28 Day Challenge.... Day 2

Soup, Soup, Soup!  Love making a big pot of soup on a chilly night.  So, for tonight I fired up my crockpot early in the day and made Sweet Holy Deliciousness Soup from My Beef With Meat.  I made a double batch so there will be enough for tomorrow's lunch.  My only substitute was that I used a butternut squash instead of the sweet potatoes.  If you don't have garam masala spice on hand, sub out curry powder or chili powder.  Go easy on the red pepper if you don't like the heat as it seems to intensify as it cooks long in the crock pot.  I cooked my soup on the high temperature setting.  Just throw everything in, cover and go!  Don't bother about sauté.  

A note about veggie broths.  This is a staple in my kitchen for the plant-based diet.  I use Better Than Bouillon brands because they taste amazing and are oil free.  I use a bit less of the concentrate per water ratio just to control sodium levels a bit.  You can find these in most every grocery store chain. Make sure you look for the organic vegetable label.

A Brief Word About Goals

Now is the time to set a goal for yourself if you are doing the challenge.  There are many ways you can meet the 28 day challenge.  Engine 2 offers 3 levels: Volunteer Firefighter- learning about the Plant-based diet and add more plants to your current diet; Fire Cadet where you gradually eliminate animal based food from your diet or Firefighter-jump in 100%.  My goal?  Since I have already been eating plant based iI want to get more greens into my day and eliminate all oil. What I will be sharing is how I go about this every day.

Dessert!  Since my goal is to add more greens to my diet I made this amazing smoothie.  Straight from my daughter Summer's recipe: Apple juice, frozen spinach, frozen pineapple, small piece of fresh ginger.  Mmmm, good stuff.