Sunday Cooking

Sundays are a good day to do nothing.  It is actually my only day to do nothing.  Since I work 6 days a week it get's hard for me to just relax so that is usually what I do.  How do I relax?  I cook.  I know that it may not seem relaxing to some, but when I'm in the kitchen I know what I am doing and everything turns out as it should.  I can't say that about many aspects of my life.  So today I made a couple things for myself and I also made a couple things for a friend who just had her second baby.  First up on the roster today was Curried Butternut Squash Soup. 

To start I made a curry blend.  The original recipe calls for just using curry powder off the shelf, but when given the chance, I'll make my own of anything.  I had made a recipe awhile ago in which you made your own hot curry spice blend, I liked it so that is what I used for my soup. 

Here are my spices, ground coriander, cinnamon, tumeric, cardamom, mustard, cumin, and hot hungarian paprika.  It does have a kick to it, but not too much.  If you are not a fan of spice then either use less paprika or you can use sweet paprika.  Next you want to chop up your veggies.  Peel and dice up your butternut squash, dice an onion and chop a couple cloves of garlic.  It doesn't really matter the size of your veg because you are going to puree the soup in the end.  Heat a little oil in your pot (I tried to use very little maybe a teaspoon) add your onion and garlic.  Add a little salt and saute until soft.

The next step in the original recipe is to add everything in the pot, the squash, spices and broth.  Of course I can't really follow a recipe very well.  When you use dried spices you want to add them to the pot and let them warm up and get a little toasty so that they come back to life.  So what I did is I added my squash to the pot with the onions and garlic.  Then I added my spices and let them toast in the pan for about a minute.

After that add the stock.  You can use veggie stock and keep this totally vegetarian, I used chicken stock because it is what I had on hand.  Add the stock and like one of my favorite chefs says, BTB RTS.  Which means bring to boil, reduce to simmer.  Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the squash is tender.  Then you can either transfer the soup to a blender in batches and blend until smooth, or if you have a handy dandy stick blender you can puree the soup right in the pot (which is what I did, why dirty another piece of equipment?!)  Put it in containers to cool and you're good to go!

Such a pretty color!  On to the next!  I made some mac 'n cheese and grilled chicken for my friend and her family.  Something kid friendly and something healthy.  I can imagine that anything as long as she doesn't have to make it, just reheat it would work for her. 

Cheesy and delicious!  I thought that 2 smaller pans would be good because they can eat one now and put the other in the freezer and reheat it at a later date.  Last but not least....I made myself a treat!  I made blondies from a recipe that I found on pinterest.  I am just in love with it!  I am shocked with myself that I am actually going back to past pins and actually looking them up and trying the recipes.  This particular recipe I would like to play with.  It calls for some butter, not much, but I would like to see if I can eliminate it completely.  Also there are 2 eggs in it.  Next time I'll see if it will work with egg whites or something else.

Let me just tell you they are delish!  Once I perfect my healthy healthy recipe I will share.  Until then, happy cooking!  <3