Monday, January 18, 2010

simple celery soup

Live in Snow Country? Feeling a bit chilled? This soup will warm your tummy, and even if you don't particularly care for celery, will make your taste buds verrrrry happy.

Adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, this has been Mamatouille-messed-with and now I'm sure has a completely different cellular composition than what BH & G started with. Anyway, try it and see if you like it - it's a bit vague so just play as you go.

You'll need:
  • celery, about 4 cups chopped
  • 1 or 2 onions, chopped
  • water, about 1.5 cups
  • chicken stock cubes - maybe 3 or so?
  • chopped parsley, to taste
  • white pepper, to taste

For the thin white sauce:
  • 3 T. butter
  • 3 T. flour
  • 3 cups milk
Do this:

In a stock pot, boil the celery and onions till tender in some water and chicken stock cubes. In a separate small pan, make the white sauce (I like to use a wire whisk so the flour doesn't clump) by melting the butter, adding the flour bit by bit, stirring with the wire whisk, and then gradually adding the milk and stirring till thickened a bit. This will be thin so don't worry if you can't make a sidewalk with it.

Using a hand blender (immersion blender) or regular blender, blitz the celery, onions, and cooking water till almost smooth. Pour in the white sauce and taste for seasonings, throwing in a bit of chopped parsley and some ground white pepper. You shouldn't need any extra salt because of the highly salty stock cubes, but use your own personal judgment. You're a smart cookie - you can do it.

As you can see from the photo, our kiddiewinks love this, and I'll bet yours will, too.

Monday, January 11, 2010

happy healthy new year and a lime green smoothie

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu (happy new year)!

We're well into our second month of green smoothies and we're feeling re-energized and recharged in the new year.

Here's my latest Mamatouille made-up concoction - just blend fresh lime juice, fresh pineapple, clementines, honey, spinach, carrots, grapefruit juice, banana, flaxseed meal, and wheat germ. Zesty and refreshing!

I make at least one batch of green smoothie every day and it's usually gone in a matter of minutes. And every time it's a different blend, just using whatever I have on hand.

Have a gander at concoctions I've blended in the past:
If you've got little beans in your household, I guarantee you they will hoover this stuff down - and using a straw makes it even more fun!