Rhonda's Easy Carrot Ginger Soup

A couple of weeks ago I was in West Orange, NJ at a restaurant and tasted the best Carrot Ginger soup ever!  However it was clear that it was filled with butter and heavy cream.  I have been on a quest to find a recipe that excludes the dairy but keeps the rich taste.  I am sad to say I could not find one, but happy to say I created my own and it is BETTER than the original, if I must say so myself.  I put a couple of surprises in there to create the texture of the "heavy" soup without the calories (sweet potato and coconut milk).  I used all organic veggies too!  At the end I have some recommendations on how to cut the calories - although I don't think its very high in calories (maybe the olive oil and coconut milk contribute but its far less than butter and heavy cream).  Sorry for the crappy photo, next time I won't use my cell phone.

Rhonda's Easy Carrot Ginger Soup

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of fresh garlic chopped

1/2 large white onion chopped 

2 thumbs of fresh ginger sliced thin (take the outer skin off first)

2 lbs. carrots 

4 cups low sodium vegetable broth

1 large sweet potato

8 oz. light coconut milk @ room temperature (I used the Trader Joe's brand which comes in a can)

In a large stock pot heat the olive oil and add the garlic, onion and ginger over medium heat until they are translucent.  While those are cooking skin the carrots and sweet potato and cut them into large chunks.  Once the veggies are translucent add the carrots, sweet potato and vegetable broth to the pot and cook on medium heat until you can break the carrots apart easily with a fork (I cooked mine for about an hour and 1/2).  

When it is done transfer the contents of the pot to a blender (do this in small batches and never fill the blender more than 1/2 full each time).  In each batch (I did mine in 2 batches) add 4 oz of coconut.  Be careful when blending HOT liquids!  Blend until smooth and transfer to another pot or large bowl.  Blend next batch, adding the final 4 oz of coconut milk and add to the pot/bowl where the first batch is.  Stir to mix batches and serve.

You will notice I added no salt or other spices.  This recipe without the spices was very very good, the ginger, onion and garlic was enough.  You may add spices such as nutmeg, all-spice, or pepper.  Additionally to reduce calories you can decrease the amount of olive oil used to 1/8 cup or swap the coconut milk for rice, almond or soy milk.  

Please let me know how you enjoy it!

This Journey is All Mine!

Rhonda

It Ain't Easy Being Green!

I've never had a green thumb and green isn't even my favorite color, but I thought I could at least try composting at home and succeed.  Two years ago my daughter's school began composting and of course she shared lots of info with me and "suggested" that we try it at home.

Fast forward 2 years......I buy a counter top composter, a book on composting, and I think I am off to a good start.  My first contribution to the composter were the scraps from a fruit salad I made for a potluck.  Watermelon, honeydew and cantalope rinds are all thrown into the composter, along with some peppermint leaves and lemon peels.  I read that I should add both green and brown matter but after the rinds were added there was no room for brown.  I figured I'd let it "decompose" a little before adding the brown.

Fast forward 2 weeks....I am just back from a weeklong vacation in Barbados, I walk into the kitchen and I see fruit flies EVERYWHERE!  What in the heck is going on?  Initially I think I left something in the trash, or maybe the in sink-garbage disposal had scraps in it.  I am swatting fruit flies and itching at the same time!  Did I already say how much I hate bugs (especially flying bugs)??  Then I remember - the counter top COMPOSTER!  OMG - what did I do wrong?  Of course I do the unthinkable - I open the top of the composter and the composter is FULL OF FRUIT-FLIES!  I slam the top back down, but not after a million of them escape to freedom in my kitchen - now I am really itching!  I start spraying my "eco-friendly" cleaning products that also claim to kill mosquitos and other flying bugs and the fruit flies laugh at me while they fly all over the kitchen doing the "I've escaped from jail" dance.

Now I have to get the damn composter out of the house without the flies crawling on me and without letting anymore escape.  Immediately I envision tripping and dropping the composter and the other 50 million fruit flies escaping and taking over my house.  I'd certainly put the house on the market because we could not co-exist in this house and clearly the eco-friendly cleaning product people are liars so maybe I could sell the house to them to retest their products - that don't kill people OR fruit-flies!

I get it outside to the backyard and run for my life, back in the house, and slam the door behind me!  I have FAILED at composting!  I grab the "how to compost book" and nowhere does it say that this will happen.  Now I am on the internet looking for solutions to get rid of the fruit-flies without killing myself or my daughter with toxic fumes.  I really want to go buy 10 Raid foggers, set'em off, and come back in a month.  All results in Google point to apple cider vinegar.  So I put some in a spray bottle and I start spraying.....the fruit flies are still singing, laughing, and dancing in my kitchen.  OK, none of the posts said to spray it but I thought I'd try it.  Now I am following directions.  Put some vinegar in a jar with warm water, put plastic wrap on top, secure with a rubber band, polk holes in the top and they will go in, won't be able to get out, and drown in the vinegar water solution.  I do this, wait an hour and I have caught about 40 of them (40 out of 400 million - because in my mind they are multiplying FAST!!).  So I dump that solution and make more.  I wait an hour and no more fall for the trick - these fruit flies are INTELLIGENT, I am in trouble!  So now I am headed to the grocery store to buy BLEACH and plastic gloves!  I never ever buy bleach, remember I am trying to go green and 3 years ago I removed all the toxins and carcinogens from the house.  But today I am buying bleach because it kills everything!  I wash down all of the counter tops with bleach water solution - how could trying to do good come to this?  I am so tired I go to bed when I am done and pray that all of the fruit flies die a horrible death by morning.  Morning comes and 1.5 million of them are gone but there are still 1/2 million hiding somewhere in the kitchen.  Every now and then 1 flies past me saying *nah nah na nah nah!" BASTARD!  I am being run out of my house by these itty bitty pests! UGH!

Needless to say a day later I still see 1 or 2 fly around the kitchen.  I went to Home Depot this evening on my way home from work and guess what - ALL THE FOGGERS WERE GONE!  I feel better, someone else failed at composting too!  So I opt for a pet friendly, child friendly flying bug spray with peppermint oil, cinnamon oil, and some other stuff that makes me think it won't work.  I walk in the door prepared to go to war with the can ready to spray.  Initially I don't see any! Damn!  the fruit fly homeland security called the house and warned them!  Well, wherever they are hiding I will get them, I am armed and not afraid to use my ammunition! But one thing for sure, it will be a LONG TIME before I try composting again - It ain't easy being GREEN!

This Journey is All Mine!

Rhonda