It's that time again--time to make my weekly menu. It used to take me much longer searching through cookbooks, but now I just hop on my Pinterest boards. I have 2 food board, one named "Recipes" and one named "Vegan." Here are a few I found that I want to try this week: {wanna follow me there? Click here.}
Spiced Coconut Red Lentil Soup.
I make my husband soup to take to work each week. Well, most weeks. Lately I have been a slacker. I'm gonna get back on track with this healthful soup!
Salt & Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas
I didn't get to these crunchy little snacks last week, because I was out of vinegar! I now am fully stocked and ready to rock!
Crockpot Homemade Applesauce
Another recipe I have not made in awhile. My youngest has been asking for it and I have a bunch of green apples sitting in the refrigerator. Can't wait to have my house smell like apple heaven!
Healthy Cookie Dough Dip
Is there really such a thing? This recipe intrigues me...its base is pureed garbanzo beans! It does have quite a bit of sugar, but at least you get some protein with that sugar!
Quinoa & Black Bean Salad
I need to get some protein in me, as I have been getting myself to the gym much more frequently lately. I'm love that this can be a main dish for me and a side dish with some chicken for the rest of my family.
Today we have a super fun giveaway from Kari of Healthy Castles!
Kari has generously offered up this all natural care package with some of her favorite things! The care package includes:
Organic Tulsi Tea, 3 different All Natural Wildtree Seasoning Blends (Cajun Seasoning, Garlic & Herb and Hearty Spaghetti Blend), 4 Norwex* Enviro Cloths (so you can clean without chemicals!) and a bottle of Nopalea* to help clear the toxins out of your body; all in a great "Healthy Castles" canvas bag.
* You can learn more about both Norwex and Nopalea here!
I would be lying if I didn't say I wish I could win this care package myself!
You can find out more about Healthy Castles via Kari's blog, as well as joining her thriving Facebook community! Kari shares tips and tricks regularly on Twitter, and she's also active on Pinterest!
Last year we had a lot of fun making May Day Baskets. My girls just LOVED delivering them to their friends doors, ringing the doorbell, and running away before getting caught. They are already talking about doing it again this year. For those of you who are not familiar with the May Day Tradition, the basket giver rings the bell and runs away. The person receiving the basket tries to catch the fleeing giver. If caught, tradition said a kiss was to be exchanged!
I found a bunch of beautiful May Day basket ideas at Pinterest, and if you click through you can browse through them for some inspiration. Personally, I'M TIRED so our May Day baskets are going to be very simple this year. It may consist of a cup with a pipe cleaner handle stapled to it, and some stickers to decorate. The one thing that won't change from last year is my desire to fill them with treats that are not so loaded with sugar. Last year, I choose popcorn, honeycomb cereal (I thought the flower shape was cute and they don't have a ton of sugar in them, at least for a treat), dried blueberries, multi-grain cheerios, and to top it off, ...a Lindt Lindor Truffle. I don't know about your Easter bunny, but our Easter bunny was quite generous this year, so we have plenty of sugar in our home!
Robyn from She Makes Hats sent my girls these adorable hats. They all love them, but my youngest is especially attached to hers, I can barely get her to take it off! These photos are of my younger 2 girls, we headed downtown to play around, get some ice cream, and have a little photo shoot with their new hats.
Robyn also made one for my oldest girl, it is orange and fits her perfectly.
She made me a fun turquoise hat awhile back, and I wear it at least once a week.
She Makes Hats is our featured giveaway this week, so make sure you sign up as it will be over tomorrow! No worries if you don't win, because..
She Makes Hats is giving New Nostalgia readers 20% off any order. Visit her online store, and use the code-- Nostalgia12--when ordering.
Do you want to enter the giveaway? Hurry up, a winner will be announced tomorrow!
I don't eat much dairy anymore, so I had been on a search for a dairy-free, creamy, broccoli soup. My sister-in-law also eats a plant based diet, and at a family gathering she brought the most amazing soup recipe. It was creamy and had layers of flavor, and I really couldn't believe it was dairy free! When she shared the recipe with me, I saw that from Forks Over Knives Cookbook, which made me smile, as it was a recipe that had caught my eye and I had even marked the page of my Forks Over Knives cookbook.
This soup recipe starts like most of my other soup recipes, with chopped onion, celery and carrot. This mix from Trader Joes is reasonably priced and very convenient. I felt a little lazy and not in the mood for chopping, so I grabbed it.
Such pretty little layers!
Look how healthful these ingredients are! Bet you can't guess what makes the soup creamy!
The bag of cashews became this creamy base thanks to my food processor. What a great trick for non-dairy eaters!
This recipe does take some chopping. I didn't get to be lazy after all. My sister-in-law used frozen chopped broccoli in hers and honestly, I could not tell the difference.
I get way too excited seeing photos full of plant color. I get even more excited knowing I can get them into my body in the form of a delicious soup! The recipe calls for potatoes, I didn't have any, so I used sweet potatoes instead. It slightly changed the color of our soup, but really added a nice flavor.
Cooking down the veggies.
Adding the cashews
Mix and cook down.
Puree using a hand held blender. I have this one by Cuisinart and I love it.
A hand held blender makes pureeing soups so easy and is much safer than trying to transfer hot soup to a blender! I love mine and use it all the time.
Delicious, creamy, full of flavor (Non-) Cream Of Broccoli Soup!
Cream Of Broccoli Soup
6 cups vegetable stock or bouillon
1 rounded cup raw cashews
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 large red bell pepper, chopped
2 medium unpeeled potatoes, cubed
1 large head broccoli, including stem, chopped (about 4 Cups if you use frozen broccoli & stems)
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1. Puree 1 cup of the vegetable stock with the cashews in a blender until smooth. Set aside.
2. In a large pot, cook the onion, celery, and carrot over medium heat in 1 cup of the vegetable stock for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, bell pepper, and potatoes and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the remaining 4 cups of vegetable stock and the broccoli, thyme, salt, and black pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and simmer until the broccoli and potatoes are soft, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the cashew mixture to the soup and stir until mixed. Remove the pot from heat and puree about half the soup, in small batches, until smooth. Return pureed soup to the pot and reheat, stirring well. Serve.
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Have you seen Forks Over Knives yet? It is a great film, one that really changed my views on food. Below is the trailer. I believe it is on Netflicks, or you can buy the DVD here.
