After having several yummy and nutritious meals lately, we’re going fairly light tonight and eating some of the left-overs. However, I’ll make a Spinach and Potato Soup with a fresh tossed salad. This soup is so easy and delicious. I simply sauté an onion and some garlic in a mixture of olive oil and coconut oil. I add half a potato per person along with a packet of frozen spinach. I sometimes prefer frozen veggies, if I can’t or won’t buy organic. I think they have as much, if not more, nutrients in them than the ‘fresh vegetables‘ from the grocer that may have travelled many miles before getting to my table.

If I don’t have any home made stock, I add about 1 and a half cups of water per person, along with a stock cube, pepper and parsley. I’ll simmer this for about 30 min. Then I use my hand held wand (blender) to puree it. It can be served with croutons (‘Miss A’ makes the best ones) but if we’re watching our carb intake I tend to omit them but I’ll serve a tsp of good quality parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. While it isn’t fashionable any more to have salt on the table, we do. I use an organic, unprocessed Celtic Sea Salt, which we may crush in the mortar along with some fresh herbs. This allows us to make up our seasonings on the spot. The children love doing this as they can ‘make their own’. 😎

I’ve been looking at trying to eat more ‘seasonally‘. To do this, I have to look at prices of fresh produce, not just at what is available on the shelves. These days, most veg is easily available but it doesn’t mean it’s fresh. 😡

Persimmons are high in glucose and contain good amounts of protein but none of us like them! My MIL gave me a large bag of them from her tree but we won’t eat them as raw fruit. Maybe I’ll try the pudding from this site:
Here’s a free download which will inform you about persimmons if, like me, you don’t know much about them.

Cabbage isn’t our favourite veggie but it can really stretch out a meal. The meal I use cabbage for mostly is our version of a Chow Mein. I’ll post the recipe when we have it next. I use Kangaroo meat, rice and cabbage as the basis for it.

Sweet potato (kumera or yams) is not only yummy but supplies our bodies with Vit. E and folate. Just last night, I julienned a sweet potato and added it to the baking dish where I was roasting cubed potatoes. We all love sweet potato!

Mushrooms are also in season but at $9 per kg I can’t afford too many. But pumpkins were cheap at the markets so I bought a few of those. Pumpkins are so versatile, aren’t they? We like Pumpkin Soup and Pumpkin Pie with Brown Rice.

Do you have any absolutely delightful recipes featuring these foods? Would you like to share the recipe, either by writing here or leaving a link to your own blog post? I’d love to hear your favourite winter recipes, or those recipes using foods in season.