Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

Aloha Sew Crafty Angel Readers! Hope you are all doing wonderful.

Each month I feel so happy and blessed to be returning to share something over here as one of Angel's Contributing Angels. If you haven't met the other "Angels" yet, stop by and tell them hello! I'm Debbie from Heartbeats~ Soul Stains.

Angel has some great recipes and I love her soup ones: she has her Southwestern Chicken & Black Bean Soup recipe and her hearty Chicken & Dumplings recipe you might want to check out.

I love soup, all kinds of soup. I often eat soup as my entire meal. My kids and husband will often ask where's the food? Hmmmmmm well, obviously they haven't caught on to the amazingness of soup YET!!!!

Here's a recipe for my Butternut Squash Soup, hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

 

Ingredients:

1 Large Butternut Squash- peeled and cubed (discard seeds)

5 cups fat-free chicken broth- you may use vegetable if you prefer

1 medium onion- chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1 medium red bell pepper- chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic- peeled and minced

2 TBSP sugar- more can be added if you'd like

1 tsp ground ginger-if you have time minced ginger is so much better

1 tsp ground sage

1/2 cup heavy cream

Cinnamon or Nutmeg, for garnish

 

Directions:

Place all the ingredients except heavy cream and cinnamon/nutmeg into a large pot. Bring everything to a boil, once it's boiling cover the pot and simmer for just about 30 minutes. You'll be done simmering once the squash is tender.

If you have a hand immersion blender (like I wish I had) you can puree the soup until it's completely smooth right in the pot. If you are like me and haven't gotten one yet :( let the soup cool a little and work in batches and puree in a regular blender. It turns out the same but I must admit seeing others use the immersion blender I can see it's much easier and there are less dishes.

Once the soup is silky smooth (if you used a stand up blender return all to the your large pot) add in the heavy cream. Simmer until all the soup is heated through. This is the time to taste and see if it needs a little more salt or sugar. I prefer my soup to have a light sweet taste, you can add more or less to your liking.

The heavy cream does add a few calories and some fat but it sure does make this wonderful soup delicious. If you want an ultra healthy version you can omit the heavy cream.

Since sizes of squash may vary; when adding in the chicken broth if it seems like it's too much or too little add less. You want the liquid to just go over the top of your ingredients.

When serving add a little pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg to the top! Enjoy :)

What kind of soup do you like? Do you make homemade soups for your family?

Debbie Tom 

Blog:  Heartbeats~ Soul Stains

Homemade Heating Pad

Hi there Sew Crafty Angel readers! I'm so happy to be back sharing as one of Angel's Contributing Angels. This is such a fun opportunity to meet new people and Angel is one of the sweetest bloggers out there. She's always fun and full of inspiration.

Unfortunately, I missed sharing with you all last month due to Hurricane Iselle coming right at us over here in Hawaii. It did eventually downgrade to a Tropical Storm but those huge winds and wind gusts sure felt like a full Hurricane to me!

   

Fun Craft Paperweight Project

Aloha readers of Sew Crafty Angel! I'm Debbie one of Angel's Contributing Angles (swing over and meet the other Angels) visiting from my home over at Heartbeats~ Soul Stains.

I hope everyone is having a great July. We are in the full swing of summer and enjoying the extra time to spend with the kids before they head back to school in August.

The kids and I started out making paperweights that then also became coasters. I thought it would be fun to share our little project with all of you over here on Angel's fun and ever so crafty blog.

Fun Craft Paperweight

 

Materials:

• Square tile- (can be picked up in the bath isles at a hardware store)

• Felt- (any color you prefer, we used white since it's what we had on hand) cut felt pieces into squares, exact size of tile

• Foam Glue

• Mod Podge Gloss

• Mod Podge Clear Acrylic Sealer

• Foam Brushes

• a piece of copy paper with a saying, quote, picture or anything you would like printed on it. Cut paper a little smaller than tile (you want room around paper on all 4 sides when it's placed on tile)

Let's Make This:

• Place tile upside down (flat side/nice side down). Go around edges of tile and a little in the middle with foam glue.

• Once you feel you have enough glue on tile place previously cut felt square on glue. Press gently so glue doesn't bleed through too much.

• Turn tile over, place on paper or newspaper. This will be your work area. If glue has bled through the felt it may start to stick to the paper. Move it around once in a while just in case.

• Put a good amount of mod podge gloss on a paper plate (you can always add more). With foam brush "paint" a thin coat on the nice/flat side of tile.

• Immediately place the paper you have made to be your decoration (printed saying, scripture, picture, quote etc) on to the tile with the mod podge gloss on it.

• Try and press gently avoiding making any bubbles or wrinkles in the paper.

• On top of your paper that is now on the tile "paint" a light coat of mod podge gloss over the printed paper. Let sit for 15 minutes

• Paint one more coat of mod podge gloss on top of your printed paper. It should be pretty well stuck by now. Let sit for at least one hour

• Spray a very light coat of the mod podge clear acrylic sealer on top of your tile and picture. Let sit overnight.

Your project is now ready to be used and enjoyed. These can be made to be used for anything you feel like creating. If you decide to turn these in to coaster all you need to do is add little rubber "feet" on each corner.

There are no limits and I really think it's something that you can use to inspire others with something touching written or typed on top of. Have fun and be as creative as you'd like :)

Do you have a saying, quote, scripture or picture you want to make a fun craft paperweight with? Got someone in mind you want to make one or several for?