Good Lord! Does that Woman Do Anything Other than Make Soup?

Um no! Just kidding! Last year I realized that I ate soup practically everday, even through summer. Soup isn't considered a 'summer' meal. Oh, I guess there are cold soups, fruit soups, gazpacho and such, then there are lighter soups and seafood soups, and corn chower has to be a summer soup since summer is corn season. But for the most part no one is thinking soup in the summer time. If you would of told me that I'd be eating soup everyday a couple of years ago I would not have believed it, in fact I think I can safely say that I probably had gone years, if not a decade at a time never eating a bowl of soup, and I can guarantee never a 'homemade' bowl of soup!

So why do I eat so much soup? Well the reasons why I start eating a certain way, are not always the reasons why I stay eating that way, and I'll save you the whole boring story for another blogpost because I think I can make some important points, but in a nutshell, I started making and eating soup for the 2 simple reasons.....I could eat alot for few calories, and it could be pre-made in quantitiy. (That's why I have 12 stinkin' quarts of soup in my freezer right now, and 3 quarts in my fridge lol! but anyway....)

I realize, because I remember, that soup never sounded appetizing to me when most of the foods I was eating were processed, which is how most of the people in this country eat, so I'm not surprised if eating soup everyday isn't what most people aspire to, but all I have to say about that is that it's a shame. But when your taste palate gets abused by over-flavored, over-sugared-, over-salted, over-processed foods, it's hard to appreciate even the most flavorful homemade vegetable soup.

The soup pictured above is what I call Stem and Leaf Soup! I made 1 quart of soup using the stems and leaves of 3 cauliflower, yellow chard stems, and chicken stock made from the grilled chickens I served at the bridal shower I hosted last weekend. Chicken stock made from grilled or roasted chickens will always going to be a darker color than stock made from uncooked, raw chicken bones, and will have already be salted from having been seasoned. Below, pictured is an example the difference, both of these stocks were made in my pressure cooker in about 1 hours time.

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KITCHEN JOURNAL

I do alot of other cooking besides soup making and I'd like to start journaling it here on Food and Thought. My style of cooking and preparing foods is done in a way of pre-preparation, because of convenience and energy! I have the most energy at 4-7am, and besides Sunday's, that's when I get most of my cooking done(when I'm not blogging, lol) Wednesday I have to wash and prep all veggies in my CSA box, and Fridays I'll pick up anything I need, but didn't get, at the downtown farmers market. Mark and I have made Sunday after yoga a regular Campbell farmers market day where I'll buy what I'll need until Wednesday. I try and not shop at Whole Foods and only buy produce at farmers markets if I can. Alot of what, and how I eat, are foods that store well, or foods that have pre-prepped components that can be assembled quickly.

Last week I had alot of leftover salads from the party I hosted, although I sent my 2 sisters and niece home with a nice little sampling of all, there was plenty left for Mark and me. Mark blew through the quinoa salad and I hogged the coleslaw (the potato salad was awesome, but potaotes make me hold water so I had to pass....), so I made more of both of those salads, but slightly different. I put black beans in the quinoa salad and left them out of the coleslaw, and I extended the leftover chipotle dressing with only yogurt to cut the calories.

8/25 - 9/1

Chicken stock from 4 leftover grilled chickens, 3 quarts
Poached chicken and made stock from 1 pasture raised chicken + necks and feet.
Apricot lentil soup
Qunoa made w/stock of grilled chicken, and cilantro pesto, salad for Mark.
Pre-shredded cabbage salad
Kale salad w/citrus dressing (blogpost and recipe coming soon)
Roasted tons of red romas from Waynes garden, and golden romas from downtown farmers market (pictured)
3 quarts of orange califlower and chipotle soup, cauliflower from CSA box
Stem and leaf soup, 1 quart
Brown rice w/diced summer squash and pre-portioned for adding to soups

I made a couple of pots of oatmeal and a nectarine, cucumber salad. My main goal each week is to use the vegetables from my CSA box and any others purchased at the farmers market, so those usually go into salads.

CSA Romaine lettuce, 2 orange cauliflower, cilantro, strawberries, armenian cucumber, fennel, cabbage, yellow chard, 3 yellow bells.

Waynes garden. 9lbs. tomatoes, 1 pint honey

Friday farmers market. Rainbow chard, cilantro, red cabbage, yellow roma tomatoes, scallions, garlic, 2 nectarines.

Sunday farmers market. Red and green chinese long beans, raisins, italian broccoli, 2 lacinato kale, 2 nectarines 4 plums, 1 lb Fresno raisin grapes (small and green), carrots, celery, green cabbage, yellow chard, 2 ears Brentwood corn.

Trader Joes. Mushrooms, baby spinach, lemons

Today I'll make some more quinoa salad for Mark using 2 ears of corn I roasted (from the farmers market), chinese long beans, salad greens, fresh tomatoes, and the leftover lemon scallion dressing I used last time for the potato salad.