CARROT GINGER SOUP AND FOUR'EASTERS

This post contains affiliate links.

You know that glow you have when you return from vacation?

I'm not talking about a tan, although that's nice, too.

I mean that inner glow.........

The peaceful feeling that comes when you leave your usual surroundings
and forget about real life for awhile. 

Ah, if only we could hold onto that feeling indefinitely!

One thing I learned recently is ..........

The staying power of the inner glow is not relative 
to the amount of time you've been away.  
 

Whether you've been gone for a weekend or a month, 

that happy vacation feeling can be wiped out in a nanno-second.

After spending a month in Florida, 

driving home in a Bomb Cyclone (aka a nor'easter on steroids)

quickly faded our psychological suntans.

Little did we know that three more nor'easters 
were going to descend upon us in less than three weeks.

Yup, count 'em.......four nor'easters!
We thought we'd miss most of winter's angry weather
while we were away for the month of February,
but "four'easters" upon our return zapped that vacation "high" so completely,
it had us wondering........were we really away??? 
Or was it just a dream?

You know what they always say.........

When life gives you snowstorms, make soup.

I was thumbing through a new Wegman's catalogue,
and the soup recipes caught my eye.
I had already tried the Tomato Basil soup, and it was a success. 

During nor'easter #2 (or was it #3? I've lost track)
I gave the Carrot Ginger Soup a go.
It was really easy to make, and ready to eat in under an hour.
Would I make it if it wasn't? 😉

I was a little worried that Mr. Goo Shoes wouldn't like
a soup where carrots were the main attraction.
He can be picky, preferring the standards 
like chicken noodle, or New England clam chowder.

I placed a bowl in front of him, and waited.
Would he think it was a souper blooper or souper-dooper?

He liked it -- he really liked it!

It has a thick and creamy consistency,
yet each 1-cup serving has only 110 calories.
I can't tell you if it freezes well (although I can't imagine it wouldn't),
because we polished it off in three nights.
Carrot Ginger Soup is a keeper.

CARROT GINGER SOUP
(Recipe by Wegmans)

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
2 Stalks celery, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 White onion, peeled and chopped (about 2 cups)
2 Tbsp. Stir In Ginger Paste (afflil. link)
1 Container (32 oz.) chicken stock
1 Container (20 oz.) Wegman's Carrot Puree (or make your own carrot puree: 
Easy recipe here)
Salt and Pepper to taste 
Pumpkin seeds for garnish (optional)
Croutons (optional)

Heat oil in large stockpot on medium heat. 
Add celery and onions; cook 10 minutes, until softened.
Add ginger, stock, and carrot puree; stir to combine.
Bring to simmer 30 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Remove from heat.
Transfer mixture to blender; puree until smooth.  
Garnish with pumpkin seeds and add croutons, if desired.

Yield: 8 cups

All this bad weather threw me for a loop....
but it was all made better by a big pot of soup!

Linking with:
Best of the Weekend


You may also like: 

Tomato Basil Soup

Pumpkin Bisque

ORGANIC TOMATO BASIL SOUP: PLAYING THE "WEIGHTING" GAME

I was not compensated in any way by Wegman's or Flat Belly Diet for this post. 
There are, however, affiliate links for the Flat Belly Diet cookbook.

Do you play any "weight" games in order to keep yourself in check?

I'm fairly stable and stay pretty much 

within five pounds of my ideal weight. 

One thing that helps to keep me on top of 

the slow creep of poundage is weighing myself daily.

(My friend AnnMarie at Musings of A Vintage Junkie wrote a hilarious, 

and spot-on blog post about this recently......check it out here). 

 

If I don't do a daily weight check-in, I'm afraid I'll find myself on the Ignorance-Is-Bliss Diet, 

which would be fun......until I step on the scale and.......surprise!
I've put on 10 (no-wonder-I-can't-zip-my jeans) pounds.

