Butternut Squash Soup and Sweet Potato Brownies

I love cooking for my friends. That's especially true when my husband is travelling. It's nice to have a few more mouths to feed without ending up with so many leftovers.

Yesterday a friend of mine came over with her kids from Hamilton for lunch and then a visit to our local YMCA to let the kids burn off some energy. Our menu: butternut squash soup, pizza for the kids and some sweet potato brownies.

Butternut Squash Soup

I believe that I've posted a recipe for this soup before but it deserves to be revisited because I love making it so much - it's probably the easiest soup to make.
1 Ontario onion, chopped coarsely3 celery ribs (from the U.S. I believe - one of the non-local ingredients I buy over the Winter because a soup is bland without it)2 Ontario carrots, chopped2 tbsp Ontario butter1 tbsp oil1 large Ontario potato, peeled and chopped1 medium Ontario butternut squash, peeled and chopped1 litre chicken brothsalt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, to taste

In a soup pot, add the butter and oil and then the onion, celery and carrots. Sweat them out and then add the potato and squash as well as the broth. Simmer until potato and squash are softened. Pour the soup into a blender and puree until smooth. Add spices to your liking. Serve. It really is that simple! So yummy too!

It's so unfortunate that my kid just doesn't like soups. I can usually get her to take in a few spoonfuls but it's an ongoing battle. My friends' kids are picky eaters as well so while I was at the Western Fair Market I picked up a pizza from Uncle Dad's Pizza Palace. I like buying their pizzas. It's my version of the supermarket frozen pizza, but probably a lot better for you since they're all made homemade and made using fresh ingredients. We really enjoy the thin crust pizzas. The typical deal is 4 large or 6 small pizzas for $20.00. And they usually throw in a garlic loaf in too.

Both the soup and the pizza were a great hit.

For dessert,..

Sweet Potato Brownies

I've had this dessert on my list of recipes to try for a long time now. It always seemed that when I was looking to make dessert I'd never have any sweet potatoes on hand. I had all of the ingredients this time! This recipe is another one from my Clean Eating Magazine collection.

1 cup flour1/2 cup cocoa powder1 tbsp cinnamon1 tsp baking powder1/3 tsp sea salt1 cup cooked Ontario sweet potato1/2 cup agave nectar (I used Ontario maple syrup)1/4 cup olive oil1 tsp vanilla extract6 egg whites

Frosting:

1/2 cup low-fat plain cream cheese3 tbsp agave nectar (I used Ontario maple syrup)1 tbsp cocoa powder1/2 tsp cinnamon

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. In a food processor, combine sweet potato, syrup, oil and vanilla. Puree until combined and smooth. Gradually mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients, until just combined (Note--I found this part to be very dry and had to add a tablespoon of milk to bring it together). In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until fluffy. Then, gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Poor batter into a prepared 9x9 inch baking pan. Bake for 16 - 18 minutes at 350F (Note -- I left mine in much longer than this - 35 minutes or so).

To make frosting, simply whisk ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

This recipe was good, but not excellent. I had to make a few tweaks to it and there are still a couple of other adjustments that I could have made. The kids really enjoyed them though, which is what counts. At least they consumed some veggies with their dessert!