Stressed Mum

Posts Tagged ‘vegetables’

What better lunch can there be on a cold day than home made soup? Of course it can take a while but not with my new Vitamix blender.

I bought the blender just before Christmas after watching a demonstration at the Good Food Show. It is big and powerful. It makes light work of making smoothies with as much ice as you like. It’s fab for houmous and makes frozen desserts in minutes but the most amazing thing is watching it make hot soup from raw ingredients in a matter of minutes. There is no heating element, the soup is heated by friction from the blades. Take a look at the soup I made today.

I started by washing the raw ingredients and throwing them into the blender, whole or halved. There was a slice of onion, a garlic clove, a couple of small carrots, a couple of baby plum tomatoes, a stick of celery, a slice of butternut squash, a slice of cabbage and a mushroom. With some water in the bottom of the blender, some powdered bouillon, chilli powder and cumin it was switched on and turned to the highest speed.

After five minutes there was steam coming out of the top of the blender and it was switched to a low speed while I threw in a couple of spoonfuls of red kidney beans and sweetcorn. Ten seconds later I switched off and lunch was ready.

The soup was delicious and healthy too! There was hardly any preparation, no stirring and the Vitamix is cleaned in two minutes by running it with some hot water and washing up liquid.

My lovely raised beds

I recently had some help in the garden. I now have six lovely raised beds in which to grow my vegetables. So thanks to my friend Mike.

I have planted lots of different vegetables. Potatoes, onions, cabbages, calabrese, beetroot and sprouts look to provide crops for many months. Courgettes and tomatoes are growing well. I have a herb bed with mint, coriander, chives, lemon balm, basil and parsley. I’ve got fruit and salad crops such as radish, spring onions, watercress, rocket and lettuce.

I was fairly late getting my seeds going but today I was finally able to harvest some leaves, herbs and radish for lunch.

Fresh salad tastes great straight from the garden

It may not be much but it is great to be able to pick fresh salad for lunch and it’s just the start of my adventures in the vegetable garden. I can’t wait to be eating all my vegetables and lots of fruit within minutes of picking them.