Apparently, it is fall here in LA. I’ve yet to see weatherly evidence of this, as it is still a balmy 25-30 degrees Celcius each afternoon.  To encourage more autumnal energy, I made a delicious and hearty soup for lunch this week.

Recipe:

I made Oh She Glow’s 10 Spice Vegetable Soup (recipe here).  I used the microwave at work to heat it up.  I used these glass storage containers because they are freezer, dishwasher, and microwave-friendly. I also had half a piece of whole wheat pita bread with the soup, and a Medjool date for dessert.

Snacks:

• Morning = Yogurt
• Afternoon = Banana and hardboiled egg

                

Notes:

To keep the bananas from getting squished in my lunch, I used a banana carrier like this one. I also peeled the hardboiled eggs on Sunday so they were super easy to eat each day.

The soup recipe makes A LOT – enough for me and my husband to have 3-4 lunches each.  If you don’t want to share, you can put individual servings into freezer containers.  Dethaw in the fridge overnight before you want to eat it.

This soup is super easy, but you do need to soak some raw cashews in a bowl of water overnight (see below), and use a blender to create the cashew cream.

              

I keep the 10-Spice Blend in a mason jar so it is ready to go when I am making soup.

             

Grocery List:

• Garlic
• Sweet or yellow onion
• Carrots
• Red bell pepper
• Butternut squash (*I buy the pre-cut kind!)
• Celery
• Bananas
• 2 bay leaves (*optional)
• Baby spinach or de-stemmed and torn kale leaves
• 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas or other bean
• 1 (28-ounce/796-mL) can diced tomatoes
• Raw cashews
• Medjool dates
• Low sodium vegetable broth
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Whole wheat pita bread
• Eggs
• Yogurt

To make the 10-Spice Blend you need:

• Paprika
• Garlic powder
• Dried oregano
• Onion powder
• Dried basil
• Dried thyme
• Black pepper
• Fine grain sea salt
• Cayenne pepper

Enjoy!

❤ Kailea