Souper Sunday #9: Butternut Squash and Cauliflower Winter Soup

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Healthy, quick, easy, delicious, butternut-squashy.  Those are the words that best describe this soup.

 

This is another Pinterest 'win' that was literally decided on in my car after leaving Costco and arriving at the grocery store.  At Costco I had braved the cold refrigerated produce section of the store to grab some blackberries (totally out of season, I know, but they called to me), the new packaged kale salad that everyone is raving about (yet to try!), and a two-pound container of pre-cubed butternut squash.  At the grocery store I realized that I had no idea how I was going to use this much butternut squash, and with Souper Sunday looming, I used the Pinterest app on my iPhone to quickly search for a butternut squash soup recipe that had other vegetables in it too.  I already have my own personal favourite pureed butternut squash soup recipe (recipe here), so I wanted to try something a little bit different.  I found this recipe, originally pinned from Cookin Canuck website, and it's a winner.

Lemongrass and Chili Beef in Cucumber Cups

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Refreshing and delicious.

 

My brother and his girlfriend are on the caveman/paleo diet.  And at their house for dinner last Sunday night, so were we.  And, wow, was it ever an amazing dinner.  I didn't know that cavemen ate cayenne pepper infused chocolate cake (so good - I will post the recipe once I get it) or sweet potato soufflé with roast beef, or dairy-free spinach and artichoke dip made with cashew cream instead of milk.

Souper Sunday #8: Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

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This mushroom soup is extremely delicious.

 

My girlfriends and I are lucky to have a friend name Cleary whose parents have a beautiful vacation home in Sechelt, where we relaxed this weekend.  And when I say beautiful, I mean:

Souper Sunday #7: Black Bean Soup

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You know what's the best?

 

When the province that you live in decides to add a new statutory holiday this year, and it's tomorrow.

Also the best?  A super sunny warm day in February on this new long weekend.

And up there with the best things ever too?  Not having a hangover after your brother-in-law's surprise 30th birthday last night where you were drinking tequila, on this super sunny warm day in February, on this new long weekend.

My Granny's Sweet & Sour Meatballs

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This one reminds me of my childhood.  

 

I've been waiting to post this recipe for a long, long time.  Sorry to my brother, who has been waiting to get it from me.  But see, we got a new computer, and the pictures were on the old computer.  And so, it would have required me to plug in the old computer to get a charge going, and then upload the photos from there.  Which would have taken like five minutes or maybe even a little bit more than five minutes.  So, it's understandable.

Growing up, my grandparents lived in Victoria, but as my brother and I got a little bit older, my Granny and Grandpa moved to a home about seven minutes away from our house.  My dad was their only child, and thus my brother and I were their only grandchildren, so we were a tad spoiled by them.  Actually, no, not spoiled, just loved.  A lot.  It was a nice feeling to have my grandparents at things like my softball games or piano recitals, or at my brother's lacrosse games.  We felt like we were their entire world.    

Souper Sunday #6: Italian Sausage Soup

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I'm still not getting tired of soup (eating or making).

What I love in particular about soup today is that I basically was able to just take everything that was already in my fridge, chop it up, and throw it into a pot.  The Italian sausage and spinach were leftovers from a delicious Italian Sausage and Tomato Risotto that I made last night for dinner.  It's one of The Hubby's favourite things to eat, and we were having his parents over for dinner and cards, so I let his dreams become a reality.  I'm a risotto dream-maker.  It's just what I do.

Pasta With Arrabiata Sauce

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This was my my favourite pasta sauce to eat when I was in Italy last year.  When I wasn't gluten-free yet, aka the good old days.

 

And now, here it is, in my kitchen in Canada, on gluten-free pasta.  But I have to say, the quinoa/corn blend pasta that I use tastes fairly identical to wheat pasta, and this sauce recipe tastes fairly identical to what I became slightly obsessed with in Italy.  I hear that Costco, my favourite store in the world, is now selling a gigantic bag of quinoa/corn blend pasta...looking forward to my visit there this weekend!  Woo.

'Arrabiata.'  It means 'angry' in Italian, and the reason for the sauce being labelled with this name is because of the spice of the red pepper flakes.  At the restaurants that I ate at in Italy, Arrabiata meant a spicy red sauce with chunks of pancetta in it.  Back home, it seems to just mean a spicy red sauce, and an Amatricana sauce is the one that has the pancetta chunks.  I was happy when I stumbled across this Giada de Laurentiis recipe for Arrabiata sauce from my copy of her Everyday Pasta cookbook, because it combined both the spice of the red pepper flakes and the pancetta like I remembered.

Basic Marinara Sauce

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Here is a simple recipe for a basic marinara sauce that I made from my Giada De Laurentiis 'Everyday Pasta' cookbook.  This is a great cookbook that I highly recommend for the simple and delicious pasta recipes.  The marinara sauce is great as a base for Giada's Arrabiata Sauce recipe.

Yum.  Salivating.  Sexy.

