The Easiest Soup you'll ever Eat

So I've been ridiculously lazy lately. Call it the stress of planning a wedding where everything is falling apart, or perhaps the course I'm taking, or researching my thesis, or even perhaps the cold frigid winter  is getting to me, but I've not wanted to do a damned thing lately. (Excuse the language)

This sadly has included cooking to any great degree. I've been lounging around eating cereal out of the box in my sweatpants, and it's frankly been really depressing as a whole.

So I decided to make something delicious and simple that could perhaps cheer me up slightly. I needed something that was the simplest thing I could think of, and I made my tomato cream soup.

Super Easy Tomato Cream Soup

Ingredients:

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 cup soy/almond/rice milk (whichever you prefer)

Basil, Salt, and Pepper (To taste)

Directions:

Chuck all the ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. 

Transfer to a soup pot, and bring to a boil. 

Serve over Rice (if you want!)

If it's a bit too thin for you, and you like your soup thicker, feel free to add a bit of cornstarch (a tbsp or so) to the blender while you're blending it, and it will cook up thicker. 

A very Simple Soup

What do you do when you're just sort of worn out and in a bit of a funk? In addition, it's cold out and your funk  is partially affected by the cold?

You make some yummy soup!

Easy Carrot Ginger Soup
Ingredients:
3 cups vegetable Broth
5 cups chopped carrots
2 cups soy milk
4 tbsp of minced ginger

(Feel free to scale these down at will, if you don't want to make a lot of soup)

Directions:
Bring the broth, carrots, and ginger to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes, until the carrots softened.
Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. (You may have to do this in chunks- you can also use an immersion blender)
Return to pot, and add the soy milk. Stir to combine, and bring back to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes before eating.

Then Enjoy! It works great as a first dish for a dinner party.

A Wednesday off is a perfect day for Soup

I had a day off today. I had absolutely nothing that needed doing! No school work, no housework, I wasn't babysitting, I didn't have anything wedding related to do, there was nothing that needed doing.

So I went to the grocery store (a usually hobby of mine) to see what yummy produce they had just in. They had some really good looking swiss chard.

When I was growing up, my dad loved Swiss Chard, which I learned was not a commonly eaten thing with my friends. He grew it himself, and would steam it and make us eat it. Being the obstinate child I was, I decided I hated it. However, It grew on me. But I can rarely find it in stores, as I'm not sure it's a very popular grocery item these days. So it appearing at the little grocery I go to was a really exciting event.

So I made it into a really good soup! Not only is this a good soup, but it's a super healthy soup, and ridiculously nutritious for you. Ridiculously.

Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup
Ingredients:
7 Cups of water
a few large leaves of Swiss Chard, chopped into large chunks and rinsed.
2 large carrots, sliced
1 cup dried lentils (I'm using green lentils, but feel free to use your favorite kind)
4 small new potatoes
1 smallish/mediumish sweet potato
1 vegan bouillon cube, any flavor (I use mushroom)

Directions:
Combine 4 of the 7 cups of water and the bouillon cube in a soup pot. Bring to a boil.
Dump the lentils in, and turn the burner to low, simmering for 10 minutes to start softening up the lentils.
Add in the carrots, and simmer for 5 minutes, until also slightly softened.
Add in the two types of potatoes, and cook for 10 minutes, turning up the heat to medium to get everything cooked up.
At this point, test the lentils, make sure they're cooked. They shouldn't be too chewy, and just falling apart in the soup.
Add in the chard, and stir to combine. Cook on medium for about a minute, until it wilts slightly and is a nice vibrant yet darkening green. Serve.

This is a really good soup to serve in the dead of winter. It's really warming, and lentils have a nice peppery taste that sort of makes you feel good.  If you can't find Swiss Chard, it can be easily replaced with some chopped spinach or kale!  It also makes an excellent meal if you've got a cold, or are recovering from illness and need a nice nutrition boost. Trying to lose some weight? This soup you will notice has no creams or oils in it, thus is calorie friendly. It also has lots of fiber due to the lentils, so makes you feel full and helps with digestion.

Thus, eat, feel good, and enjoy!

Garlic Soup

Do you like Garlic?

I myself love garlic, probably to an unhealthy degree. Garlic bread is like manna from heaven. Eating guacamole at my house? Prepare for a garlic overload. I live in a garlicky bliss. For about 2 weeks last winter all I ate was pasta sauteed in some olive oil, white wine, and garlic. (I had some fruit and carrot sticks too, I didn't want to get scurvy after all!)

