So remember how I made breakfast nachos the other morning?  Well Hannah woke up with breakfast nachos on the brain, so she made them for me! šŸ˜€

I had a couple errands to run – Brandi, I finally shipped your package to you for your BSI win!   I also stopped by a small store to get new printer cartridges.   The woman that worked there and I were chatting – she asked about how my Thanksgiving was and I told her it was weird that I only had one guest and didn’t cook that much.

So we continue talking and she started telling me about the dishes she made, and I said “so you like to cook?”  She replied “I love it!”  I then handed her My Bizzy Kitchen business card for her to check out my blog.  Guess what – she’d never heard of a food blog before?!”   I think I’ve opened up a whole new world to her!

On the drive back home there were ducks everywhere!

I am actually going to be making my buffalo chicken chili today for one of my lunches this week, but in a pinch, I usually have a can or two of Hormel chili.  My lunch: 1 cup chili over a 5 ounce baked potato.

I continued my clean sweep of the house – Hannah was cleaning out our pantry and found a butternut squash I forgot I bought!  I decided to make soup. šŸ˜€

Curry Butternut Squash Soup (printer friendly version here)

Makes 4 servings (generous 1.5 cups:  111 calories, 1.9 fat, 23 carbs, 3.4 fiber and 2.6 protein)

A delicious balance of sweet from the squash and heat from the curry powder and sriracha sauce.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 granny smith apple, peeled and chopped
2 cups butternut squash
7 ounce potato
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
10 drops sriracha hot sauce

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 400. Cut butternut squash in half, put on a baking sheet with about 1 cup of water and cook, cut side down for 30 minutes. Let cool. Remove pulp and seeds from the middle.
  2. Meanwhile, heat oil in stock pot. Add diced apples and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally. Scoop out squash flesh and put in pot along with remaining ingredients.
  3. Cook until apples and potato are tender. Using a stick blender, puree soup until smooth.
saute the apples and garlic over medium heat with 1 tsp. olive oil
I love how the butternut squash almost carmelizes when baked – I didn’t weigh the squash before I cooked it, but I ended up with 2 cups of pulp

While I know sage and butternut squash go well together, my sage had turned.  I decided to use curry powder, tarragon and sriracha sauce for my seasonings.

a little curry goes a long way – start low and add more to taste
silky, smooth, complex šŸ˜€

I love this soup!

It has such complex flavors.  First spoonful, you taste the sweetness of the squash and apple, then the curry and sriracha finish it off – its the perfect balance of sweet and heat.  And only 2 WW points! šŸ˜€

Tony and I both had a taste for corned beef – I don’t know why we really only think about it around St. Patrick’s Day.  We bought Nathan’s brand corned beef because it looked really lean and it comes with its own seasoning packet.  You put the corned beef in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

My plate:  4 ounces rosemary potatoes, 1 cup sauerkraut and 4 ounces of corned beef.

at the table I dipped my corned beef into a pile of Dijon mustard šŸ˜€

So I was trying to think what to do with the leftovers . . . .I may have a reuben quiche in the oven right now!

I also found a soup to make using the last of our pork roast from Thanksgiving – a Mexican soup called Posole – a spicy soup that sounds right up my alley.

So its my last day of staycation.  I slept in until 9:30 this morning šŸ˜€  I got everything done that I wanted, relaxed, spent lots of time with Tony and Hannah – its going to be hard getting up tomorrow morning!

Enjoy your Sunday!