Savory Squash Soup

    I love Fall and I love cooking seasonally.   I've already talked about pumpkin in a couple of posts, but squash is another wonderfully versatile Fall staple.  Plus, since it keeps for so long, it's easy to keep on hand. And this recipe turned out amazing. Seriously, I can't exaggerate it. This is a must try!

      A couple weeks ago, one of our favorite farms at the Farmer's Market had a beautiful selection of squashes, and we had to grab a few.  Since then, they've been making such a beautiful centerpiece all arranged in a great big bowl with some onions and sweet potatoes, I was almost hesitant to use them!  But I'm sure glad I did!  This soup is unbelievable.
      MacGyver has always been a big fan of squash soup.  Actually, MacGyver is really a big fan of soup in general.  I like to try to do a lot of different things with squash, but soup remains the standby.  We typically do two different squash soups: one savory one, which I'll detail here, and one sweet one that also has apples in it.  Both are delicious.
      Tonight, I used one butternut and one acorn squash, but you could use two of the same or incorporate any number of other fall squashes, though I recommend against using spaghetti squash. I cut the squashes in half and steamed them for 10-15 minutes to soften them up. In the meantime, I chopped up an onion and a large leftover sweet potato we got from the same Farmer's Market.  I went out and picked some rosemary and oregano from the garden.  I can't express how much I love garden fresh herbs and how happy it makes me to hop outside while I'm cooking and grab ingredients.

      I tossed the diced sweet potato, onion, rosemary, and oregano in a small amount of olive oil, spread them in a pan, and broiled them until the potatoes had softened and were just starting to brown.

      Once the sweet potatoes were starting to soften, I added the squashes to the pan and stuck it back in to bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or so.

      Once I felt that everything was nicely roasted and the squashes were cooked through, I transferred everything into the food processor (scooping the squashes out of their skins).

      I blended everything up, adding low sodium organic veggie broth until it reached the desired consistancy (I'd estimate about 3 cups of broth).

      At this point, you could serve straight from the blender/food processor since everything's still hot from broiling, but I moved it all into a pot to keep hot since it wasn't quite dinner time yet.

      This soup was a smash hit. I highly recommend it (as do MacGyver, Punky, and Flintstone). Steaming the squash at the beginning is not a necessary step, but I find it easier to scoop out the squashes that way. You could also cube the squashes raw in the beginning.

      You should totally try this hearty, healthy, delicious winter soup! And let me know if you do!

Pumpkin Spice Latte

      We've already thoroughly discussed the fact that I am completely in love with Fall. One of my favorite parts of Fall is Fall flavored things - like the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks!

       Now, I have a deep love for Starbucks. Their coffee is all Fair Trade/Equal Exchange and they treat their employees very well. But I do have a problem with the amount of sugar (and lack of pumpkin!) In Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte.

       So I set out to make it for myself. I found one recipe online, but it was a bit complicated and I didn't really like it.  What I came up with is much simpler:

Ingredients:
1 Can Pumpkin (I used Farmer's Market brand Organic)
2 cups fair trade/equal exchange coffee (I used Full Circle Ecothentic Blend)
1 cup Almond Milk (if you use regular milk, please use Organic Valley, but Almond milk has a better texture and flavor for this recipe)
Cinnamon, Allspice,  and Ginger (or whatever your preferred pumpkin spice recipe is)
Agave nectar (you can also use brown sugar or another sweetener, but agave nectar works perfectly for this and is lower glycemic index than sugar)

      Combine all the ingredients in a blender (adjusting the spices and agave nectar to taste), blend and enjoy!  Pour into a pot and simmer gently until you reach the desired texture.  Added bonus: all the pumpkin nutritional goodness!

      If you try this recipe out, feel free to send me the $4.95 you saved by not going to Starbucks ;-)