Tuesday, Cook and Clean (my kitchen not KB's!)

Today is Tues. and I decided to take the morning off from yoga (I'll go this afternoon) and clean up the veggies in my fridge. I hate letting anything go bad so I cooked and prepped food for today and the next few days. I started early (7:00am) so of course I started eating early! Here's a list of the veggies I used up:

1 lg. onion
1 lb. shallots
5 parsnips
1 lg. rutabaga
5 stalks celery
5 carrots
1 bunch kale
1 lb. broccoli
1/2 head red cabbage
1 lg. butternut squash
2 pears
1 apple
2 heads of garlic
1/2 parsley

I started some ham and pea soup with onoin, carrot, celery, and parsley. Near the end (30 min. left to cook) I added the stems of the kale (chopped). And when the soup was done cooking I added the kale leaves, roughly chopped, to the soup, shut it off and put the lid on tight for 30 min.

After getting the soup going I roasted the lg butternut squash (cut in half) along with 2 pears and 1 apple (also cut in half, cut side down on lightly oiled pan) on the same roasting sheet. The squash took about 50 min. @ 375, I removed the apple and pears after about 30 min.

On another sheet pan I tossed 1 rutabaga, 5 parsnips and 1 lb of shallots along and a handful of garlic cloves peeled, with olive oil and a good amount of salt & pepper , then roasted them along with the others on another rack in the oven. (375 temp) All veggies were cut in a lg dice about the same size (the rutabaga and parsnips first were peeled). I also cut the top off of another head of garlic and roasted along with everything else, I like to use it in soups and salad dressings.

When all that was done, the soup simmering away, the veggies roasting in the oven, I went ahead and prepped my broccoli salad ingredients, and tuna salad, enough for 3 salads. Broccoli, red cabbage, carrot. I'll make the dressing and cut the red onion as I need it.

So now I have 3 quarts of ham and pea soup, broccoli salad for 3 days, squash and pears to make soup and, before I ate them for breakfast, I could of used the roasted veggies (parsnips, rutabaga, shallots and garlic) as a side dish or tossed them with spinach or sun dried tomato pasta (mostly for color), olive oil, parm cheese or goat cheese, for a super yummy dinner. I ate the roasted apple!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup w/ Pear

1 lg. butternut squash
2 pears (I used anjou)
chicken broth
2 tbl. heavy cream, opptional
S & P

Cut the squash and pears in half and place them cut side down on a lightly oiled sheet pan. Don't worry about the seeds or the cores you can remove them afterwards. You might choose to peel the pears first (I don't). Bake in an oven set at 375, 25-35 min. for the pears, and 40-50 min. for the squash. Time is estimated, just pierce with a knife to make sure that they are soft and cooked though. You may also want to throw some lg garlic cloves (lightly oiled) on the same pan if you want to add in that flavor.

Let everything cool 10-15 min. Scoop the seeds out of the squash, the squash out of it's skin, and the cores out of the pear (do not use the skin if it's still on). Put squash and pear into a food processer or blender along with enough chicken broth to get the consistency you like (1/4 cup to 1/2 c.). Taste for salt & pepper and reheat gently. Add heavy cream if you want to.

You can garnish this soup with chopped crystalized ginger or roast an extra pear, peeled, cut it lengthwise into thin slices and fan it out placing it on top of the soup. Enjoy!