Mexican Hash - Butternut, bell pepper, chorizo, spinach and eggs with guacamole

 

I can't take any credit for this one, but I thought I'd quickly share this one so more people can enjoy it. This is a Mexican inspired hash made from chunks of butternut with red bell pepper, chorizo, spinach and some tasty eggs. This lovely recipe comes from a blog I'm planning on exploring further called 'every last bite'. I did make some minor adjustments, so you just decide which suggestion you want to follow. ;) I changed some amounts and cooking times I think and I switched out the spicy pepper by just a sprinkling of cayenne, since I don't do spicy well (I also used mild chorizo). I've made this twice now, for my sister and for friends, and most of them were big fans as well. 

On the original blog it's advertised as a breakfast food, but I've yet to try that, seems a bit heavy to my tastes. I made it for dinner both times and my sister took leftovers to work the day after and successfully reheated it in the microwave (without the egg, just bake one separately, or go without).

Here's quick overview with photo's as to what to do, but definitely go to the original blog for even better photo's! (I just have my camera phone :p)

Dinner/Lunch and apparently Breakfast - 3 portions - 450 cal (with guac) - 50min

(35,4g fat; 29,6g carbs and 18,5g protein)

Butternut Pumpkin Soup with Sour Cream and Roasted Seeds

The Butternut is back, bitches! Sorry, just enthusiastic. This time in the form of a comforting soup. It was a bit of an experiment since I read somewhere that for a lot of pumpkin kinds you can leave the skin on as long as you make sure it's soft enough by cooking/roasting/...! This seemed like a game changer, since removing the peel of a pumpkin is just so much work, especially if you don't have a decent big knife like I do at Uni... :( Plus it would means wasting less, so I'm all for it. I'm also roasting the seeds to add to my soup as a crunch at the end, so I literally used the whole pumpkin! I wanted to make it more an oriental tasting soup, but didn't have any ginger and I'm already adding coconut milk to my dinner. But I'm thinking an excellent version of this soup would be with ginger, maybe some lemon grass, definitely a bunch of coriander and coconut milk. I did end up adding a bit of (light) sour cream to cut through that comforting, slightly sweet pumpkin flavour. Since I wanted some more colour and thought it would go well I added some (frozen) parsley and of course my toasted pumpkin seeds.

I decided to back to the two tier recipe format. I thought it unnecessary with 'easy' recipes, but honestly I like having the room to give you all the tips & tricks that I can which makes the recipe a little chaotic so it really does seem handy to have a shorthand version of it. Plus I have no doubt that most have little interest in my ramblings and are just looking for some recipe inspiration. If anyone has suggestions on how to make the recipes more readable/useable, be sure to let me know. Do you prefer them with photos at various steps? Plus I made a nice picture for you guys this time even! So I might do a little plating section again. Consider this my wintry valentine soup. Look at me, being all topical. This is another recipe of my own design so I might update this if/when I perfect/improve this.

Soup - 6 or more servings -  120cal/serving (800cal/whole pot) - 30min + 40min cooking

 (4.7g fat, 1.2g saturated; 19.3g carbs and 3.2g protein)