Butternut Squash Soup

As a continuation of my March break cooking, I decided to make one of my favourite meals, butternut squash soup!  This is a recipe I have made many times before, but have never made in a Crock-Pot. For this recipe I based it off of a recipe I found on the website running on real food but also added some of my own ingredients to it as well. The recipe was fairly simple, and the soup is actually really easy to make.

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks, approx. 8 cups once cubed (if it's more or less than that no problem, adjust amount of liquid so squash is just covered)

½ white onion, roughly chopped

5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped ( I only used two, as five seemed like a lot)

5 cups vegetable stock (or just enough to cover the squash)

salt and pepper, to taste

I also added:

* Cayenne pepper ( just a pinch)

* 1/2 a cup of whipping cream

* 2 apples (peeled)

One thing that the recipe does not mention is how hard it is to cut through a butternut squash.  Since I have made this dish before I have found that microwaving the squash really helps with this.  Poke the butternut squash with a fork all over before putting it in the microwave for about three minutes. Let it cool and then the skin is much easier to peel off, and the squash is much easier to cut through. This actually ends up saving you a lot of time.

Once my squash was peeled, I used a spoon to get rid of all of the seeds inside and then cut it into cubes. From there I cut up the onion and garlic and added the rest of the ingredients to the Crock-Pot.

I let the ingredients cook for about 2 hours on a low temperature. Once the butternut squash  was tender and started to fall apart then I used a hand blender to mix the ingredients together. As an addition I decided to break my rule a little and add half a cup of whipping cream in order to make the soup a little more rich. As well I added a few shakes of cayenne pepper in order to give the soup a little more flavor.

The soup ended up being delicious!  Although, it was a little spicy for me ( went a little too strong on the cayenne pepper).  My mom also loved it.  This was one of my favourite dishes to make as it is so easy, and butternut squash soup is the perfect comfort food!

March Break Cooking

So finally, we have reached March Break!  As classes are coming to an end and my second placement is starting soon, I feel like I have been incredibly busy.  I have not been cooking as much as I had hoped to, so I have taken march break as some cooking time! I am back at home and have been making a few crockpot meals for my mom and I.  Last weekend we had some pork chops in the fridge so I decided to try making slow cooker Dijon pork chops and potatoes.  The recipe seemed fairly easy and sounded delicious.

1 can (10.75 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

¼ cup chicken broth

¼ cup whole grain Dijon mustard

1 garlic clove, minced

½ tsp dried thyme

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

6 medium red potatoes, sliced

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

6 boneless pork loin chops (about 1-inch thick)  - I used 3 instead of 4

1 tbs oil for browning

For this recipe I had only 3 pork chops instead of 3, so I originally was going to cut the sauce in half. Once I started doing this I felt like it was enough, so I decided to keep the full sauce amount.

After frying the pork chops (just to get them brown on each side) I added them to the Crock-Pot with the sliced potatoes and the rest of the ingredients for the sauce. I then set my timer for 4 hours and proceeded to have a well deserved nap.  Little did I know, I did not actually turn the crock pot on. Instead, I just turned it to the 'keep warm' setting.  It is very frustrating to wake up from a two hour nap only to realize that your food was not cooking that entire time.  Thankfully once i turned the Crock-Pot on, the food actually started to cook much quicker than I thought it would. So, instead of being done at 6pm the meal was finishing cooking at 7:30pm.

Although it looks pretty bland in the picture, the meal turned out delicious!  I broke my rule a little bit with the can of condensed mushroom soup, but overall this meal worked really well and was a hit with my mom too.  I would definitely make this meal again. it was quick and easy ( once I actually turned the Crock-Pot on) and tasted delicious!

Stay tuned for my next post when i make my one of my favourite meals - Butternut squash soup!!