Adventures in Nutrition
For one of my first “trying to only eat healthy/organic/from a farmers market” meals, I attempted to make a Gazpacho soup recipe (from the Co-op) and bake a squash. Sounds great, right?
The recipe was easy enough: fresh tomatoes, crushed, with a cucumber sliced small (supposed to be food-processed, but we don’t own such an appliance, so I painfully cut it into what I thought were skinny enough pieces), shredded carrots (didn’t really know how to do this either so I just used the carrot peeler… which makes for very thin shreds of carrots, but I guess that works), some white beans, and other miscellaneous healthy items.
Things were going well until I gave the tomatoes to my husband to break up to put in the soup. Our blender doesn’t exactly work anymore, so he “pulsed” them… the only setting that works anymore. Problem? That makes for a very “frothy” outcome. See picture of end product below.
In addition, my squash turned out HORRIBLE. I’m not sure what kind it was (longer, muted yellow), but thought I had googled a fail-proof baking recipe for it. Wrong. It wasn’t even edible.
I was devastated. I had such glorious hopes for the meal, and it turned out awful. Seriously. Look at the soup again. You’d feel defeated as well. My husband, who knows me too well, said something like “let me see what I can do”, whisked it away — and LOOK what he was able to create!
Our first “completely healthy/organic/from a farmers market” meal – YEAH!!
Other adventures: I’ve since cooked THREE squash. First one, here, rubbery and inedible. Second, better, but my body nearly threw up as I took the last two bites (I was TRYING to like it!). My mother-in-law heard about our dislike of squash and cooked an amazing buttercup squash at her place one evening – wow, it was actually delicious! So, my THIRD attempt, with her steam baking instructions on-hand, turned out absolutely fabulous. I’m so excited! Best yet, I really like the vegetable & it makes great tasting & easy leftovers.
Last side note: Don’t think that I’m able to do the “completely healthy” thing all the time… I still definitely fall down some times, but with each day I’m getting better. Giving up all of the fabulous tasting sweets isn’t easy…
And in case you’re wondering, I’ve found the best way to cook a squash is to: cut in half, clean out the middle, lay it facing down in a pan filled with about a 1/2 inch of water, covering pan with tin foil, and baking it for about an hour :). Tiny bit of butter and/or salt and pepper afterwards. Yum!
