So, up until a few years ago I wouldn't have considered butternut squash to be something I would choose to eat on purpose. I would eat it at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter family meals when it would be a side dish, but that was about it for me.

    Back in the fall of 2014 I decided to make a roasted butternut squash soup because our neighbour had given me some squash from his garden. I roasted the ingredients, squashed them with a potato masher, and added it all to a chicken broth. It was a good soup, even my husband (a true squash hater!) liked it. But it still wasn't a regular dish around our place.

    Then, just a few months ago, I bought a veggie spiralizer (the Inspiralizer, to be exact) and suddenly I wanted to turn every vegetable I possibly could into noodles!!!

    I decided to try making noodles out of butternut squash (just the strait "neck" part of it), and they were just about the yummiest noodles I had ever had! But the only problem was it left me with the bulbous bottoms with nothing to do! I would usually cut the bottom open, scrape out the seeds to roast for snacking, and roast the squash. Then when it was cooked, I would scrape the nice cooked squash out into a Ziploc bag and throw it into the fridge for some other use later. 

    But one day, after scraping out the seeds for roasting, I ran out of time, and just tossed the uncooked seeds into a container, and the uncooked bulbous bottom of the squash into a bag, and put it all in the fridge.  

    Well, fast-forward a few days, and I still had the squash in my fridge, and I was making chicken and veggie stock in my slow cooker. After I had finished making the stock and pouring it out of the slow cooker to cool, I wondered about making a squash soup in the slow cooker. With a quick Google search I found Pillsbury had a recipe that looked super-duper delish, and could be made by just putting everything into the crock-pot and letting it do it's thing!
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    Well, this soup was so good, so very, very good! And, it freezes really well, making it a great soup for my husband to take to work! 

    The Pillsbury recipe has you blending the soup in a blender or food processor, but I simply used my immersion (hand) blender (that I purchased for $4 from a local second hand store!) and that made the job super easy. Another option (though I haven't tried it with this soup), would be to let it cook sufficiently, and then just mash it up a bit in the crock-pot with a potato masher and not use a blender of any sort. In fact (as you can see) I like my soup a little lumpier, so if you're a fan of lumpy soup you can happily use a potato masher to blend this up!

    Anywho, this warm, fill-up-your-tummy soup is fantastic, & full of flavour. It may seem a little un-seasonal now, but I think it'll be a perfect soup to help warm ya up on a drizzly spring day!
     

Curried Butternut Squash Crock-Pot Soup
Adapted From Pillsbury

​Ingredients

• 10 Cups peeled, seeded and cut int 1 inch cubes of butternut squash (about 1, 4lb squash)
• 1 Large apple, cut into 1 inch cubes (I used a royal gala, but basically any kind will do)
• 1 Large Onion, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp curry powder (you can use more or less depending on your love of curry)
• Salt & pepper (1/4-1/2 tsp each)
• 3 1/2Ccups veggie, chicken, or beef stock (broth)
• 1 can full fat coconut milk
• 1-2 Tbsp maple syrup (optional)

Method:

1. In a 4-5 quart crock-pot (slow cooker) place in all the ingredients, except the coconut milk and maple syrup
2. Cover & cook on Low heat setting 8 to 10 hours
3. Once cooking time is done and everything in the crock pot is super soft you can do one of the following:

• Use a hand blender and blend up the contents of the crock pot, then add the coconut milk and maple syrup (if using), and whirrrr around with the hand blender some more until well combined. Allow the soup to completely warm up again by turning the slow-cooker to high for 10-15 minutes (the coconut milk may have cooled it slightly). Serve and enjoy!
• Pour about 3 cups of the soup mixture into blender; add coconut milk maple syrup (if using). Cover and blend until smooth; return to cooker. Blend remaining soup mixture, in 2 more batches of about 3 cups each, until smooth and return soup to slow-cooker. Turn it onto high, and allow the soup to warm back up for 10-15 minutes to fully heat again. Serve and enjoy! 
• Or, grab a potato masher and some elbow grease and mash away at the soup until it's as lumpy or not lumpy as you prefer. Add the coconut milk and maple syrup and continue to mash and blend everything together. If the soup has cooled significantly, turn the slow-cooker to high and allow the soup to warm back up for 10-15 minutes

  ***Serve topped with diced apple, green onion, or roasted squash seeds!***

     Here's a video link to Martha Stewart for a how-to on butternut squash cutting (it's also where I got that image of the squash prep)!

     Well, my husband just texted me to remind me that this weekend the clocks "spring forward" an hour for Daylight Savings for some of Canada (for a complete and home-schoolery list of Daylight Savings all over the world, click here!) : )

​    Alright, well....I can't think of anything else to tell you! Have a good weekend, make some soup, put some of it the freezer, ya know.  

    xo

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    I used to eat cream of mushroom soup a lot back in the day. 
    Then (whenever it was) I started trying to eat less soup in a can, I just sort of forgot about this soup. So sad. 
    But, I started thinking about it again recently, and having had such good luck making my other soups with a cauliflower base (faux-tato soup, & roasted red pepper soup) I suddenly realized I could have been eating cream of mushroom soup all this time! What wasted time! 

