anyways, i got this butternut squash that costco has and it's awesome because it's already prepped for you (click this link to read someone else's rave about it) and realized i should have used it ummm, a few days ago. i'm not a stickler for things like that (i inherited that from my dad... my mother would have probably tossed this out) so i took it as a challenge to make a dinner out of it using only what i had on hand (we got snow last night and i pretty much never go out that first day of snow... because parking lots are still being cleared and really it's just kind of a pain) and it turned out to be much easier than anticipated!
i googled "allrecipes butternut squash" and checked out a few options before picking the most appealing (that means easiest) recipe. it was so simple and foolproof and so delicious and only dirtied one pot (that's huge in my book) that i'm posting about it here for when i am looking for dinner ideas. anyways, it is this butternut squash soup recipe and you should make it. especially if your "i just can't get full off of soup" husband is out of town.
here's how i did it:
i melted a square of butter (i'm not big on measuring but it was probably the correct amount) and used it to cook the onions (i chopped up a whole onion... but i love onion and it was on the small side) while i turned on winnie the pooh on dvr for my precious two year old because the tv remote decided to act up on the day i was parenting alone, leaving no access to our awesome thomas the train dvd collection. should you be in this situation, periodically run back to the kitchen to make sure your onions don't burn. (hint: they won't... because they're swimming in such a glorious amount of butter) after you get the show set up, dump in your squash (don't forget to recycle the container!), water (i only used two cups instead of three), four chicken boullion cubes, pepper, marjoram (this was my first time ever cooking with it... i know that for sure because i had to open the seal on it), and let it all hang out and boil for a while... at least 20 minutes... stirring periodically while you scavenge your kitchen for stuff to snack on. instead of dirtying a bunch of dishes and a food processor/blender, i got out my hand mixer and those beaters did just fine and left some nice small chunks of squash while making a perfectly desirable consistency for the soup. the recipe calls for two full packages of cream cheese but i thought that was excessive because that stuff is expensive. so i just put in what was left of the one we had opened (maybe 3 ounces?) and it was wonderful. although that didn't stop me from adding straight up cream to my bowl. the costco HALF GALLON of cream is now a regular staple purchase for me. it's so cheap and so sinfully delicious i just can't help myself. seriously... i catch myself daydreaming about ways i can use it... like this soup. also, i'm not a huge fan of oatmeal these days (although i've gone through stages where i ate it three times a day because i was that in love with it) and i've found that pouring a bit of cream on top makes it taste like dessert. like i found a packet of some sort of flavored instant oatmeal and when i poured that cream on top it was like i was eating a cobbler with ice cream. i used to think i wanted to lose this baby weight so i could fit into my clothes again but now i've decided that my clothes really aren't that cute and i would prefer to have curves and buy new clothes instead. i hate shopping for clothes but when i'm eating creme brulee or anything with heavy whipping cream actually, that seems like the least of my worries. right now food is my therapy.* and i'm okay with that.
welcome to the brain of the add... that paragraph started as instructions for making soup and ended with my shopping habits and my physically and emotionally unhealthy addiction to cream.
anyways, my head is still a jumble so wish me luck that i can sleep tonight. and make this soup.
*milk is always my therapy and my drug... like when i drink it, my whole body relaxes and it makes me think that must be what smokers feel like when they finally get their nicotine... so maybe it just makes sense that i've expanded my milk horizon to include straight up cream.
okay, apparently i can't sleep without getting my thoughts out so here we go...
in other news: baby girl took a nap again today which is fabulous... she actually finished her lunch and declared that she was all done eating and was ready to take a nap (it was way before her nap time but i just went with it). what is not fabulous is that she's woke up at 6:15 this morning. two times in the past two weeks, she's woken up during the night (once at 11pm and once at 1am) and frequently she's been waking up early (that means anything before 9am) although never at 6:15 before!) luckily i gave her a binky and she was okay to hang out and read books for an hour before i got up with brady and came back to get her out of her crib. anyone have any ideas what this could be? is it just a new phase? or is it because she's not quite done with her molars coming in yet? kids are mysterious. also, having both kids awake for the day at 7:15 made this feel like the longest day ever. it wasn't bad, it just felt like it should always be four hours ahead of what it actually was. maybe more. this morning actually kind of feels like it was yesterday morning... it seems just that long ago. that's a long day.
my electric blanket on my bed is awesome all the time but when my christopher is gone it is especially amazing because it tricks my body into thinking that someone else is in bed with me. like when i get back in bed after feeding brady in a few hours it will be warm, even though i will be lacking a bed-mate (when was the last time you used that term? i try to use it as frequently as possible).
nursing makes me super thirsty. especially at night. maybe because i'm overheating from my electric blanket but we'll just never know. since i don't drink water, i keep milk on my nightstand. it's not unusual for me to drink 30 - 35 ounces between midnight and 7am. i am well hydrated. although we already knew that because i'm drinking at least a gallon every 24 hours. can i say again how wonderful it would be if i could tolerate water?! i've done the math... we spend over a thousand dollars on milk each year. ONE THOUSAND! like a one with THREE zeros. it is painful to me. although i can't think of any other way i could spend $1000 that could possibly bring me more happiness than a few hundred gallons of milk.
brady really is doing so well, i have to keep reminding myself of how bad things were just last month. gotta keep myself humble. but seriously, even though i complain that he's a pretty terrible sleeper at night, he's great during the day and fantastic in his carseat. i don't let him stay awake longer than 55 or 60 minutes at a time and it is perfect for him. then he naps for a few hours and we repeat. having a newborn for an hour at a time is completely manageable. and the fact that he's happy during that time is just icing on the cake.
everything baby girl says is hilarious (do i say this every day?) and although it includes a lot of funny things, most of it is just her sweet baby voice and strange voice intonations (like the "goes in noses?" phrase). just today i figured out something that i hadn't been able to put my finger on before. she has somehow developed a southern accent in certain things that she says. where does this come from?! also, i'm loving it. today she also experimented (in the way that she has the confidence of someone who has totally mastered the concept) with phrases using the word remember. i told her "remember thomas is broken so if you want to watch something you have to watch pooh bear?" and i never heard the end of "remember abigail was crying in the crib because i was all done napping and i wanted to read skippyjonjones?" she was pointing upstairs with her tiny little pointer finger and telling me this elaborate story about what happened when she woke up from nap today. and everything started with "remember."
okay, i really need to go to sleep... especially if brady's night is anything like last night...
No comments:
Post a Comment