Parsnip, Leek and Potato Soup

One of my coworkers is legitimately the queen of soups. She has a new amazing creation almost every day, most from vegetables she picked from her own garden. This inspired me to start experimenting with different vegetable mixes, which quickly lead to disasters like the turnip and chickpea situation (never again will I touch another turnip). Now I've learned to not make so much soup that I could feed the Duggars and to use ingredients that I'm slightly more comfortable with.

This one turned out really tasty and it didn't require much more than just the vegetables. I asked my coworker what spices she recommended using with a soup like this and she mentioned that the leeks have a special enough flavour that you don't need much more than salt and pepper - she was right!

This one won't take you more than 40 minutes from start to finish and makes enough to feed 2-3 people.

Ingredients:

• 1 large parsnip
• 2 small potatoes
• 1 leek
• 1 small onion
• Butter
• Nutmeg
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 cups vegetable stock

Roasted pumpkin & acorn squash soup

Now that fall is almost over, I've decided to get my act together and post about this yummy fall soup I made. Because this morning I scraped ice off my car and it reminded me that this is happening soon:

And I want to enjoy as many pumpkin and squash recipes as I can until then!

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 small pumpkin
• 1 small acorn squash (I had a gigantic one so I had a lot of leftover roasted squash to eat)
• Dry or fresh rosemary, basil, oregano (I used dry rosemary and oregano but fresh basil)
• Pine nuts
• 1 apple
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Butter
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Creamy butternut squash & pear soup

I love squash. Any kind of squash: spaghetti, acorn,  zucchini, pumpkin, butternut. Especially butternut squash. It's delicious, versatile, filling, and despite being almost impossible to cut and peel, fairly easy to cook. One of the easiest and best ways to use it is to make it into a creamy soup, which I do a lot. You can test it out with different ingredients too - sometimes I mix it with carrots and celery, sometimes apples. This time I used pears since we had an enormous amount at home (this happens often thanks to my mom's need to fill those grocery bags to the very top).

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Servings: 5-6

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash
• 2 small white onions
• 2 pears
• Butter
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups chicken/vegetable stock