Fall Flavors

I was in search of a recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash Soup the other day…

Normally, I’m not a huge squash fan but I was in the mood for something different and my neighbor gave me a Butternut Squash that I wanted to use.

In my online search, I discovered this wonderful food blog called, “Cookie and Kate,” Kate (Kathryne Taylor) cooks vegetarian meals while her dog, Cookie cleans up the crumbs!  🙂

I made the Roasted Butternut Squash soup last night – just love that gorgeous orange color, don’t you?

The soup was a bit bland for my taste so I added thyme, black pepper and Tabasco Sauce.  I tend to cook like I create… I rarely follow the recipe!  😉

While the Butternut squash was roasting in the oven, I tempted to watercolor the salad, a recipe I also found at CookieandKate.com

I LOVE the Fall flavors in the salad – BTW, I didn’t even taste the kale but you could substitute spinach.

You can find the recipe as Kale, Apple and Goat Cheese Salad with Granola Croutons.

I will be serving this salad for Thanksgiving dinner.  I like that I can limit the portion sizes to one or two servings or more – depending on how many people will be coming.

Hubby especially liked the Granola Croutons with oats, pecans, pumpkin and sunflower seeds:

I liked the easy Lemony Maple Mustand Salad Dressing too!

I enjoy trying new foods and recipes.  Kate has written a cookbook with colorful photos, called, “Love Real Food,”  I love cookbooks so I had to purchase it!  🙂

I eat at least one vegetarian meal each week, how about you?

If you give one of her recipes a try, I hope you share it with me!

Cheers! 🙂

Inspiralized!

Last week, I showed you this pasta salad that contained NO pasta – instead it contained zucchini!  I am totally amazed how GOOD this salad tasted!  Here is another photo of it, if you missed my post, here.

I had so much fun spiralizing my zucchini for this salad!  I’m now INSPIRALIZED!

I love this cookbook by Ali Maffucci – she also has a blog, Inspiralized.com

The recipe I adapted from her cookbook:

For the salad – Prepare in a large bowl:

2-3 medium zucchini  Note:  slice the zucchini about 1/2 inch through on opposite sides before spiralizing – I used the largest blade but any size would work – this just gives your “pasta” a half-moon shape.

1 cup artichoke hearts – I used whole ones in a can as I find them to be the most tender and then I cut them up.

One handful of cherry tomatoes, halved – I don’t measure these but use what I like.

1 cup diced sweet peppers – I used mini orange, red and yellow ones that I had in a bag.

1/4 cup of pepperoncini diced – the recipe called for red onion but I didn’t have any.

1/2 cup cubed Monterey Jack cheese – the recipe called for Provolone

3/4 cup diced salami

1/3 cup whole black olives, sliced in half

For the Salad Dressing – Whisk in a separate bowl:

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning or a mixture of dried oregano, basil and parsley

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Combine the dressing with the salad ingredients.  Toss to combine.  Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes – I did 2 hours for the zucchini to soften.

Serve chilled.

Enjoy!  🙂

What’s For Dinner?

I drew a quick sketch of my dinner yesterday evening in my art journal.  It was so delish!

What did you have for dinner last night?!

Cheers!  🙂

A Doodle Bowl

I’m trying to eat healthier in the new year.  I was inspired by a recent cookbook I purchased on meals in a bowl to create this doodle using Faber-Castell’s water-soluble pencils.

Below are shapes from my imagination but they do look like veggies to me:

After adding water with a paint brush, I think the doodle looks more complex:

Tomorrow I will add color – just for fun!

Enjoy your day!  Cheers! 🙂