Soup Night

Partway into my first Paleo challenge, I despaired that my cookbook shelf was full of resources that would never again be useful to me.  All those recipes for foods that don't work for my body.  Last night, I realized with delight that I can modify the living daylights out of those recipes!  Show a little creativity, Julie!  So now I'm on a journey to delve into those cookbooks, changing up ingredients to suit my new lifestyle.  The recipes below are no-brainers (substituting coconut oil and coconut milk for butter and cream), but I plan to do some more in-depth experimentation, illustrating what can be substituted for body, flavor, texture.

I'm warning you ahead of time, the Fresh Tomato Soup was so good, people were fighting over it.  It was clearly the winner in the soup race yesterday.

Fresh Tomato Soup

6 T. coconut oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

½ c. chicken stock

3 lb. chopped tomatoes

1 t. coarse salt

¼ t. pepper

1 c. fresh basil, loosely packed

½ c. coconut cream

Melt coconut oil, add onions and garlic.  Cook until onions are translucent.  Add chicken stock, tomatoes, salt and pepper.  Cook until tomatoes are falling apart (5 minutes).  Stir in basil.  Remove from heat.  Let cool slightly and blend with immersion blender.   Add coconut cream.  Season with salt and pepper.  Garnish with fresh basil.

***edit***
Know what goes great with a comfort food like Tomato Soup?  Cheese Crackers.  Try these from Nourish Bakery! They specialize in grain-free baked goods for your healthy lifestyle!

Curried Zucchini Soup

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon curry powder

sea salt to taste

1 clove garlic, minced

red pepper flakes to taste           

4 small zucchini, diced

1 quart chicken stock

Heat the oil in a large pot. Stir in the onion, and season with curry powder and salt. Cook and stir until onion is tender. Add garlic and red pepper flakes.  Stir in zucchini, and cook until tender. Pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minutes.

Remove soup from heat. Puree.  Serve with a dollop of coconut cream.

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I was practicing my power snatch at the gym the other day, but I wasn't doing as well as when Superman was here.  I couldn't figure out what the difference was.  Why wasn't it feeling right?  After I got home, I reviewed the video Superman had taken that morning.  Ah!  At his recommendation, I had removed my sneakers that day, and it had made a world of difference.  Just that little bit of pitching forward from my running shoes got in the way of really great technique.  The trouble is, I'm not willing to do box jumps (or metal bench jumps, as is required by the dearth of equipment at my rec center) in my stocking feet.  So I'll have to deal during a wod.  But for pre-wod practice, I'm going to take my shoes off from now on.