….just add onions.  I was trying to be proactive this week and have some real healthy meals and such.  On  Tuesday night I got my soup ready for the crockpot in the morning, but didn’t really follow a recipe.  Well, when I went to puree it Wednesday night the onions just overwhelmed the squash.  So don’t do it!  This is a very easy recipe, and sans onions would be really yum.

Recipe:

1 largish butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1-2 apples, peeled and cubed
1 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated if possible!)
1 box chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
cream, optional

The hardest part is peeling and dicing that squash.  I use a vegetable peeler to take off the skin and then dice it up, scooping out the innards, of course.  Put everthing together (except cream) in a crockpot and set on low all day…around 8 hours.  Using an immersion blender or stand blender, puree the vegetables and stock together.  Adjust season and add cream if desired.  It will actually taste like you added cream even if you don’t add it, and it is a pretty healthy soup. 

I served it with grilled cheese sandwiches.  I had a loaf of beer bread in the freezer (I make a few at a time and freeze one) and used Red Leicester cheese, which is like a mild tangy cheddar (bought at Costco).  If you have never had beer bread, it is a wonderful quick bread.  Easy to make and oh so yummy.  I tasted it first through Tastefully Simple.  They charge around $5 for the mix, but I found a much cheaper way to make it myself.  Much cheaper!

Beer Bread recipe

3 cups SIFTED self-rising flour (or add 3 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt to regular flour)
1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar
1 can/bottle beer
1/4 cup melted butter

Mix the SIFTED flour (sift or else it is a brick!), sugar and beer together.  This will give you a thick batter – don’t overmix.  Put into greased bread pan and pour butter over the top.  Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes-1 hour.  I have also put this in muffin tins and it bakes faster.  A more flavorful beer produces more flavorful bread.  If you don’t use beer, then you need to add some yeast.

a well-used bread pan