Fast forwards to last week. Matthew and I have been discussing the ideas for food at our wedding (at my mother's insistence) and I suggested that a tasting menu, maybe finger foods or tapas style, just tonnes of it, might be fun. At Matthew's work there is a wonderful woman named Yuri who loves cooking as much as I do, and she overheard him mention that I was thinking of doing a tapas style menu. The next day she sent him home with three cookbooks about fingerfood and tapas. One of them contained a recipe for something called "Garlic Soup."

Now the garlic soup in that book only has 3 ingredients in common with mine- olive oil, Garlic, and white wine. Besides that, I was on my own, as the recipe was NOT vegan in the least.

But I created this, and I think it turned out wonderfully. It's garlicky, flavorful in other ways, and chock full of veggies! (And wine!)

Garlic Soup- Serves 2 as a meal, or 4 as a starter
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup white wine
1 cup flavorful veggie stock
5 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
3 spring onions, white parts sliced thinly, and green stalks sliced thicker and set aside.
1 large carrot, peeled into a bunch of ribbons
1 tsp chili sauce (I use Sriracha) (Optional, but it adds a nice zing)
3 cocktail tomatoes, sliced into thin slices
(Cocktail tomatoes, if you haven't heard of them, are larger than cherry tomatoes, but smaller than regular tomatoes- feel free to use either cherry tomatoes, OR smallish (bitesized) tomatoes if your store doesn't have them)

Directions:
In a deep wok or saucepan, heat the olive oil on medium-high heat. Add in the white parts of the spring onions and the garlic slices, and sautee for a minute or two, until the edges of the garlic begin to brown and your whole kitchen starts to smell like yummy garlic.   :)
Add in the white wine and stock, and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, turn it down to simmer.
Add in the carrots, and cook on simmering for about 3 minutes.
Add in the tomatoes and green parts of the onions, and the chili sauce (if using.) Cook for about 2 more minutes to cook away the raw onion taste.
Serve, and enjoy the awesome yummy surprise that is Garlic Soup! The whole cooking process takes about 10 minutes in total, and preparing all of the ingredients also takes about 10 minutes, so you could be enjoying a delicious dinner in under half an hour!

Tomato garlic goodness!

Gettin in Shape, and A Cheesy Soup

I am no stranger to weight loss/getting in shape. In fact, I once lost 70 lb in one year, which was pretty much my most memorable attribute in many people's eyes. In fact, I saw a friend's father recently, who hadn't seen me in the six years since I left highschool, and his only comment was "Natalia! You shrunk!".

Yes, many a year ago (okay, 3 years ago) I weighed over 200lb, was sort of known as the jolly chubby sister/friend, and ate horribly. Then I found veganism (Cue magic music) and in a year of eating wholesome vegan balanced meals, and exercising, I dropped 70lb. (See Photo. As an aside to the photo, I enjoy that my taste in eye wear doesn't seem to alter)

However, that was a year ago, and I've gotten a bit lax and gained back a bit of the weight (nothing major, like 20lb in a year) Curse my love of potato chips and french fries! (I'm a deep fried potato nut!)

This wouldn't really be much of a problem, because I'm not obese, just slightly chunky, and I'm fairly happy with myself, however next July looms an EVENT.

I'm getting Married. In a big wedding (150 people, which might not be huge for weddings, but it's big for me!), and everyone's eyes will be on me, and I'll have camera flashing away for an entire day. I don't like being the center of attention in the best of times, but when there's cameras involved to document it? Freak out.

So, starting today I've begun my new "no junk food and perhaps exercise you lazy bum" get in shape routine to lose that 20lb again. Maybe 30. But no more than that (I think I'd start to look really weird, because I have a large ribcage, I'd be all ribcage!)

So for exercise today, I did a solid 20 minute cardio and ab circuit, and sat down to try to come up with some healthy veggieful recipes that would be filling and delicious. And wouldn't you know it, I had made one this weekend?

Cauliflower Carrot Cheese Soup
Makes about 6 Servings
Ingredients
1 Medium Head of Cauliflower, chopped into pieces
3 Medium sized carrots, chopped into pieces
3 Cups water with a bouillon cube or 3 cups vegetable stock
1 cup Daiya Cheddar
Non Dairy Milk
Freshly ground salt and pepper

Directions
In a large pot, bring the Water with bouillon or stock to boil.
Add in the Cauliflower and carrots, cooking until softened.
Allow the soup to cool for about 15 minutes.
Blend the soup in a blender until creamy. You may have to do this in portions, and add a bit of Non-dairy milk to smooth it out and reach the desired consistency.
Return the soup to the pot, and add in the cup of Daiya.
On medium heat, stir the soup until the Daiya melts into it.
Add salt and pepper to taste, and Enjoy!

Anyone else trying to get healthier?

As an aside, any larger breasted women looking for a good exercise bra, I would check out this one. It's the one I use, I've had it for over 6 months, and it still works great!