Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Feelin' At Home

Cardio workout at home - Billy Blanks - Cardio Bootcamp DVD- 30 minutes. Whew!

Last week my husband purchased a few very large sweet potatoes, but I didn't want to make the typical sweet potatoes and marshmallows. Meghan over at Pinkdumbbells.com posted a link to this recipe for sweet potato minestrone. Today was the day I put a couple of those large sweet potatoes to good use. I like this recipe because you don't need to be exact with the measurements. It says to use large sweet potatoes, but I've seen sweet potatoes as big as footballs... I guess it's all relative to what you have on hand. The flavors are a little different than we're used to for regular minestrone, but it really is yummy, it's vegetarian, and makes for a wonderful cold weather soup to warm the soul.

Here's a photo of my little bowl of soup right before digging in:


I still have to work on my food photography technique, like cleaning up around the rim of the bowl and pairing it up with some crusty, whole grain bread. I was hungry and I didn't want to spend the time prepping soup for a picture. After all, it is soup, not one of my kids! It is one colorful and tasty bowl of soup, so maybe it didn't need further embellishments.

Sweet Potato Minestrone From Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 2 large stalks celery, chopped
* 2 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 (28 ounce) can Italian-style diced tomatoes
* 5 cups vegetable broth
* 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
* 2 large carrots, sliced thin
* 6 ounces green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
* 5 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

Heat oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Saute onion, celery, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, with the juice, broth, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans and garlic. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.


Peace

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Ok...I stop by to say hi and leave hungry!! That soup looks good. I think it's a pretty cool photo-with the steam coming off!

Hope you are doing well....love ya,Dee

Backofpack said...

Sounds good - we're going to try it! Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I think your photography technique is great! I thought it was a photo from a cooking site or something! Can you believe I've never liked sweet potatoes? I'm weird. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh. My. Now that looks marvelous. Oooh. If I weren't on the Tony plan I would so run to the store to make this soup. How perfect for a chilly day.

Your photography is beautiful. I wouldn't change a thing.

Donna said...

OH yes, that soup does look yummy! I think I'll print that off and try it. Thanks for posting that. I love sweet potatoes, but can you believe that I have never had them with marshmallows, like in a casserole. I normally bake them or just whip them.

Steve Stenzel said...

I haven't popped in my Billy Blanks tapes in a while!! And good lookin' soup!!

Irene said...

Dede,
Thanks! It's even better the day after!

Michelle,
You're welcome! Let me know how it turns out.

Simply Pink,
I like playing with the settings on my pictures, especially up close or macro pics. Thanks.

Evelyne,
It was good. I'm still thrilled for you getting to work with Tony! Having Tony guide you is probably worth skipping the soup!

Donna,
It's definitely a different take on sweet potatoes. It's one recipe I'm planning to revisit again.

Steve,
Thanks for visiting! I have so much to learn with food photos... I hadn't worked out with BB in a while. I'm feeling DOMS in my arms to day, which took me by surprise because the workout wasn't that difficult. There's obviously muscles I've neglected... Oops!

NotSoccer Mom said...

i like the way the steam looks in the pic. forget cleaning up the bowl!

Irene said...

NSM,
Thanks!