 of those 6 servings today. oh well.  :-)

til next time, eat well and be well.