Veggie Stuffed Flax Bread

      Delicious, veggie filled, and fancy looking; this dinner centerpiece is easier than it looks.

       I took the easy way out and bought the bread.  Buy (or make) the biggest, roundest loaf you can find. 

Filling ingredients:
- zucchini
- squash
- onion
- shitake mushrooms
- turnip
- red bell pepper
- basil pesto
- rosemary, pepper, garlic

      I can't give specific amounts because it depends on the size bread loaf you have.  I used one of everything and about 2/3 cup of diced mushrooms.

      Dice the onion and let it sit.

      Slice the zucchini, squash, red pepper, and turnip lengthwise into wide slices.  Lay the slices out on lightly oiled cookie sheets, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary, garlic, and pepper.  The red pepper should be skin side up.

       Broil on high until it starts to brown.  In the meantime, dice the mushrooms and sautee them with the onions until the onions start to become translucent.  Cut the top off the bread and hollow our the loaf.  Save that bread to make my delicious homemade rosemary stuffing later!  Spread the inside of the loaf, including the top, with pesto.

      Once all the veggies are broiled and the mushrooms and onions sauteed, you just layer everything into the bread (with tongs! Don't burn yourself!).  Once the bread is stuffed with veggies, put the top back on and bake at 350 for just a few minutes, you don't want the bread to get to hard.

       Slice with a sharp knife to show off your creation!

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!