Simplicity

Vegan Cream of Celery Soup

2 cups chopped celery, divided
2 cups chopped carrots, divided
4 TBSP oil
2 cups diced red onion
3 TBSP flour
6 cups hot vegetable broth (preferably homemade), divided
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup soy milk (or cream for the vegetarians)

     In a small saucepan add 1 cup celery, 1 cup carrots, and 1 cup vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil and cook until just tender, about 4 minutes.  Drain and reserve both the vegetable broth and the cooked veggies.
     In a large saucepan, over medium high heat, warm the oil.  Add the onions and saute until clear.  Whisking, add the flour and cook for 2 minutes, making sure the flour does not brown.  Add 5 cups vegetable broth and whisk until the mixture boils, making sure you scrape the bottom of the pan.  Add the 1 cup uncooked celery and 1 cup uncooked carrots.  Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat, simmering for 30 minutes.  When the vegetables are soft, strain the soup through a sieve and puree the vegetables in a blender with the reserved vegetable broth until creamy.  Stir the puree into the liquid.  Stir in the soy milk or cream and heat slowly.  Serve with the reserved vegetables spooned into each bowl.
My kids absolutely loved this soup!  My daughter, who does not prefer soup said, "I finally like a soup!"

     " If they answer not your call, walk alone, walk alone."
                                                                 - Gandhi

     " Gandhi pursued simplicity not out of guilt but rather out of necessity,
        for the sake of his own spiritual health."
                                                                  - Philip Yancey

     " How carefully do I attend to Jesus' warning against the danger of gaining the
       whole world and losing one's soul?  Jesus' lifestyle, I must admit,
       had much more in common with Gandhi than with mine."
                                                                  - P.Y.

     "So the last will be first and the first will be last."
                                                                   - Jesus, Matthew 20:16
                       

A Kind Appeal

Old Fashioned Red Bean Stew
1 pound veggie sausage
1 yellow cooking onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 quart tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp fresh thyme
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
4 cups precooked red beans
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper


     In a large dutch oven, brown the sausage in a little olive oil.  Add the onion, tomatoes, salt, bay leaf, black pepper, garlic, thyme, and diced potatoes and cook until the vegetables are soft.  Add the beans and simmer to blend the flavors, about 10 minutes.  Fold in the chopped green peppers.  Serve immediately.  This is delicious with cornbread and served on a cold, rainy day.

Speak not in anger.  Little children feel

A million times more keenly than you guess;

You gain more quickly through a kind appeal,

And win to greater goals with a caress;

Ask not that babes shall understand each word-

The land from which they come is very still;

You, too, were years in learning what you heard,

And even now you err in good and ill.

                                         - Grace E. Hall             

As long as this exists...

Cashew Banana Ice-Cream

3 cups frozen sliced bananas (4-5 overripe bananas)
1/2 cup cashew butter
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 - 1/3 cup pure maple syrup (or agave nectar)

     In a food processor, process the bananas until they are roughly chopped.  Add the cashew butter, the salt, and syrup.  I only add a bit of syrup at a time and taste test until desired.  Puree until very smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. Serve sprinkled with semi-sweet chocolate chips.

As long as this exists...

by Anne Frank

"As long as this exists," I thought, "and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy."  The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God.  Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of  nature.  As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be.  And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.