You have to spend a few minutes in the shower scrubbing mustache adhesive off your cleavage.

You mustachioed assholes. Thanks for an awesome birthday.

Scotty was not meant for a mustache.

SPORTS!

Another Season of Soup participant. Soup, oh beautiful soup! My sixth soup should be posted tomorrow. Today, I’m eating another batch of the Southwestern Chicken Soup, which proved so good I made it again!

ionlyweardresses:

I’m starting the Nutritionista’s “season of soup” challenge and re-making one of my favorite soup recipes!

I started a tradition in college where I would cook soup every Sunday and share it with friends.  I kept it going until graduate school but when I started dating John, I stopped.  John always jokes “there are so many recipes you talk about that you never make for me,” so I decided to correct that:D  This is one of my favorite soups and is from the cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.  There’s a great melding of flavors:  sage, roasted garlic, bay leaf, and fennel but the ingredient list is short.  My contribution to the recipe is to add sautéed apples to the top as a garnish - it might sound odd but it’s delicious!

White Bean and Roasted Garlic Peasant Soup with Sautéed Apples

**

Original Recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Sautéed Apples are my addition.

**

For the Apples:

2 Apples any kind, except Granny Smiths. Aim for sweet instead of bitter, and preferably very ripe.

1 tbsp of butter or oil

A pinch of salt

Warm oil or butter slightly and add apples.  When apples are slightly tan and crisp, add salt and stir for two minutes.  Set aside.

*

For the Soup (Makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium-size onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

A few dashes fresh pepper

1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed

4 cups vegetable broth (*see recipe at end), or 2 bouillon cubes dissolved in 4 cups water

3 cups cooked great northern (white) beans, drained (or canned beans, drained and rinsed)

3 fresh sage leaves, chopped

1 bay leaf

Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste 

*

Two heads garlic, roasted (Preheat oven to 350. peel off as much of the papery skin as you can and put garlic in the oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and, when cool, squeeze the garlic out or peel the skin away from each clove.)

Instructions

In a stockpot over medium-high heat saute the onions in the olive oil for 5 to 7 minutes.

Add the salt, black pepper, and fennel seeds; saute for 1 minute. Add the broth, beans, sag, and bay leaf, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Add the roasted garlic and puree in batches in a blender or preferably a food processor. Return to the post and add lemon juice. Serve garnished with fresh fennel leaves if you have some, and/or some peeled carrot and/or parsley.

I prefer to garnish with the apples - it’s absolutely delicious!

This soup is perfect for date night - a crusty loaf of whole wheat bread and a perfect salad and it makes a delicious dinner!

Soup, oh beautiful soup.

Hey hey hey! It’s the big day — time to announce the winner of the nine week Outside the Box Challenge!

You guys had some great reflections about the challenges. It looks like everyone struggled with the “Don’t Pour That Sugar” test. But it was interesting to see what other challenges you found easy or difficult. One girl’s hardest was another girl’s easiest! Just goes to show, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

And now it’s time to announce the winner! We’re so proud of how committed you guys were and so we decided that besides the Grand Prize winner, we also decided to give a second and third place prize because seriously, we wish we could just shower everyone with gifts to say thank you for the enthusiasm about this contest and just for reading our blogs and for choosing to try to go beyond your comfort zone.

The Grand Prize goes to…

Builtbylove

Second Prize goes to…

Anneonline

Third Prize goes to…

My Quirky Life

After using Random.org to select, we checked on each one of our winners to confirm that they had posted each week — and they did! Congrats, ladies!

Please email Rachel[at]SheddingIt[dot]com with your mailing address and to get all the details of your swag!!

Congrats to everyone; even if you didn’t win a prize along the way, we hope you got enough out of this challenge to make you feel like it was worthwhile. And just because the contest is over, please keep on pushing yourselves! Whenever you’re bored with your foods, workouts, or just with life, you can always go back and do a challenge again, maybe slightly differently this time, just to mix things up and keep it fresh. And to anyone who didn’t do the challenge, no worries — we’ll plan another one soon enough!

Like everyone else, the hardest thing for me was the no sugar day. I didn’t have a really hard time resisting it since I knew I had to be accountable (I need more accountability in my life on regular days to resist sugar!), but it was surprising how many things I eat on a regular basis had added sugar and how MUCH sugar was in it. I definitely won’t be buying Kashi Go Lean Crisp again! :)

LOVED all these challenges! I’m sad it’s over!

Teri

Hello all, it is I from My Quirky Life. I nearly forgot to submit this week! Looking back on every single one of the challenges I completed for Outside the Box Challenges, I think my absolute favorite probably was the Culinista Challenge. I enjoyed trying a recipe that I had never tried before. I enjoy using ingredients that I may never have used otherwise. I enjoyed being challenged. And I of course enjoyed having a kitchen win with the Almond Meal Pancakes. Looking back , there are things I would improve on if I am to make them again, but for my first time making them it worked out.

But every single challenge has definitely made me think more profoundly about this adventure I am partaking in. Has made me look into and think about the choices I make on this adventure. And for that, I thank Leah and Rachel for creating these weeks of challenges through Outside the Box Challenge.

All of the challenges were fun to participate in! I liked being given new ideas and I loved trying new things. Yes, some of the challenges were hard, but that’s the point. ;)

The hardest one for me was when I tried a new class at the gym. I had to get over my fears of going alone, going to something new, AND since it was an aqua fit class - I had to get over my fears of being in a bathing suit in public! I’m so glad I went though because it was such a fun class and I went many times after that!

The easiest challenge for me was anything involving cooking. I have recently started making more food from fresh ingredients, so when I heard of a challenge I started looking for recipes to fit it.

I can’t wait for more OTB Challenges! :}

-notgivingup.tumblr.com

I really loved this friendly competition. At times it really did push me outside my comfort zone. For the most part however, a lot of the challenges were things I do pretty regularly.

I’d say the hardest challenge was having a day with no sugar. Surprise. haha. While I’m not a big candy eater (chocolate once a month) and I eat a lot of fruit instead of junk food it was an eye opening experience to realize just how many things have sugar added to them even though you would think they wouldn’t. Obviously couldn’t eat my cereal for breakfast, but then I also couldn’t have my eggwhite/fake sausage/cheese English muffin because the Morningstar patty had added sugar as did the english muffin. Boo. Because I’m a college girl on the run, I’m constantly eating pre-packaged, somewhat processed, grab and go stuff. Frozen meals for dinner at work? That was a no-go too. In all, it was nice realizing that I really should watch the sugar a little bit more. It’s sneaking in when I’m not looking.

The easy things were making homemade things I would normally buy, writing down what I eat all day and trying something new at the gym. I love to cook (when I have time), I use MyPlate on a regular basis, and when pushed I’m quite an adventurous person.

All in all, I’m glad I discovered this challenge, and the community here on Tumblr. I look forward to the next opportunity to get Outside my Box.

xoxoxoxo

-Thinnerpeace