Spiced Squash Soup

         It has been a long time since I posted for multiple reasons, mostly school has become crazy so I haven't had a lot of time to type up everything I make or take pictures, but also because my moms friend hired me to cater a party for her of about 20 people. It was extremely successful and so opened a new door for me. The mom of the lady who hosted the party asked if I would be willing to make her some individual serving frozen meals.  Of course I was super excited and got started right away, I made six meals, each with a vegetable, protein, and starch.  I experimented with things that I could just under cook and have them still be food safe so that when they were defrosted and microwaved, they wouldn't be overcooked. A week ago she asked for more meals, so I made seven.
         One thing I found that worked really well to be re heated was soup, and with fall starting, I decided to use fall veggies and flavors.  This soup is one of the meals I came up with, a wonderfully sweet but healthy creamy squash soup that is super easy to make.  Because it is made in a crockpot then pureed, I was able to just put all the veggies and broth in, then leave it all day while making the other six meals.

Spiced Squash Soup:

  Ingredients:

• 1 kabocha squash, peeled and cut into one inch cubes (butternut squash works too)
• 4 carrots
• 1/2 onion
• 1 apple
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice

  Instructions:

1. Roughly cut the onion into large chunks, the carrots into 1 inch pieces, and the apple into one inch cubes after peeing and coring it.  Place them and the squash into your crockpot and turn it on to high:
   
2. Pour chicken broth into a microwave safe pitcher or pan and heat until just simmering, then pour the broth over the veggies and cover the crock pot.  Cook on high for 5-6 hours, until the squash is soft when poked with a fork:
   
3. Once cooked, ladle 1/3 of the mixture into blender and liquefy, then strain through a fine mesh strainer.  Do the same with the rest of the veggies in two more batches:
   
4. Stir in honey and spices and enjoy: