Cauliflower Soup

I really wanted some cauliflower soup today, to my disdain, cauliflower was quite expensive!  But after tasting this soup, it was well worth it!

Ingredients:
3/4 head of cauliflower broken into little florets
1 carrot - peeled and shredded
1/2 small onion - diced
1 chicken bouillon
2 cups water

3 T flour
3 T butter
1 t pepper
1 t salt
2 cups milk
1 cup white cheddar
1 T corn starch


Directions:
Combine cauliflower, carrot, onion, water, and chicken bouillon in a pot until boiling.  Then simmer for 15 minutes.  The last 5 minutes of the simmer, in a small pot on medium, combine flour, butter, pepper and salt, and mix well.  Once melted together, slowly add in milk, then cheese, then add to the vegetable mix on low or medium, add the corn starch, continue to mix, then taste... add salt and pepper as needed.  Tastes great with french bread or garlic bread or saltine crackers.  Enjoy!

Tortilla Soup

Ever notice that any healthy soup you try to make requires purchasing more ingredients you don't have on hand? Since I made bread (not so healthy) last night, I wanted to pair it with a healthier soup. In my mind, I kept thinking black bean or lentil... maybe even a good tomato basil without too much cream in it. But everything required a lot of work soaking beans overnight or going to the store to buy some more stuff I would only use once.

It's as if I forgot about my favorite trusty compliance, the Vitamix. So I quickly googled the Vitamix Tortilla Soup recipe and granted I was without some items.. I had enough - and I changed it up a bit - so here's MY tortilla soup Vitamix recipe!

Tortilla Soup via Vita Mix
Ingredients:
1/4 cup cooked chicken diced
1/4 cup cooked corn (from can or frozen corn defrosted)
1/4 cup of tortilla chips

3 cups boiling water
4 sticks of celery
1 tomato
1 slice of onion (as if you were slicing onion for a burger - with all the layers in it)
1 slice of red pepper (about 7 little slices that one would use with hummus .... mmmmm)
1 garlic clove without skin
1 cut of a lettuce head (as if you were slicing for a burger)
1 chicken bouillon block for flavoring
1 T Season-All seasoning

Put above ingredients into Vitamix on Variable 1, speed 1 and immediately go to speed 10 and then immediately to Variable 2 and let it cook for 3-4 minutes.

Drop to Variable 1, down from speed 10 to 2 and drop in the chicken, corn and tortilla chips and let it mix for about 10 seconds and ....

DINNER IS SERVED!

With the bread from last night of course. And some cheese - we need our dairy.