My digital scale is finicky 
because it sits on an uneven slate bathroom floor.
This means my weight can vary by two or three pounds, 
just by sliding the scale a few inches to the left or right.  
I move it around to half a dozen spots until I get the lowest reading.
Come on, wouldn't you? 😉

I've often wondered about the scale's accuracy,
 so yesterday, I decided to experiment and see what happened 
when I moved the scale to Junior Goo Shoes' smooth bathroom floor.
I was hoping for a more accurate result -- 
and by accurate, I mean lower -- but.......

O. M. G. 
omg-omg-omg
Eight pounds heavier than in my bathroom?????

I told Mr. Goo Shoes that I almost had a heart attack 
when I saw what the scale said, and he replied,
"So put the scale back in our bathroom."
Ba-Dum-Bump. 
I could not stop laughing!
A soup-er solution, if I ever heard one
(I have to tie my story to the main reason for this post, somehow, don't I?). 

Apparently, Mr. Goo Shoes wasn't all that pleased 
with his smooth-floor weight, either. 

He told me was ready to jump on the Flat Belly Diet (affil. link) bandwagon. 
I've always had success with this diet,
and I pull it out of my weighting-game toy chest 
when I need to get serious. 

We started yesterday.

Or, rather, I started yesterday, and Mr. GS started right after breakfast.

After his bagel.
With cream cheese.

That's right, you heard me. 

And even starting with that bagel-disadvantage........my prediction?
He'll lose 20 pounds.......I'll lose 2. 
Why is dieting so much easier for men???

I was browsing the Wegman's website 
to find some flat-belly friendly recipes,
and came across Organic Tomato Basil Soup. 
If you know me, I'd rather do anything but cook,
but I do love making soup.
This one caught my eye because it was low fat, creamy without cream, 
and most importantly, easy! 
It took about an hour in total, and about a half-hour hands-on time.
That's a win right there. 

 The recipe makes a shissel full (that's Yiddish for a huge vat), 
which in this case is about 14 cups.
As much as I can eat the same thing several days in a row,
that's a whole lotta soup for just two people.
I froze some of it, and
it was just as delicious when defrosted and reheated.

I used the organic ingredients sold at Wegman's,
except for the EVOO and dried spices which I already had at home.
If your preference is non-organic, that's cool. 
It's not like it's going to taste any different!

Just a note - the recipe calls for the soup to be pureed with a stick blender,
but I just did it in batches in my regular blender. 

Try it, and let me know if you like it!

WEGMAN'S ORGANIC TOMATO SOUP

Recipe by Wegman's (click here for original recipe and nutritional information).

Yield: 14 cups

2 tbsp. organic extra-virgin olive oil

2 organic carrots, peeled, trimmed, 1/2-inch dice (about 1 cup)

2 (about 6 oz. each) organic onions peeled, 1/2-inch dice

2 stalks organic celery, trimmed, 1/2-inch dice (about 1 cup)

3 organic dried bay leaves 

1 can (6 oz.) organic tomato paste

1/3 cup organic brown basmati rice 

1/4 tsp. organic cayenne

1 tbsp. organic dried basil

2  containers (32 oz. each) organic vegetable broth

1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes in puree

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in stockpot on medium heat. Add carrots, onions and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, about eight minutes, until softened but not browned. Add bay leaves; cook, stirring, about 3-4 minutes.

Reduce heat to low. Add tomato paste; cook, stirring, 3-5 minutes. Add rice, cook, stirring about 2 minutes. Add cayenne, basil, broth, and crushed tomatoes; stir to combine. Increase heat to medium-high; bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low; simmer, 30-40 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat; discard bay leaves. 

Puree soup with a stick blender on low until smooth (I pureed the soup in batches in my regular blender).

Playing the "weighting game" has become a necessary fact of life for me.

It's a little more tolerable when 
I can fill up on low-fat foods that I actually enjoy.

Organic Tomato Basil Soup is a recipe "souper-star"  
and it will have a permanent slot in my winter recipe repertoire.
I'm filing it under "YUM!"

 

 You may also like:

Cabbage Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup

Turkey Noodle Soup

LINKING WITH:
Best of the Weekend
Wow Us Wednesday
Inspiration Monday
Metamorphosis Monday
Meatless Monday
Cooking and Crafting With J & J
Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party
Link It Up Wednesday
Share Your Style
Home & Garden Thursday

OLD BAY SHRIMP SALAD AND FAMILY DINNER TIME

 Does your family eat dinner together every night?

