easiest homemade carrot soup

Carrots: good in so many ways. Good for eyes, even better for your skin. Super low calorie but dense and full of flavors. When columnists list superfoods, I'm always shocked why this isn't one of them. I could likely write all of my posts about the ways I use carrots, but I'll start here with something i think most of you would like. Extra easy, cheap, healthy and filling. All the taste comes from roasting.


Ingredients:

- 1/2 white onion, 1 clove garlic, 4 large carrots, all roughly chopped
- 1/2 tsp each curry, nutmeg and dried parsley; pinch of salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup of low sodium vegetable broth
- 1 tbl butter
- dollop of low fat sour cream and dried parsley



Directions: preheat oven to 450F.



In baking pan, pour 1/4 c of broth, vegetables, spices and butter. Cover with aluminum foil, bake for 30 min. Pour into blender, while hot, with remaining vegetable broth and puree until smooth. Top with sour cream. Makes 2 servings.

Adding parsnips is a great way to add spice.

Healthy Sweet Potatoes and Porkchops

For those of you looking for a healthy, easy and cost effective dinner, here it is. You will be amazed at how good it takes with so few ingredients. For those of you veggie's, the potatoes are a good side anyway!

Makes 4 hefty servings

Sweet Potatoes:

• Preheat the oven 400 F.
• Peel and cut 3 sweet potatoes into even sized chunks. Place in buttered dished, add 1/4 cup vegetable stock, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 min.
• While hot, remove aluminum foil and using a fork to mash potatoes. Add a dash of nutmeg, salt and white pepper. Sprinkle with diced walnuts and raisins.

Pork Chops:

• Blend together 2 tbls canola oil, 2 tbls white vinegar, 1/4 cup of unsweetened apple sauce, 1 clove of garlic, salt and pepper. Marinate 4 medium thickness pork chops for 1 - 2 hours.
  
• Heat 2 tbls of oil in pan. Dip both sides of each porkchop in bread crumbs. Cook until crispy on either side.