 
​    We've been enjoying a lot of soup with this fantastically cold, snowy, wintry weather! I'm fairly sick of shovelling our driveway, but I am not sick of soup! 

   I used the leftovers to make a meat & potato casserole with potatoes, meat, cheese, and this soup, which is so tasty, simple to make, and really customizable! 

    This soup happened so last minute, it was a little crazy. I had a head of broccoli cut up to steam to have with dinner, but 10 minutes before dinner was to be ready, I decided I would rather have soup! I really just don't like steamed veggies....I know, it's childish, but I don't!        

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:
​

• 1 head of broccoli, steamed (simply give it a quick steam with 2 inches of water in the pot you plan to make the soup in. Give them 5 minutes with the boiling water(until they are bright green and tender), & pureed (in a blender with a bit of the water you steamed it in).
• 4 cups broth (I used veggie bouillon cubes)
• 1 onion, diced
• 2-3 head of garlic, diced.
• 1/4 Cup sour cream, or plain greek yogurt
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Into the pot put your broth, onions, garlic and pureed broccoli. 
2. In a small dish put the sour cream. Scoop out a small amount of the soup, and add it to the sour cream. Whisk until the sour cream is blended, then add this to the soup.
3. Heat until garlic & onions are tender, and enjoy!

   If you don't want hunks of garlic and onion in your soup, just use a slotted spoon to get them out of the soup once they are tender. Puree them in the blender, and add them back into the soup.

    We had ours with some shredded cheese on top (since I had already shredded the cheese  in anticipation of putting on our plain old steamed broccoli!) :)  

   
   I like to plan ahead my meals (ok, actually I am actually pretty particular and un-moveable about my meals being planned!), but it's also important to be able to adapt, and change in an instant-just incase your inner child comes out and tells you that you don't want broccoli for dinner! 

   One of my favourite soups is tomato (if I really had to pick from all my favs). As a kid, my Dad always seemed to make it the day after we would have macaroni & cheese, and he would add the leftovers to the soup (and some times cut-up hot dogs too). Mmmmm....tomato soup with mac&cheese and hot dog bits....Might sound weird, but it was good! Don't judge, I know some of you ate more bizarre things as children (hotdogs and yogurt....you know who you are...) :)  
    As an adult (and one who doesn't regularly eat mac & cheese or hotdogs), my soup has a more modern taste of basil and cheddar cheese. Maybe my kids will grow up and think this is weird...ha, whatta they know? 

Tomato, Basil & Cheddar Soup

Ingredients:

1. 1 teaspoon olive oil
2. 1 onion, chopped
   
3. 3 cloves garlic, chopped
4. 2- 28 ounce cans diced tomatoes (undrained)
5. 2 cups broth (any kind)
   
6. 1 cup plain greek yogurt or full fat sour cream.
7. 1 cup cheddar cheese, grated (a nice sharp one is good, but not necessary)
8. 1/2 cup half and half cream
9. 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped, loosely packed
10. 1 teaspoon sugar, or equivalent sweetener (I used 1 drop of stevia)
11. Salt and pepper to taste

Method: 

1. In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over medium heat.
2. Put the chopped onion in the pot, and let it cook until tender, about three to four minutes.
3. Add the chopped garlic, and cook about two more minutes.
4. Pour in the cans of tomatoes, and the broth. 
5. Stir in the chopped basil, sugar or sweetener, and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Place the lid back onto the pot and let it come to a simmer. Let it simmer ten minutes.
7. *(Do this step if you don't own an immersion blender. See step #9 if you do have one). Now carefully empty the soup out into a large bowl, or another pot. Let it cool a little.
8. While it's cooling, in the pot the soup had been in, stir in the yogurt or sour cream, & cream. Blend them together well.  
9. Now, if you have an immersion blender, remove the soup from the heat, and allow to cool a little. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the yogurt or sour cream, and the cream until blended. Add this to the slightly cooled soup, and stir to blend.
10. If you have a regular blender (as I do), carefully scoop or pour some of the cooled soup into the blender. Be careful not too fill it up to the top, and make sure the lid is on tight! I prefer to do a few small batches than to risk having hot soup explode out of my blender!!! As each blender-full is done pureeing, empty the soup into the pot with the cream base. 
11. Warm back up slowly, stir in the cheese to let it melt and blend, and serve! 

   Serve with grilled cheese sandwiches and veggie sticks, or have soup & salad, or just drink the soup right out of a big mug after a cold day out! 

   So, did you eat anything strange as a child that you didn't think was that strange until you became an adult and realized you were the only one to really ate it? Or you mentioned the strange food in passing to a friend who either A: couldn't stop laughing at how weird it was, or B: Had eyes bugging out and mouth a-gape? It's o.k., you can share, I won't make fun of you (...too much). :)