Day 8 of 30- Squash soup

Food is so delicious, it makes me so sad when it doesn't agree with my stomach.  Today has been kind of an off day, and I have a strange suspicion that it's roll over from yesterday.  maybe it's that massive broccoli salad i had for lunch and my stomach couldn't handle all those raw veggies.  I had not felt this much nausea since..... i dunno.  

I downloaded an app called "sleep time" and it's supposed to somehow track your night's rest.  What the app does, is uses the accelerometer built into your iPhone or iPod and tracks your movement and activity during the night.  It's a little awkward because you have to set your iDevice near you on the bed so if you roll around a lot, you might find yourself sleeping on top of your iDevice.  I was a little skeptical at first because I doubted its abilities.  but lo and behold, it looks like neat sleeping patterns!  I'm excited to try it out tonight to see how it compares to last night.  I think i was exhausted last night because i hardly remember waking up.  Most nights, I wake up frequently and have trouble falling asleep.  Maybe the firmness of my bed made my movements less notable.  who knows.  I will attribute this night's rest to a good night of candlelight flow yoga, exhaustion, and journal club the next morning. look at that!  90% efficiency.

 

sleep records!

So, today is day 8.  I thought I had been doing fairly well.  However, today's trip to the grocery store was immensely difficult.  Their open salad bar, aisle after aisle of healthy nuts and snacks and fruits,  cereals, bins of grains and beans, and yogurts and cheese galore made me weep inside a little.  A woman can only take so much temptation!  I was on a mission to find some meat to add to my squash soup, so i headed to the meat section, slowly meandering through the aisles of cereal and granola.  Even finding meat products that have been unadultered by preservatives and sugars was really hard.  I bought a pack of chorizo from an award winning local farm and i'm pretty excited about that.  I also found sausage patties that have been seasoned with only salt and pepper.  That had me absolutely thrilled until I realized, I really didn't want to eat them.

I searched more and found these fantastic chicken sausages..... seasoned with all these amazing spices and herbs.... with NO added sugar and NO wheat or soy, NO hormones, NO antibiotics..... win?  i don't consider it a win because 4 links (yeah they were about the length of my hand and as girthy as a johnsonville brat) cost me a steep 7 dollars.  NOT COOL.  these sausages better be damn tasty.

I opted to cook up some brussels sprouts and the remainder of the broccoli to pack for lunch with slices of the sausage.  Lets see how it goes.

But anyway, ridiculous cost of food aside, here is a recipe for the amazingly delicious squash soup i made.  I'm really enjoying the flavors of the foods that i'm eating with very little additives and sugars. For example, despite the trauma the broccoli salad inflicted on my tummy, the orange peppers were so sweet and crunchy, the raisins so sweet and chewy, the broccoli..... i still don't really enjoy raw broccoli.  but yeah it was all really tasty. 

Squash soup

Ingredients

maks 6 ish servings-- depending on what you call a serving

2 small-medium sized squash (similar to acorn, my mom got them from some asian grocer)
1/3 can coconut milk (what i had leftover)
1 c bone broth that I made from a previous meal
1 c water
pepper
dash of salt
seasoning*

I wish i had roasted the squash because i think it would have brought out the sweet flavor of it, but the way i made it, it still came out really well.

1.  Cut squash in half and remove seeds and butt ends
2.  Cook squash until soft and tender to fork pokes.  (i started this in a slow cooker and then got impatient so i just steamed them with some water and then added more water and broth when they were almost done)
3.  Puree in food processor or blender, adding coconut milk or broth to get a nice consistency (my processor couldn't hold all the pieces at once so i just scooped in a couple wedges at a time with some scoops of broth). I kept the skins on my squash.  it was just easier that way.  don't mind the strange color of the soup!
4.  Cook pureed squash, adding pepper and maybe some salt if you need it (my bone broth must have had a lot of leftover salt and pepper on it because the soup was seasoned so nicely). 

you can crumble on some bacon over the soup and enjoy!

*Some options for other ways to season it would be to just do salt and pepper for a more savory pumpkin soup, usually i toss in ginger and cinnamon, sometimes some nutmeg to give it a nice fall flavor.  You can probably get really creative here, making a curry squash soup or crumble in some sausage and add italian spices.  it's a really versatile base, esp with it's thick and subtly sweet flavor.  I can't wait to eat more of it tomorrow. 

Til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!!