Creamy Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup

Yesterdays cold and rainy weather called for a nice hot bowl of soup. I had tons of veggies I've been needing to use up before they went bad and of course my house always has sweet potatoes laying around so I decided to make sweet potato and carrot soup. This recipe turned out so dang good. Not to mention that between the potatoes, carrots, and other veggies with no added sugar or dairy products this soup is super clean eating and really nutritious!! I hope you give it a try because it is delicious and crazy easy to make!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 onion
1 cup celery
2 cups of baby carrots
3 sweet potatoes
3 cups organic chicken broth (or substitute of water)
3 tsp. ground nutmeg
3 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons organic Agave Nectar (or sub pure maple syrup)
salt and pepper to taste

 Directions:

Add olive oil to large Dutch oven pot set to medium heat. Chop onions, celery, and sweet potatoes (I leave skin on sweet potatoes for added nutritional value). Add onions and celery to pot and sauté for 5 minutes. Last minute add in nutmeg and cinnamon. Then add baby carrots and sweet potatoes with 3 cups of broth.

Bring broth to a boil and then turn down to a simmer and cover for 30 minutes. Once your veggies and potatoes are soft you can then use your hand stick blender to begin blending the soup to a nice creamy texture. If you don't have a hand stick blender you can transfer your soup out of your pot and into your normal blender to blend the soup. Last, add in your Agave nectar and salt and pepper to taste and give it one last blend.

 

 

 

That's it! Super easy and creamy sweet potato and carrot soup. I garnished my soup with toasted almonds, but you could also garnish with fresh chopped basil or parsley. I love the nutty and sweet flavor of this soup. It is a must try!!

 

 

 

 

-Rach

Barbecue Baby Back Ribs

Another easy recipe that will make the whole family happy! My boys and husband loved these tender and savory ribs. So much so that they barely left many any to eat after coming home from my workout last night. Those stinkers!  I savors every bite! Here is what you need to do.  I made my favorite gluten free barbecue sauce but you could use any of  your favorite barbecues sauces. Just make sure you have plenty of it because these ribs are going to be dredged in it. 

Barbecue Sauce:

• 1/2 cup gluten free ketchup
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar or (brown sugar)
• 1/4 cup gluten-free Worcestershire sauce 
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 medium chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika  

Ribs:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Prepare ribs. Place ribs on tinfoil on baking sheet. Make sure there is enough tinfoil so that you can cover and seal the ribs. You can either pit on your favorite dry run or you can just salt and pepper. 

Then slather on your barbecue sauce on both sides of the ribs.  Make sure you are generous with the sauce! You want these ribs to be moist and tender. 

Then seal the tinfoil at the top. 

For better ribs you can let these marinate in the fridge for a few hours. Then place the baking sheet with the foiled ribs in the oven for two hours. Open the tinfoil for the last 10 minutes of bake time! Then serve with your favorite side!! Easy and delicious!! 

Enjoy- Rachel 

Honey Walnut Scallops

Our friends took my husband and I out to dinner about a month ago and I had scallops for dinner. They were so good that I seriously haven't stopped thinking about them. So I decided I would just make them myself.  I've been seeing recipes on the Internet for honey walnut shrimp which my husband and I both love.  So I revamped this recipe so I could eat the yummy scallops guilt free!! This recipe has so many great things About it that I can't hardly wait to make it again.  For example, it literally took me 8 minutes to make this dinner!! Seriously how can you beat that! Or how about you only need 5 ingredients for this entire recipe! Or that it is absolutely delicious and divine and will melt In your mouth leaving you wanting more. Yep! It is fantastic and I LOVED it! Ok.  So enough of my rambling. Here is the deal. If you don't like scallops you can always make this with shrimp. You could also do shrimp and scallops together! You could also double the sauce recipe so that you can pour extra sauce over any vegetable, quinoa, or brown rice if you want to add to your plate!! Yum!!!! Now go make this recipe!!! 

For sauce: 

3 Tbl. Butter (ghee)

3 Tbl. Honey

3/4 Cup Coconut Cream

1/2 Walnut Pieces 

Salt & pepper 

Melt butter and coconut cream then wisk in honey. 

Salt and pepper and then add in walnut pieces. 

Keep warm while you pan sear your scallops. Easy right!!!?

Scallops: 

1 lb scallops 

3 Tbl butter or (ghee)

Salt & pepper

Add the butter to a 12 to 14-inch saute pan on high heat. Salt and pepper the scallops. Once the butter is hot gently add the scallops, making sure they are not touching each other. 

Sear the scallops for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on each side. The scallops should have a golden crust on each side while still being translucent in the center. 

 

Serve immediately.  Pour you honey walnut sauce over the pan seared scallops and then indulge!! Serve over quinoa or brown rice or with a side of veggies. 

Enjoy- Rachel

Peppermint Chocolate Protein Balls

I've been seeing all these recipes for protein balls and I was kinda like, "what the heck do you need a protein ball for?"  But they looked kinda good so I thought I would try it. I reviewed a few recipes and took a little bit from a couple different ones and well made my own.  I have digestive issues with Whey Protein so I ended up making mine with Hemp Protein. I think if you can tolerate Whey then they would probably be that much better because typically Whey tastes better anyways. Now these protein balls are not baked so they have kind of a thicker cookie doughish texture to them. You keep them in the refridgerator and just take them out as needed. So I have to say I'm kind of a fan of Protein balls now. For one, they are pretty tasty and they are extremely convenient when you need a snack. For two,  when your tempted to eat something bad they are just right there for eating so you don't put something in your mouth that you will regret later. Brad even liked them which is a big plus!  So it's  a super healthy little snack of Protein and Omegas with the Chia seeds and you get a little coconut and dark chocolate in the mix. Oh and peppermint.  Definetly don't forget the peppermint!!  I swear it makes everything good! 


Ingredients:
1/2 cup Coconut flour
1 scoop Chocolate Protein Powder (or 4 Tbsp of Hemp Protein)
1 cup Coconut Milk
4 tsp Natural Cocoa Powder
1/4 cup Chia Seeds
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp of Natural Vanilla Essence
1/4 tsp of Peppermint Essence
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp Coconut Palm Sugar
1/2 cup Shredded Coconut 
100% Dark Chocolate for drizzling 

So basically your going to put in a bowl all your dry ingredients then add the Coconut milk and vanilla and peppermint and honey.  I just took a butter knife and started slicing through and mixing the ingredients together then moved to a fork and made sure everything was super mixed. If you have a food processor this would probably be a great time to use it but I'm still in need of one.  Now it should be like cookie dough, thick enough to stay together and moist enough to not crumble apart. So if you find yours is crumbly add more coconut milk. And if you think it's to moist add more protein powder or even coconut flower.  They aren't going to be baked so make them to a consistency that they will stay in a ball. Then roll them in your shredded coconut, drizzle with your melted dark chocolate and place in the refridgerator. And eat whenever your feeling like you need a protein ball :)
Enjoy!
-Jessica