Nayu's Recipes #14 Souptastic Part 1!

I made this!

Apologies to those who follow me on Twitter - link is on the right if you don't follow me. This post is a longer version on the weekend's tweets. For the benefit of those who aren't Twitter followers (I honestly don't mind if you aren't), over the weekend I was busy soup making, using the soup boxes from Abel and Cole, who don't sponsor me in any way. I'm loving the variety of their soup boxes, which includes 2 soups that for me provides 3 meals per soup recipe. The recipes are easy to follow, prep time can take a long time for me because of my general fatigue level and hand/arm weaknesses, so I do it all first rather than between steps of the soup as is suggested in the recipe.The post took a bit longer than anticipated to put together so it's in 2 parts as I  need to rest today. 

Whereas my recipe food usually has a recipe, because this was provided for me I don't think I'm able to share it with you. It may be on their website though!

Usually I do not cook 2 days in a row because it is super tiring (or should that be souper tiring?!) which is why I haven't blogged this week, but on that occasion it was simply easier to do it. Be warned tumeric can mildly stain your blender jug! I'm careful to take it out quickly but on this occasion the jug didn't fair so well. It's fine though, still works the same. 

Let's start!

The first soup was Persian Herb and Golden Beet Broth with salted yogurt. The melon isn't in the dish so please ignore it! The prep time was on the long side because there was so much to cut up. I think it said to grate the ingredients, but because I was whizzing it up in the blender before serving I didn't bother. A lot of the soups aren't blitzed but I hate lumpy soup, it makes me think it should be a stew or something, so I blitz it. I didn't think the golden beetroot would stain, since it's not the usual purple kind, it did a bit but nothing that couldn't be removed. 

 The tumeric is on the foil - to reduce staining and smells I always cut tumeric and garlic with foil on top of the chopping board. The cooking time was quite reasonable despite all the veg being small, because it needed a lot of simmering to let the flavours develop. It did give me inklings of ideas for future soup 

Not the Splatoon 2 kind of inkling girls!

Next up is what it looked like before blitzing: 

Yummy! Wish technology could provide smells....

then here's what I ate -- the yogurt dressing made it sublime! Next time I will add more beets as it was quite thin, but this is expected because it was meant to be veg in a broth, not a traditional soup. 

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!

 I reused the herb bags for the soup destined for the freezer.

I fully recommend these soups, they are teaching me which flavours go together which is useful for future creations. I mainly stick with recipe boxes in the winter because it although it takes me energy to cook, I know the ingredients are high quality, providing lots of vitamins that everyone needs. That's also why I have the smoothie boxes too, which create 3 smoothies per box. More on them in future posts - I hope you look forward to part 2! Let me know if you've made soup recently, and/or if you've ever tried similar soup organic boxes! 

Nayu's Craft Time #296 Vegetable medley!

a weekend of veggie action! (not my bag)

I've been offline more or less the last few days because I've been busy, rather than being ill. I did the usual groceries on Friday, which is a major task for me so rest is needed. Saturday I then cooked most of the veg for the freezer. While I do buy frozen mixed veg because it's quick and easy to cook, highly important when I don't feel well, I do like to make my own varieties too. I could have done with a pick axe though! Here's the culprit: 

the innocent looking swede! It was for some carrot and swede mash which I used to have a lot when I was younger. Now I know why I don't have it a lot! 

swede and carrot mash looks like this - this isn't my picture. Unsure if it's a traditional English dish or not.

It was as hard to cut as the red onion squash (yes it's really called that) I hacked on Sunday for a super tasty soup. 

It certainly wasn't red, maybe the name is because it has the shape of an onion (just an awful lot bigger than standard onions)

They are so hard to chop up! Will get help cutting them in the future, as it did my hands in, though thankfully not so badly I couldn't game. After 3 consecutive days of activity yesterday was spent reading and gaming - I prefer to alternate activity days with rest days, but it's just the way the weekend turned out to have none. Craft hasn't happened because the squash and swede hacking did my weak hands/arms no  favours but I'll be getting back into it by the end of this week. I've several projects I want to get back into ^u^ 

I usually don't talk about what goes on in the news, but please can you spare a thought/prayer for those affected by disasters of any size, although in particular those in Florida affected by the recent hurricanes. Today I found out a friend who I've known over 10 years now is safe, as is her family,  both human and furbabies, but her  home was completely destroyed in Panama City. 

I didn't know much about it, Googled it and it is absolutely awful. It's hard being a continent away. I can't even begin to imagine how horrendous the situation is, having to deal with the immediate infrastructure issues, trying to get her home rebuilt. She does have accommodation, which is something. Natural disasters have always been something that happens to people I don't know, which is awful to hear about but it's harder when it's personal. 

Nayu's Craft Time #262 Postal Competition (That isn't an NCD competition)

Still dreaming of an American style post box!

Sorry if the title is misleading - this isn't a competition to do with the postal service! It's basically because yesterday I saw 1 postman with shorts on. I asked if he was cold and he said no, and that he can't lose against our other postman. I saw the other one today and yes, he was wearing shorts too! I guess if they are moving around a lot they will stay warm, and since they keep wrapped up with scarf and gloves they may not feel the cold so much, though I still feel a bit sorry for them, even though it's self-inflicted. 

I'm staying nice and toasty inside! The colder weather has begun in earnest, so lots of rest is happening while my body goes on strike. I managed to bake a super yummy vegetable dish yesterday: peas + sweetcorn + baked potato + broccoli + beansprouts + bechemal (white) sauce = winter warmer meal! I haven't got a picture yet - will add one in the next post, but it's delicious (included stock cube & grated mild chedder cheese), and I'm having it for lunch today! (I eat my main meal at lunch)

Too perfect to be my picture! Plus I didn't add herbs.

 Will post my recipe when I do get a picture, but you can put whatever veg you like in (& I guess add meat if you want). I simply Googled a white sauce recipe as I haven't made one for yonks, cut up the potato and broccoli super small, (not quite as small as the peas and sweetcorn), cooked everything in the microwave for speed (separately but only takes a few minutes unlike the many more minutes if I'd cooked it on the hob. My kind of cooking is super fast!), made the sauce then mixed it together! Simple! 

I've been busy working on jigsaw puzzles, something I'll discuss in the next post. Until then...