Carrot Tomato Soup

I had some leftover tomato paste from the chili I made on Thursday, and I have been wanting to make some variation of my Carrot-Ginger soup, so I decided to make a Carrot-Ginger-Tomato soup.  

Today was a good day for soup making.

1:00

 4:00

 view from my kitchen window:

INGREDIENTS

4-5 cloves garlic

large chunk of ginger root

1/2 sweet onion

10+ carrots

5 radishes

4 sticks of celery

tomato paste

1 can diced tomatoes

veggie stock

water

seasonings

DIRECTIONS

I minced the garlic and ginger, then browned them in olive oil.  While they were browning, I cleaned and chopped the carrots.  The carrots went into a soup pot with 1/2 stick of butter.  When the garlic/ginger was browned I added it to the soup pot.  Put the lid on the soup pot and turned the burner onto medium heat.  While that was steaming, I chopped the onion and put it in a skillet to brown in olive oil.  Meanwhile, I chopped the celery and radishes.  I added veggie stock to the soup pot as needed.  I added turmeric, mustard powder, tarragon, and oregano to the soup pot.  When the onions were browned, I added them to the soup pot, along with 1 cup of water.  I added 3 spoonfuls of tomato paste, some veggie stock, and 2 more cups of water.  I sauteed the celery and radishes in the skillet, then added them to the soup pot along with the can of diced tomatoes and some more veggie stock.  

lots of ginger!

I got squirted in the eye while I was peeling it...ouch!

deliciousness

Veggie-Tuna Salad

Occasionally, it occurs to me that I'm not quite eating as many fruits and vegetables as I should be.  I do a pretty good job of having some sort of fruit/veggie at lunch and dinner, and once-in-awhile some fruit makes it into my breakfast, but sometimes my dinner is mysteriously veggie-free, and I often end up with 3-4 servings of fruits/veggies per day, instead of 3-4 serving of each per day.

Since I'm not a huge fan of vegetables, I've started trying to find ways to sneak more of them into my meals. My current veggie-favorite is Carrot-Ginger soup.  I've made several variations of it.  Some use heavy cream, some use veggie stock, some are thickened with pumpkin, some with sweet potato.

Yesterday, I was mixing up a batch of tuna salad and making a macaroni salad.  While grating a carrot for the macaroni salad, it occurred to me that I could grate a carrot into the tuna salad, which wouldn't really be taste-able, but would add just a bit more vegetable to my meal. (Probably a negligible amount, but every little bit counts, right?)

Vegetable - Fortified Tuna Salad

12 oz can of tuna, drained

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 carrot, grated

1 large spoonful mayonnaise

2 large spoonfuls relish

I've found that cucumber slices go well with tuna.  

They are also good on turkey sandwiches.

Fruity Chicken Salad

oh-so-delicious

two chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

one golden delicious apple, chopped

big handful of cherries, pitted and chopped

3 large stalks celery, chopped

small spoonful of sour cream

large spoonful of mayonnaise