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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Roasted Corn Soup

When cold weather approaches I immediately crave a hot bowl of soup. I tried out the below corn soup recipe not expecting it to be anything special. Wow! The flavor of the onions. celery, and the tomato garnish really popped. Try this corn soup and you will love it!

Roasted Corn Soup
4 Ears of Corn
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Large Yellow Onion (Chopped)
4 Ribs of Celery (Chopped)
3 Large Yukon Gold Potatoes (Diced)
4 Cups of Vegetable or Chicken Stock
1 Cup Non-Fat Milk or Soy Milk
Salt and Pepper to Taste
2 Large Tomatoes (Diced)

1. Roast corn ears on a baking sheet for 25-30 minutes at 450 degrees F (this adds so much flavor to the soup-do not skip!)

2. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the copped onion and celery and cook until softened.

3. Add the potato and stock to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover for about 25 minutes. During this 25 minutes you can cut the kernels from the corn cobs.

4. Add the corn and cook soup for another 15 minutes or so. Remove from the heat. Ladle 2 cups of the soup into a blender and process until smooth. Pour the puree back into the soup, add milk and salt and pepper. I added some grilled chicken breast seasoned with salt, pepper, and cayenne for protein but this would be delicious without meat as well.


5. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the diced tomato and more salt and pepper if you like.


Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Sunny Day in November

I woke up this morning still a little bitter about the election coverage taking over Biggest Loser last night. Tuesday night is the only night that I will re-arrange my schedule to make sure I will be near a TV. It's quite pathetic actually but I love Biggest Loser!
Once I got out of my warm bed this morning I realized that today was going to be a gorgeous day! It has been a rainy end of summer and beginning of fall here which starts to take a toll on your mood. I was so excited to see the sun and couldn't wait to get off work so I could go for a run!

I mapped out my run on MapMyRun before I left work so I would be ready to go as soon as I got changed.
MapMyRun is a great website to use when planning a run. You can draw a path through your neighborhood until you reach the distance that you need. No more driving around in your car to map out a run! I try to minimize distractions when planning to workout in the evening after work. Once I sit down to do something else it's easy to decide to put off the workout until tomorrow.

Although the run was not as easy as I had expected, I finished the 3 mile loop that I had set out on. Months of running on the treadmill at the gym made me forget how different running outside really is! I had to continuously chant "don't quit" and "think how good you will feel when you finish" to get through the last half of the run. But it worked! It's amazing what some excercise and a little sunshine can do for your mood.