Friday, October 30, 2015

Soup Time

With the weather getting cooler, one of my favorite food times of the year is arriving, too.  I love to make soups!  They are forgiving, comforting, filling and fun to put together.  The hubs and I went to a wonderful restaurant, Bonnell's Fine Texas Cuisine, in Fort Worth last Saturday and enjoyed a spicy tomato soup.  I decided to make a similar one that would also be Paleo.

I did a little research and found two that sounded like they could be what I was looking for with a little bit of adapting...this one from Nom Nom Paleo and another from Everyday Paleo.  I'll make it a little spicier next time (we are Texans after all) but I was pretty pleased with the results.  I'm hoping you might enjoy it, too, so here's the recipe.


Nana's Cream of Tomato Soup


  • 28 ounce can of Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted diced tomatoes 
  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 6 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 T. fresh minced thyme or 1 tsp. dried thyme
  • 1 roasted jalapeño pepper, peeled, seeded and minced
  • 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
  • 1 cup of chicken broth
  • 8.5 ounce Aroy-D coconut milk
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Sauté the onion in the melted coconut oil over medium heat until softened.

Add the minced garlic, thyme and jalapeño and stir for 30 seconds until it is fragrant.

Dump the whole can of tomatoes, juice and all, into a high speed blender (such as a Vitamix) and blend on high until it is smooth. Pour half of the pureed tomatoes into a medium saucepan and add the softened aromatics to the remaining tomato puree in the Vitamix.

Next, blend the tomato puree and aromatics on high until the mixture is smooth, and then pour the contents of the blender into the saucepan, followed by the chicken broth and coconut milk. Turn the heat up to medium high and bring the mixture to a boil, and then, lower the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

This could form the basis for so many other soup ideas.  You'll probably see more along this line later.  In the meantime enjoy this soup on the cold winter nights that are ahead of us.

Until the next time...


Thursday, March 5, 2015

Whole 30, Week 1

I can't believe it's been almost three years since my last post.  A lot has happened in my life since then.  My husband retired, we sold a house, moved and then had a full year of high stress family events (our grandson was hit by a car, I lost my sister, my BIL had a serious accident in another state, etc.) to deal with.  All is good now, but I will not go back to my baking with the Tuesdays with Dorie group.  I really enjoyed it at the time but have since embarked on a Paleo lifestyle for numerous health reasons.  I started this journey about a year ago but have not been as faithful to it as I need to be in order to get the healthy results I'm looking for.  That being said, I have recommitted to Paleo as of March 1st and am planning to continue my little blog with a new direction.

On Sunday, March 1st, I started doing a new 30 days of extremely clean eating.  I am following Whole30 which is based on the book It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig.  The point is to get you out of some unhealthy habits.  The re-introduction of foods at the end is designed to help you identify any foods that might be causing problems for you.  There are many things you cannot have during the 30 days but there are so many amazing foods that you CAN have.  I am planning to post during my Whole30 and after regarding some of the delicious things that are possible on Whole30/Paleo, links to some other Paleo bloggers, recipe books, observations, and on occasion, a few family things.

My bookshelf has grown and I'm keeping my Paleo books right in the kitchen where they will be handy.



I follow several Facebook and Instagram Paleo links and I kept reading about the Instant Pot so I decided to order one and learn how to use it.  I've never used a pressure cooker and, quite frankly, I was pretty intimidated to try. It came yesterday and, after using it, I feel like it is easy and safe. We are having some unusually late wintry weather for Texas and woke up this morning to this:

.

So last night was a great night for soup and a great night to try out my new Instant Pot. 

One of the Paleo recipe gurus that I follow is Danielle Walker, author of Against all Grain and Meals Made Simple. On her blog she has a delicious recipe for Pressure Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup.  I made a few changes as I almost always will and I neglected to take a picture of my soup this time, but that just means you should mosey on over to her posting and take a peek. I promise I'll do better in the future though.  This soup is really tasty and flexible to your choice of vegetables.  I made the following changes:
  • I replaced the sweet potatoes with three parsnips,
  • added a package of frozen green beans and about a half cup of Hatch chilis from my freezer,
  • used 28 ounces of tomatoes, and
  • 4 cups of turkey stock (because that is what I had and because of the increased fluid from the tomatoes)
It made a great soup with plenty left for freezing for a rainy (or snowy) day.  It was just a bit mild for our Texas tastes so I will add a little more zip to it next time.

I'm glad to be back in the blogging world and looking forward to hearing your thoughts.