Curried butternut squash soup

Ladypants has a tooth issue and can't chew, so I made her a soup she can eat through a straw. Soup is easy, throw a bunch of things in a pot and simmer for about half an hour, puree and eat it. Couldn't be simpler. For this soup, I boiled the the things to the left.

I used the core and leaves of the cauliflower but took them out before pureeing because I didn't like the look of their texture. So to speak. I'll serve it with a dollop of plain yogurt.

It was sweet with a good balance of spice. I didn't add any sugar, so the sweetness must have come from the butternut squash. I used Madras curry powder; very mild, floral and aromatic. I wasn't a huge fan of the balkan yogurt I used. It turned all grainy and it looked like my soup curdled.

Spaghetti squash vegetale

In an effort to make something besides pizza, I ventured into the realm of the healthy for something vegetarian.

1 spaghetti squash
olive oil
1 carrot, 6thed
some red pepper, finely diced
handful of spinach
small handful of walnuts, roughly chopped
fresh thyme
bit o butter
1/2 C fresh grated parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 400. Split squash in two, hollow out halves and discard seeds. Brush or spoon oil over cut side of squash, salt and pepper it to taste. Pile carrots under overturned halves to steam and roast with the squash until soft, about 40 minutes. Let cool a bit, then scrape out flesh with a fork to get lots of long squash strands. Chop carrots and add to squash with all the other ingredients and mix up. Stir in parmesan last and serve right away. Mine looked something like this:

The crunch of the walnuts and uncooked red peppers was very nice against the soft texture of the squash and other vegetables. Walnuts go really well with thyme. I think I roasted the squash too long or mixed it too much because the 'spaghetti' strands got kinda mushy. Never a good word when describing food.