Make This Soup ..!

Lemon brightens it all up <3

Last week I recommitted myself to my diet .. and started the Couch to 5k running program with my husband.  I dug out some of my favorite recipes and went grocery shopping, eagerly packing my cart full of produce ... Yumm!  Tis the season, too, as there is so much 'coming in' to the Farmers' Market - we had our first batch of asparagus in season! Woot! 

One of the more curious recipes I dug into was a spinach and broccoli soup with avocado and broccoli sprout toasts.  Hello, delicious!! The soup is verrrry creamy, thanks to the addition of tahini instead of cream or milk, and it is relatively low-calorie ... and very delicious with the cute little avocado toasts dipped into the warm soup!

Swirl in a bit of parmesan cheese + tahini

The recipe hales from Whole Living ... Here's a link - Broccoli-Spinach Soup with Avocado Toasts

After taking a peak at their picture, I knew it was also time to break out the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe (this link goes to one of my favorite blogs - Alexandracooks.com - and does a fabulous job of photographing the art and ease of artisan bread) ... an oldie, but a goodie ... always yielding delicious bread that is all-too-easy to devour in a day or 2's time ... even Thomas loved it dipped in soup!

Peeta Melark -
bask in the glory
of my beautiful
bread!

I had a handful of gorgeous pictures to share with you ... but alas Blogger's formatting is miserably complicated and won't let me put them in line with my text ... I find this irritating and not worth the trouble =P

This broccoli + parmesan + toast is pretty good!

Thomas has enjoyed a house full of produce, as well, since he's off his medicine for his ear infection and back to enjoying foods of the non-carbohydrate variety ... His newest favorite - Strawberries! Yumm!

In other news, Ryan's applied to his 2nd batch of post-docs ... and has heard back from 2 of them - they actually have openings, and they actually have money!  Huzzah!  So we'll see what life brings us.  Ryan is thrilled at the prospect of working for some fabulous universities and eager to take a glimpse at the post-doc life, since it will be his "one and only" opportunity to do so.  It's a thrilling world of unknowns for us, these days ... waiting for e-mails, sending e-mails ... and envisioning our life after South Bend.  I think the most exciting and most challenging part has been embracing the fact that Ryan's best opportunities may take us farther from home ... but we are here to support one another, and that is just what I'll do.  I think what Ryan said sums it up, best -

"When your near future is plagued with "what ifs" you have to have fun with it as much as you can."

We both agree - we are so happy with our lives together ... so very happy.