A Little Overboard at Whole Foods, and A Recipe

My idea of celebrating my birthday used to involve long spa visits and shopping for shoes. Tragically, these days, my celebrations have taken a decidedly different turn. I spent my birthday “weekend” doing two of my new favorite things: shopping at Whole Foods, all alone, while my husband took the kids to a nearby jumpy place, and taking the kids to Legoland. First, let me address the Whole Foods trip. Every few months, I try to make it to Winter Park, just over an hour away, for a shopping spree of sorts at Whole Foods. I go in there with a wish list, which invariably expands to include all of the other “musts” I spot while in the store. Sigh. This time that list really, really expanded. Aside from the nonperishables, like short grain brown rice to make sticky rice, roasted pumpkin seeds, and red quinoa, which I don’t count because, let’s face it, they last forever. (I am SOO practical I kill myself!), I bought a bunch of other stuff, mostly organic produce. Produce! You know, the kind of stuff you have to use up right away. And I have a family of 4 that eats very, very little.This is what I bought:
11 kiwis (because Eva recently mentioned that we haven’t had keeweed in a long time)
4 organc regular mangos and 6 honey mangoes (not organic – I picked them up before I spotted the organic ones)
10 apples
6 Bosc pears
1 small watermelon
2 pineapples (full, prickly pineapples!)
1 coconut, that had the skin taken off
6 plums
3 daikon radishes
1 bag of baby carrots
1 bag of parsnips
1 bunch of kale

Sadly, no organic grapes, and I couldn’t find a cherimoya to make the Cherimoya Mango smoothie they had in the latest Clean Eating magazine. So what do I DO with all of that stuff. To start with, tonight, in addition to organic brats for my Midwestern husband, I also served sweet potato fries (homemade – they didn’t turn out that crispy) and a yummy Coconut Chickpea Soup from Clean Eating. It was so good and so fast! It’s creamy and green, so I told the girls that it was slime soup, and Eva actually really liked it. Lola didn’t, which I expect, because there is almost nothing that both my girls will eat besides mac and cheese. And some fruit. Anyway, Lola ate the sweet potato fries, and Eva didn’t, so at least Lola got something in. I had to puree it in two batches, and of course I could have used the immersion blender, but I just followed the recipe and used a regular blender instead. Here it is:

Coconut Chickpea Soup
2 cans of garbanzo beans (chickpeas – I used a can of white Northern beans and a can of chickpeas because that’s what I had)
1 can of coconut milk
2 cups of kale, washed, torn up, hard stems removed
2 cups of vegetable stock
1 tsp of cumin
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of raw honey
1 tbs curry powder
salt
pepper

Just whiz all the ingredients in a blender, and then heat on the stove top on medium high until it simmers. Then lower the heat and simmer 10 minutes more. That’s it. So easy and I usually have most of those ingredients around. I would probably add a squirt of lemon (a favorite trick of mine to boost the flavor in everything) and maybe some grated ginger next time, but this recipe is a real keeper.