From the time I was a kid, dinner time was equated with family time.

It was important to me to continue this ritual throughout Junior Goo Shoes' childhood.

True, I was aware of the many studies which showed eating together as a family 
reaps a multitude of benefits, such as kids making healthier food choices,

being less likely to be depressed,

and decreasing the chance that they will turn to drugs and alcohol.

But in my house, it was also a matter of practicality. 

It was the only time of day that we were all together, 
and could sit down to share the details of our day.

Admittedly, those "details" from Junior Goo Shoes 
sometimes consisted of just one word -- "Good."

The nights when he was more verbose 
compensated for those meals of monosyllabic utterances.
And, not for nothing, it gave Junior GS a chance to hear about things 
that were important to us........
our political views, insights into what we were like in our younger days, 
our values, and the like.  
Sometimes, it was a chance to be plain old silly together.

Just before the end of the school year, 
 the dinner dynamic in our household began to change. 

"I won't be home for supper. I'm going out with my friends."
If I was lucky, I was told this early enough in the day to plan accordingly,

but more often than not, I'd be setting the table for three,

when Junior GS finally let me know it was one place setting too many.

This went on for a good week or two, and I became increasingly frustrated.  

If I prepared a meal for the three of us, undoubtedly he'd have other plans.  
If I assumed he wouldn't be home, 
it was a sure bet that he'd bound through the door, asking what was for dinner.

On one of these nights when I didn't know whether Junior GS would be home or not,

 Mr. GS said he felt like having a light supper..........

"Something like shrimp salad would be good."

I did a quick google-search for "something-like-shrimp-salad,"  

and, in the end, went with a recipe from Southern Living, but made a few modifications.

 I used more mayo than the recipe called for, and added worcestershire sauce for flavor. 

I knew Junior GS wouldn't eat anything-like-shrimp-salad,

so I kept some cooked shrimp on the side for him to eat plain, 
should he decide to grace us with his presence.

As it happened, he didn't eat home that night.

I mixed the shrimp I had set aside for him into the something-like-shrimp-salad,

which gave Mr. GS and I more than enough for two meals (yay, leftovers!).

Two things were made clear that night.

First, I'd be making this shrimp salad again and again - it was delish!

Second, I had enough of Junior GS' BS about dinner time.

So, I made a suggestion to him that went something like this:

"Since you work Monday - Thursday till 5pm, 
why don't you plan to have dinner with us on those nights?

One, you'll get a healthy meal into you, instead of eating Taco Bell seven nights a week;

Two, it's free. You won't have to spend half your paycheck on buying your own dinners;

Three, in a couple of months you'll be off to college, 
and nightly family dinners will be a thing of the past."

(True, this last one was a risk - 
I wasn't sure if it would be an opportunity for him to assert his independence).

Four, which remained unspoken, was that we hardly ever see him anymore, 

and I really missed the three of us having dinner time together.
A sappy sentiment from mom would have surely backfired.

Mr. Goo Shoes had a "good-luck-with-that" look on his face 
as I uttered my "Declaration of Mom-Dependence,"

but to our utter surprise, Junior GS simply said, "Okay."

And just like that, family dinners were back on the table, at least for four nights a week.

If you want the original shrimp salad recipe from Southern Living, click here.

If you want to take my word for it that this was the best 
some-thing-like-shrimp-salad I've had, follow my adaptation, below. 

OLD BAY SHRIMP SALAD
Recipe adapted from Southern Living


1 1/4 pound cooked shrimp, chopped
1/2 cup finely diced celery
1/3 cup finely diced onion
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 tsp old bay seasoning
1/4 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper
salt to taste 

Mix together shrimp and next six ingredients. 
Cover and chill 2 hours before serving. 

Today, as you ponder what to make for a light meal,

give this recipe a try.

It might just be the best something-like-shrimp-salad ever.  

LINKING WITH:
Best of the Weekend 
Home Sweet Home
Home and Garden Thursday  
Cooking and Crafting With J & J 
Metamorphosis Monday