A New Favorite

There have been a few requests that I post some healthy recipes up on this blog and I've always held back because really, I don't make anything original. Everything I make comes from I recipe I spotted somewhere (although I almost never stick directly with the recipe... I tend to measure in... well, handfuls and pinches and sprinkles and a-bit-ofs...). Oh, that's another reason why I've found it difficult to write a recipe post, I don't measure things! It's not very useful for someone trying to recreate a dish.

However, I just made a soup that I am in love with. It's from one of my favorite food websites "SkinnyTaste" and is super healthy. For anyone who knows me, I love soup but I do not love carrots. Well, this is a "Carrot Ginger Soup" and it is YUM.

I recommend you check out the actual recipe and see the lovely pictures that accompany it, however, I made a couple changes for my own purposes and basically did this:

*saute onions in a pot with a little olive oil
*add some chopped ginger
*throw in some chopped carrots
*add boiling water and chicken bouillon
*boil till the carrots are soft
*puree with immersion blender
*add in a dollop of plain low fat yogurt
*mix, salt and pepper to taste, serve with some fresh herbs of choice

SO EASY!!!

Here are a few pictures from my attempt:

Such a beautiful orange color! This is after I already pureed it with my immersion blender.

I topped mine off with a dollop of yogurt and some dill because that's what I had on hand.

Hayley's Herb Garden. I've been getting a little wild with my kitchen-garden attempts recently, just call me green fingers, and my dill plant has been growing out of control so I decided to use it as a topping on my soup. (Those seeds with the toothpicks sticking out the sides are avocados), there's also mint and basil.

I hope you give this soup a try and love it as much as I do. If you have a nice healthy soup to recommend, please share! It's been rainy for days here in HK and soups are the perfect comfort food (accompanied by a nice slice of roasted garlic bread from Costco... brought in to HK specially, courtesy of my Dad... precious precious bread, it's well spent beside a good soup!)

Not Chocolate!!!

I love chocolate. I always have. Even throughout my strongest health efforts I have never managed to give up chocolate completely and you know what, I don't think I have to. Chocolate in moderation is a-okay in my books. I repeat: in moderation

Have you seen the movie "Ever After"? First of all, it's adorable. Second of all, there is a scene in which the prince offers one of the girls, Marguerite, a piece of chocolate. Her reaction to the delectable substance is wonderful. When he asks if she likes it, she says something like "Like it? Why it's positively sinful." Haha! It is. Positively. I often feel this way about chocolate.

Sadly, the next article I have to share with you does not bode well for my love of chocolate.

CHOCOLATE'S CHILD SLAVES

It seems we need to look a little deeper into where we are getting our sweet treats from, and I don't mean "are your Belgium chocolates from Belgium?" I mean, where are your chocolate suppliers getting their beans from? Last year, when I was in Utah, my mother-in-law took me to this fantastic chocolatier place that did all their chocolate production themselves. From growing and gathering the cacao bean itself, to shipping it, to breaking it down to create the most divine truffle chocolates or baking chocolate. Stopping by their store was a great way of learning about what goes into making chocolate and learning how the quality can be affected. 

I won't be able to watch this documentary when it airs because we only have local television channels here in HK but I would love to know what your reactions are. Perhaps an effort to buy chocolate more conscientiously will not only help draw attention to this disturbing issue of child slaves, it might just help with the "in moderation" part of my "chocolate is a-okay" plan. 

Healthy Kickstarters

Happy New Year!

Whenever we begin a New Year I, like most people, enjoy getting into the spirit of having a fresh start, refocusing, re-energising, re-committing to my health goals, work goals, life goals. I love this time of year.

This year has already been very busy in my household so what I really want is something quick and easy to boost my health and get me in a good place to approach the year.

I found this post on one of my friend's blogs. She's a super healthy gal and always has lots of interesting thoughts to share. This post just hit the spot for me and I thought I'd share it with you to see if it does the same, or perhaps it will inspire you to find your 3 quick fixes for the new year. If you have some fun suggestions I would love to hear them!

Quick Fixes for the New Year by Anne Brown