And then some Veggie Soup

Sunday I was still in a cooking mood so I made a huge pot of Veggie Soup. I started with a bunch of broth and then cut up a red pepper, 2 zucchini, a bag of shredded cabbage, a bunch of mini carrots, an onion, a bag of broccoli, ( I know -  A bag - I was lazy!) and half a lemon that I did bother to cut and juice. (Awesome smell - a REAL simple pleasure that!)

The house smelled so good! Steaming boiling veggie yum! I let it cook for an hour or so, and then I went crazy with my Immersion blender. Yeah - I love that thing!

I ate a steaming bowl before I put them all in freezer safe containers. YUM! It was almost a little sad to chop all those veggies down to nothing. But I got over it quick. I have this theory that it will be easier to digest broccoli and cabbage if it's cooked to within an inch of it's life and then chopped to high hell. :) Yup. Way easier to digest cabbage you can drink.

I put a little cracked pepper on top of each one before I froze them. Yum! I am SO Betty Crocker lately! WOOT!

Immersion Blender - Where have you been all my life?

So I have been looking at a few toys quite a bit lately. Kind of chewing on the idea of them like a dog with a bone. One of them is a Dutch Oven. I don't own one and I want to. But do I buy a cast iron one? Do I buy one from Rachel Ray? Tough decisions and a lot of time spent looking at them in stores and on-line. The other one is an immersion blender. I have wanted one for awhile, but recently got really obsessed with the idea of one. So I finally leaped into the abyss and ordered one on Amazon that was in my price range (Under $30.00 US and free shipping), had pretty good ratings, and was easy to clean. This is a picture of my new immersion blender and since I ripped off the picture from Amazon - here is a link to look at it on Amazon as well. 

I got my blender yesterday and we ran to the store a few hours later to get the makings for soup. My first soup is a Butternut Squash Soup recipe that I got off Weightwatchers.com. A simple soup with just a few ingredients: Squash, Vegetable broth, an apple and an onion. The recipe called for a Vidalia onion - which I couldn't find at my local store, so I just chucked a yellow onion in there. It was really easy - although it took longer to cook than the recipe suggested as I would not crank the heat up to high until I got a good boil on. Bad for the stock pot! So I had to wait a good half an hour to get a boil at medium heat. Then I had to let it boil until the onions were translucent. Then I got to play with my new toy!

I hauled the pot over to an outlet (placing a pad on the counter for the pot to sit on) and placed the immersion blender into the pot almost touching the bottom of the pot. There is a nice guard on this model so I was able to rest it on the bottom of the pot without hurting anything. Oh was it fun! I had to use both hands to control the blender and it just went to town on the soup! Soon all those large chunks were blended into a smooth as silk soup. YAY!

I poured myself a bowl and had to taste it immediately. Good but it needed a little something. The recipe said to garnish it with a little nutmeg, but I didn't have any on hand so I ended up adding a dash of cinnamon on top and then threw in a small handful of oyster crackers. Perfect! I think a side of homemade Rosemary bread - thick crust and full of butter - would be the perfect side to this. But since I am making this to sublimate my Weight watchers diet, that is out for now. When I get into maintenance mode I will so make some crusty bread to go with this recipe! I am thinking about using it as a low cal sauce to top some ravioli though. I think that could be very tasty!

I ended up with 12 double servings (One Points + per bowl!) and froze all but two. Now when I am craving a snack I can grab a bowl of homemade soup from the freezer and have a healthy snack. Go me!

Now I am off to the store. I saw a wonderful recipe for Vegetable soup......