Fall Flavors

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. ~ Jim Davis 

It's interesting... I'm learning to like more vegetables. Recently, I've been roasting sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, various squashes... I'm really enjoying "Fall" foods!

On November 15th, First Presbyterian Church ("my" church) was in charge of the meal for Loaves and Fishes, our community soup kitchen and I was the Team Leader (the "ramrod" as my friend Charolyn likes to say). Some kind soul had donated what I think must have literally been TONS of different types of squash to Loaves and Fishes for the folks to take home. Members of our church had also gleaned sweet potatoes from a family farm and had brought those to give away as well, so I lucked out with quite a haul of squash and sweet potatoes. I had so much fun trying new flavors and new recipes!

This particular day, November 23, 2013, I had a great day cooking healthy foods.

I roasted sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, butternut squash and turnips with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. It looked and smelled fabulous. I was surprised at how much I liked it, because those are veggies I have pretty much refused to eat in the past. As much as my brother loves carrots, I thought I hated them. But, I'd shred them finely to put in potato soup to give it a brighter color and add some "healthy"; when I made my Sesame Street Soup, I'd slice them thick enough that they'd be able to fish out easily so I didn't have to eat them (even though I wanted my kids to).

The carrots may have been my favorite; their sweetness came out and it was almost like candy. OK, really, not so much like candy, but sweeter than what you would think vegetables should be, for sure. The sweet potatoes were really good (again, I had always tried to avoid them before... I liked WHITE potatoes). The squash was good. The parsnips surprised me; I had never used parsnips before, but, being a root vegetable that I'd heard a lot about, I was curious to try it. I liked it pretty well. I'm still not a fan of turnips (God knows my Grandpa sure was, though!!), but if I HAVE to eat them, this is good way to do it.

The Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup was a new recipe I tried. I wasn't sure what I'd think of the taste. I like meat and potatoes... WHITE potatoes... in my soups. This had ginger and curry in it, so it smelled fabulous and the color was beautiful. And you know what, I liked it!

You can't have a great meal without dessert, right? Well, I'm diabetic so I ... well, OK, I had "dessert". Actually, they were sweet potato muffins, so they weren't as bad for me as a sweet potato cheesecake (maybe). And, they were very tasty and satisfied my sweet tooth!