welcome fall...

On a chilled fall evening nothing is quite so homey as the warmth of a fire in the fireplace, the earthy sweet smell of a thick butternut squash soup and the spice of hot ginger tea simmering on the store beside it. In fact, it makes me want to stay up late and make more vegetable soups to stash in the freezer.  Easy peasy dinners for those late nights that happen more than we plan on.


But sadly, I am pretty sure that I am going to finish up this current batch.  Swap out one more load of laundry and then head to bed.  Tonight we fall backwards.  And as my body clock is already naturally set for 4:15 am, it's going to be a really early morning.

I modified a Roasted Butternut squash soup recipe tonight for dinner.  Needed to bring the fat grams down to something that fit the way we eat now.  But I didn't want to sacrifice any of the rich flavor.  A bit more time roasting, a slow saute on the veggies and a healthy dose of vegetable broth base, simmered until it's thick and rich.  Sprinkle in some Ceylon cinnamon, salt and pepper... serve with some sliced pears and a sprinkle of fat free feta or shaved Parmesan and YUM! So much so the grand baby, yes I am well aware that she is definitely not a baby anymore (note: she will always be MY baby!) took a full cup of it home for her dinner and I am pretty sure the daughter wanted to, but was afraid it was our dinner.

Hubs loved it so much that he requested another batch.  And as pureed soups (without cream) freeze fantastic, I decided to make a triple batch.  Some for the girls, some for me and the Hubs.  Pretty sure my "b" will love it too, she is also a soup girl.

I'm struggling to limit the eating out we do.  Not because we haven't found some good places over the past few weeks.  And honestly if you aren't afraid to ask, you can get them to modify just about anything on a menu. It's simply not the most nutritious, and who knows what really goes into that meal?

I haven't quite made the leap to meal prepping on the weekends, but I am slowly getting there.  I am also pretty sure that if Hubs and I don't have yummy, healthy meals, we won't be as eager to continue on this path.  We are changing habits, some of them life long. You should see us in a grocery store.  We read labels like crazy and most of the time we are freaked out over stuff we used to think was good for us, and now we quickly deposit back on the shelf.

Inadvertently we have gone to a mostly paleo/clean diet.  It wasn't intentional.  We still eat frozen custard and Hubs is a hero (with me and our girls) every time he surprises us with a batch of rice krispie treats.  Other than that, we limit processed foods, things we can't pronounce and honestly I don't know the last time I ate a store bought salad dressing.

We took a vacation day to tie in with the weekend, we were going to go visit Hub's sis down south, but that didn't end up working out.  So instead, we are squeezing in a few extra walks, and taking advantage of these beautiful early fall days.  Although I am getting more worried with each passing warm day, sooner or later Mother Nature is going to make us pay.

I harvested the last 4 tomatoes from my garden this afternoon.  It was a pretty pathetic garden.  I won't be planting one next year.  But I am sure they will taste fabulous with whatever I cook for tomorrow. I have a few quilts to work on and a baby afghan to finish up.  Then it will be time to start planning for our newest grand baby, her arrival will be here all too soon.

The soup is done, the laundry just chimed and it's 8:30 pm.  Time for me to go crawl into my nice cozy.  I've missed you...