Soul Satisfying Soup

Hey!

First of all: Would any Madison readers like to get together for a 3 mile run on Sunday morning? I can’t really do anything on Saturday because we are going to be so rushed but I’d really love to run around this lake you speak of…on a nice soft trail, preferably? Email me if you are interested!

I found Ryan a ticket!! Thank you all so much for your suggestions—I ended up finding two one-way tickets that were much cheaper than getting a round trip. I think the total was a little less than $200—not too shabby for last minute on a holiday weekend! The only bad thing is that his flight leaves to go home on Sunday morning at 6:30 am! Poor Ryan…he will be a tired boy for sure but at least now he can finally meet my grandparents and I’ll have a date for the wedding!

Preview of my dress! Can you tell I love pink?

I bought this dress from a Charleston boutique over two years ago and have only worn it ONCE! If you haven’t noticed by now, I absolutely adore dresses and look for every excuse to buy a new one. Finding this one in the back of my closet was almost as good as buying a new one! The wedding is a garden wedding at 1:30 in the afternoon so I’m thinking this will be perfect. Still not sure about the outfit for the rehearsal dinner on Friday though!

This afternoon I headed to the gym after lunch for some cardio. I did a very sweaty 20 minutes on the stairmaster and then hopped on the treadmill to do some incline speed walking but stopped at 6 minutes. I think I was a bit dehydrated because all of a sudden I just felt insanely hungry and knew if I didn’t eat SOON it would be bad! That happens to me sometimes and its odd. I won’t feel hungry and then BAM hunger will hit and almost knock me over! Anyone?!

I raced home and had a nice substantial snack: an Oikos honey greek yogurt with 2 tbsp of MixMyGranola recovery mix and a slice of watermelon!

Sweet sweat!

After my snack I set forth on my task of making split pea soup! I know many of you will probably think I’ve lost my mind for making something like split pea soup in the dead of summer but its one of my very favorite meals and I had a big craving!

Here’s my recipe—I’ve never found one that beats it! Simple = better

Serves 4

2 cups dried split peas

6-7 cups water

1 onion, chopped

1 yam or sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

sea salt to taste

3/4 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp ground cumin

cayenne pepper to taste (I like a lot!)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. When its sizzling, add the chopped onion and cook for about 10 minutes or so on low/medium heat until the onions are super soft and almost starting to caramelize. Add the split peas, water and sweet potato and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about 30-40 minutes or until the peas are very soft and tender. Ladle about 75% of the soup into a blender and whirl until totally smooth (be very careful—soup is HOT!). Add the pureed soup back into the pot and stir to combine. Add the spices and season with salt to taste.

I love this soup so much because I can eat it all week long. It really gets better as the days pass and freezes nicely, too! Great to make when cooking on a budget!

I broke out my new bowl for my soup tonight—

Its my own personal ELR bowl!!!! How cute is that?!

I like big, deep bowls for oatmeal and cereal and shallow bowls for soup so this was perfect!

SPICY organic blue corn chip crumbs!

The best idea all day….

It was awful! I hated it!

I don’t care if split pea soup looks like (insert foul word here), I LOVE it and it satisfies my soul.

Dessert was the last SCM cookie + one big “crumb”—

I’m off to catch up on emails (couldn’t email all day because my server wasn’t working) and read. See you in the morning!

Click here for Michele’s contest! You could win (gasp!)  a 16 ounce jar of Coconut Mango Persimmon Butter AND an 8 ounce jar of Raw Almond Butter?both organic and Living Tree Community ?Alive? products. The contest ends tomorrow evening at 9 pm so enter now!