Hello Fall! Moroccan Soup and Kale Salad

Happy October! We are loving this awesome Arizona fall weather! With 80 degrees being my favorite degree, this is my favorite time of year!  Time to bring out the long sleeves and pants, for the morning at least! By lunch time it starts to warm up again and we have to put back on our tanks tops and shorts.

Maeve demos fall wear. 

We took our family vacation a little late this year and headed over to Coronado Island, CA. It was the perfect time to go! Warm in the day, chilly in the night. the tourist (expect for us) were MIA and only the locals seem to be going about their daily business.

We stayed in a guest house of one of the many charming houses on the island. It was small but had a kitchen, a little living area with a futon, bathroom, and porch with a grill. Perfect for all our needs!

Since I am doing Body Back with Stroller Strides, I wanted to make sure I could make most of our meals at home, plus going out to eat with an active 15 month old is not the most fun thing to do. 

Everyday we headed to beach. Maevie was not a fan of the water but she LOVED playing in the sand. Running and rolling in it, she had the best of times!

“Catch me if you can!”

Everywhere hubby and I have traveled to we take a picture of our feet in that location. We have pictures in Poland, Berlin, Prague, Kaui, and the all places we have visited in US. This is the first time we have been on vacation with our little monkey. 

One of just us. Then we added in our sweet pea. 

So much fun to add in her little chubby feet! 

Daddy is so much!

After a wonderful, relaxing week I was happy to get back to our bed and my spice cupboard! I had been searching for a new soup recipe when I came across a few that looked good. I combined them and poof it was magic, this delicious soup came about. You must really try it! Next time I think I’ll add zucchini and put in a little less quinoa other than that it was awesome!

I also made a Fall Kale salad to add a little freshness to our meal. It turned out great as well. 

Moroccan Soup

Ingredients:
2 tbs coconut oil
1 medium onion, small dice
3 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp chili flakes
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3-4 dates, pitted + chopped
4 carrots, chopped (1/2 inch pieces)
1 large sweet potato, peeled + chopped (1/2 inch pieces)
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted)
4 cups vegetable stock (or more, depending)
1 yellow pepper, stemmed and chopped (1/2 inch pieces)
2 cups (or a 14-15 ounce can) cooked chickpeas
salt + pepper
1 cup of finely chopped kale

1 cup of dry quinoa, cooked according to directions, I like to cook mine in chicken broth

Heat the coconut oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions and lower heat until they are sizzling kind of quietly. Once the onions are a bit soft and translucent, add the cinnamon, cumin, coriander and chili flakes. Slowly sauté and stir this mix until the onions are really, really soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chopped dates, carrots and sweet potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to coat the vegetables in the spices and oil. Add the tomatoes and stir. Add the vegetable stock. Bring the soup to a boil and simmer until the sweet potatoes are just tender, about 10-12 minutes.

Add the chopped yellow peppers and chickpeas and stir the soup. Season the whole thing again with salt and pepper. Simmer until the yellow peppers are tender and the sweet potatoes are quite soft, about 5 minutes. Add the cooked quinoa to the pot. (I added all of the quinoa, but use as little or as much as you like). Add the greens to the pot (and more stock if necessary) and cook for 1 minute, or until just-wilted. Serve with a bit of fresh parsley on top for garnish, and good looks 🙂

Fall Kale Salad

Ingredients
1 bunch of flat leaf/dinosaur kale
1/4 cup of very finely sliced red cabbage
half a granny smith apple, finely sliced
5 grape tomatoes, cut in half
1/8 cup of pepitas/pumpkin seeds (or your favorite nut!)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbs raw honey

Combine the top four ingredients. Mix together the lemon juice, olive oil and honey. Taste the dressing and make sure it is to your liking. If you like sweeter dressing add more honey. More sour you say? Add more lemon. Top the dressing into the salad then toss with the pepitas. Enjoy!