Butternut Squash Soup

A recipe for 6-8 servings

2 pounds total of butternut squash, acorn squash, pumpkin halved and seeded

½ cup sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 chipotle pepper
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1 bay leaf
1 pinch cumin
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch cayenne pepper
4 chicken or vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Toasted Pumpkin seeds
8 teaspoons light sour cream
Season to taste with crushed red pepper and lemon juice

In a heavy sauce pot set over medium heat cover the squash, onion, garlic, chipotle pepper, bay leaf and remaining spices with the chicken stock. Cook the mixture until the squash is tender. Remove the chipotle pepper and bay leaf. Carefully add the mixture to a food processor and work till a smooth texture is achieved adding more stock to thin the consistency and finish the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm garnished with a teaspoon of sour cream and a few pumpkin seeds

A New New Year's Resolution

Far too often a New Year’s resolution to be healthier is a veiled allusion to be thinner at the expense of being healthy no matter what size that happens to be. Well, no more.

The New Year is here again

Time to get to getting thin

It seems that I’ve been here before

And then I pledged there’d be no more

No more diets no more pills

No more useless treadmills

No more being what I’m not

Oh how many gym memberships I’ve bought

No more striving for that size

That I was when I was FIVE!

No more tears and sweat and blood

No more baths in artesian mud

No more weigh ins every week

No more snacks I’ll have to sneak

No more worries that I am fat

Some even say that’s where it’s at

So this year I seek to be

A healthy vibrant same old me

Same old me same old size

This year there is a New Prize

The prize is not thin and svelte

But will be measured how it’s felt

I resolve to feel good even if

The scale peaks out when it’s tipped

My self-worth doesn’t come you see

From being like the waifs on TV

Momma and Daddy weren’t like that

Hmm they were happy and they were fat!

This year my resolution is new

I don’t have to look like you

I like me the way I am

Besides in shape can also mean round!