Healthy Thanksgiving Soup

I thought I would share some of my healthy thanksgiving recipes throughout this week just incase anyone wanted some healthy meal alternatives. Since the fall is here and winter is right around the corner, comfort food becomes essential during the cold months. A great comfort food for when it's cold is sweet potato and pumpkin soup. This soup is perfect because it is a blended soup, it is made with only vegetables and spices, and it's very nutritious. 

What you will need

• 1 Pie Pumpkin
• 1 Large Sweet Potato
• 1 Green Pepper
• Olive Oil
• 1 tbs of minced garlic
• 3 tsp of red pepper
• 2 tsp of pepper
• 1 tbs of ground coriander
• 3 tsp of oregano
• 1 pinch of salt

Start by setting your oven to 400 F degrees and begin washing and chopping up your pumpkin and sweet potato. 

Then you want to wrap the chunks in foil and drizzle on some olive oil and close the foil wrapping. Then place them in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, once they are tender you can remove them. While their baking start buy adding 1 table spoon of olive oil, 1 table spoon of minced garlic, 3 teaspoons of red pepper, 2 teaspoons of pepper, 1 table spoon of ground coriander, 3 teaspoons of oregano, and 1 pinch of salt to a medium sized soup pot. Let the spices simmer on low heat while you wait for the pumpkin and sweet potato.

You will then add your chopped green pepper and the chucks of pumpkin and sweet potatoes to a blender or food processor, blend till smooth. 

Once you have the soup pureed to your liking, you then want to add the puree to your soup pot that has been set to simmer.

Once you have added the puree you then want to mix the soup on low heat. If you prefer a creamier texture you can add in 1/2 cup of almond milk.

This is what the finished product should look like. It is a very tasty soup and it only took me a little over an hour to make. Be on the look out for more recipes this week!

Cheating Made Easy.

This may be a little odd but during my challenge I did not step on the scale at all, mainly because I did not want to psych myself out by just seeing a number change, I wanted this challenge to mainly focus on the progress picture because then you are seeing results first hand. A few people were curious to know how much weight I lost during the challenge, even after the challenge was completed I refused to step on the scale because weight in my mind it is just a number and we should never let it control our healthy habits. Even with a couple people still hounding me about weighing myself I could not escape the scale at my doctors office. As I sit in the lobby I think of what the scale will say my weight is, I know I have nothing to worry about because I have lost weight and majority of my clothes are baggy now, but it's the fact that I am stepping on the exact scale that read my highest weight to me back in 2010. I was 179.6 pounds back then; that is the time where I ran into a few health problems and those being combined with my horrible eating habits just became a recipe for tremendous weight gain. The doctor calls me to the back room to take my weight, I stand with angst as I wait for the scale to calculate my current number that defines my bodys current state and just when I felt like it was not going to be a drastic change the scale read 142.3 pounds. I was ecstatic, I could not believe I lost almost 14 pounds during this challenge, since I weighed myself a few weeks before this challenge and I was at 156 pounds. I thought that was a great way to end the 30 Day Challenge with, I know this challenge was the best decision I have made for my health and body in awhile and now it's not only a challenge but a lifestyle.

The 30 Day Challenge is completed, and now I just want to eat any cheat meal I can get my hands on. For the last 3 days I have found myself wanting to eat something bad but when it's right in front of me is when I now no longer want it, I just can't seem to even stomach the idea of eating something that is unhealthy for my body, yet I still wanted a super sweet treat. Just this week I came across an email from the Tone It Up girls, it was about a 3 ingredient cookie. I didn't open the email because of course it was going to be a healthy recipe and at that time I was really wanting a normal dessert and not a healthy dessert. After a couple days spent having no sweet treats I decided to open the email and try their cookie recipe. Boy was I missing out, these cookies hit the sweet tooth spot and I felt awesome while eating them because I know that they are 100% good for you. The 3 ingredient cookie recipe can be found here.

I followed their recipe when I made them and it made 11 huge cookies, I might make the cookies a little smaller next time and I plan to use pumpkin purée instead of bananas. You can also add in some other fruit to the original recipe, just remember to always play around with healthy clean-eating recipes because you will always end up with a better version (your healthy rendition) of the original. I'm glad this 30 Day Challenge altered my previous eating habits because a lot of people were warning me about if I binge right after the challenge then I will gain everything back plus some more. Ironically I think by making myself stay committed to this challenge for 30 days change my habits and now I can't even stomach the idea of processed and unhealthy foods.