 

Souper Sunday #5: 'Get Well Soon' Soup

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It seems like everyone that I know is sick right now.

 

...or has just been sick this week or feels like they are getting sick.  I would fall into the latter category.  Ugh.  I hate the anticipation.

So, I thought it would be appropriate to make a classic chicken noodle soup for this week's Souper Sunday.  You know...carrots, celery, onion, chicken, noodles, broth, herbs...pretty standard stuff.  It's a feel-good kind of soup.  I'm sure everyone already has their own recipe for chicken noodle soup, but if not you can always borrow this one.

Butternut Squash and Italian Sausage Lasagna with Sage

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When company's coming and you want to fuss a little bit...

 

Make this!

I fricking love Emeril.  Seriously, he has never let me down.  And you know who loves him more than me?  The Hubby.  He gets very excited when Emeril is on Top Chef, and very excited when we have gone to his restaurant NOLA (where we purchased a cookbook), and also very excited to eat anything that comes from an Emeril cookbook...including this lasagna, which quite frankly I was worried about serving to him.

Maybe it was the cooked apple (The Hubby hates 'warm fruit,' including in pies).  Or maybe it was the butternut squash (he doesn't really enjoy butternut squash when it's 'cube-shaped'...seriously, you can't make this stuff up).  Or maybe it was the cinnamon and hazelnuts (these would definitely be weird ingredients in a lasagna in The Hubby's eyes, and fair enough).  As I was preparing to dice the apple to cook it with the fennel, sausage, and onion, I was a little nervous that he would walk into the kitchen and see what was happening.  I even directed him to a different part of the house, which worked for a little while, but of course he eventually did walk in...but somehow didn't notice!  Phewf.

Souper Sunday #4: Light Tomato-Based Fish Soup

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Here is a good way to use up that bag of Costco frozen fish in the back of your freezer.  Just me?

 

Speaking of which, we got our first Costco 2% rebate cheque in the mail this week ($49.95!) since upgrading to the Executive membership, which kind of feels a bit like winning.  Which I like to do, because of a slight competitive streak in me.  For instance, when all of the blocks of cheese at the grocery store are marked at a flat price even though they are all of slightly different weights, The Hubby and I will on occasion compete for who can find the heaviest block of cheese, which definitely kind of feels like winning the cheese.  The Hubby and I also did a big shop at Superstore today and if you spent over $150 you got a free case of mangoes.  You better believe we were winning those mangoes too!  Woo doggies...we filled that cart up good!  (Why yes Hubs, you may purchase that $6 double box of frozen pizza.  And yes, please be my guest and place that chocolate milk into our cart.)  So now we have a big case of mangoes!  I'm not really sure what to do with it, but it's ours, and we totally rocked at earning it!  I am now welcoming mango recipes please.

Mustard Chicken

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I told you that I had a lot of chicken recipes to post in January.

 

Only thing is, I made this in November and just never got around to posting it...oops.  Until now!  Mustard Chicken...sounds kind of weird, but it is really, really, really good.  I'm sure it's even better if you are not two drinks in when you try to follow the recipe directions.

Souper Sunday #3: Curried Chicken and Rice Soup

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This...I should have doubled this.  Or tripled would have been good too.

 

Once in awhile, a soup comes along that really makes The Hubby happy.  This, my friends, is that kind of soup.  The only thing is that it only made 3 - 4 servings, making this a 'must-double' soup for the future, and 'why didn't I double that?' soup of today.  Either way, it's a keeper.

Here it is, Souper Sunday again, and this post is coming in hot and fast at 11pm on Sunday night.  Which still counts.  Today was a domestic kind of a day...grocery shopping, recipe drooling, soup making, house cleaning, errand running, healthy seafood dinner serving, laundry doing, cookie baking, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo watching.  Nice little Sunday.

Souper Sunday #2: Easy-Peasy Cauliflower Cheesy Soup

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The actual name of the recipe is Cauliflower Cheese Soup, but I decided to be a bit of a free-wheelin' rhymer today.

 

It's Souper Sunday again!  Just like I promised it would be Souper Sunday every Sunday from here on out, and never thought twice about it again even when it was suddenly Sunday already and I had to make another soup.  Just.  Like.  That.  I feel like it's going to be hard to stick to this Souper Sunday regime, but I am going to try my best.  The end results are so rewarding, and also my panic about never being able to make every soup recipe in the world before I die also subsides a little.

Meyer Lemon Chicken Piccata

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I'm on a bit of a chicken kick.

 

...as in I have eaten chicken every night for dinner this week.  As in there are going to be a lot of posts on the blog about chicken in January.  As in I even let The Hubby drag me to Swiss Chalet this weekend for the first time in my life (my mom says this is a lie and that I went once as a kid too...must have blocked it out) and ate all of the following:  1/4 chicken (dark meat) with a side of Chalet sauce, 1/3 rack BBQ ribs, side of cole slaw, extra-large side of poutine (I knooooooow) with Chalet sauce instead of gravy (keeping it gluten-free even at times like these), and a glass of white wine.