butternut squash potage

Good evening!  As promised...a semi-quick post.

Breakfast:  Two Kashi Go Lean blueberry waffles with 1 tbsp almond butter and a sliced banana, all sandwiched together.  Yum.  :)





Morning Snack:  Dark chocolate covered strawberry!!!  They were delivered to us this morning from a dear friend in North Carolina.  Of course I dug right in while my lunch was heating!





Lunch:  Spinach salad and TJ's Veggie Lentil Soup.  My salad consisted of spinach, hearts of palm, orange bell pepper, alfalfa sprouts, dried cranberries and light ranch dressing (I know you've seen a lot of the light ranch lately...I'm trying to use up the bottle!).





Afternoon Snack:  Peppermint Eggnog Scone and a cup of Sugar Cookie Sleighride. This is the last of the scones, I sent the others to the office with Brian.  They were way too tempting (as evidenced by my last few posts...)!!!



Dinner:  Butternut Squash Potage (recipe follows) and a spinach salad with yellow bell pepper, black beans, fresh currants and light ranch.







This soup is so easy and perfectly creamy, without any cream!   I made a variation a few weeks ago here.  I've been thinking about using the potage method to make a butternut squash soup for awhile now, and am so glad I did!  I have an old favorite squash soup recipe that uses 1 cup of cream, and I couldn't even tell that the recipe I made tonight didn't have any cream!  Healthy and yummy...perfect.

Butternut Squash Potage

makes 4 servings

calories: 267  fat: 3.2g  sat fat: 1.9g  carbs: 54.8g  fiber: 5.9g  protein 8.5g

Ingredients:

• one small butternut squash (1-1.5 pounds), peeled and diced into 1" pieces


• one medium-large onion, diced


• 4 medium russet potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and diced into 1" pieces


• 1 tbsp unsalted butter


• 5 cups chicken or veggie broth (I use Better Than Bouillon no chicken base...love it!)


• salt + pepper

Steps:

1. Melt butter in large saucepan on medium heat.  Add chopped onion and saute until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes.


2. Add diced potato, squash and broth.  Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes until potatoes and squash are soft.


3. Strain veggies from soup and reserve broth.  Puree the veggies in a food processor or blender using some of the reserved broth as needed.


4. Add all broth and pureed veggies back to saucepan and heat through.  Season to taste.

I love the Better Than Bouillon line.  We keep the no-chicken base in our fridge at all times...its so much better than having cans and boxes taking up room in our teeny pantry!



Alrighty...I'm off to continue with Christmas holiday/travel/baking/gift prep.  Have a fabulous evening and Tuesday!