Avoid the Slippery Slope

Recipe of the Week: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup but make it Tik Tok

As we navigate our way through the holiday season, it can be a “slippery slope” time of year. The many holiday events, enticing treats that are on display front and center in the stores, and food gifts that appear may challenge your ability to nourish yourself in the manner that your body prefers. 

Feasting and celebrating is great. Humans have shared food and drink together forever. But it is only in the relatively recent times of food abundance that we find ourselves able to feast frequently. Our bodies weren’t designed to “party” daily. And, being human, “temptations” are hard to resist. I get it. Give me a pumpkin pie and I will eat it daily until it’s gone. 

Here is the strategy that works for me to get through the seasons of feasting and feel good at the end of it all. 

When I feast, I enjoy myself immensely yet selectively. By this I mean eat and drink what I want, with the emphasis on the want. In the sea of feasting foods, there are many that I would eat “just because” but there are some that I really love. Rolls and stuffing - not my thing, but if I’m not thinking, I will eat just because they are there. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream - oh ya. So I enjoy that with deep appreciation. 

In between feasting events, I eat a modified version of the cleanse diet: no sugar, no alcohol, few/no flour products, lots of veggies, protein, nuts, seeds, and non-gluten whole grains, and re-focus on hydration. Not as limited as the cleanse, but I remove the slippery slope triggers of refined carbs, sugar, and alcohol. If I have slippery slope leftovers, I freeze them. This really helps me not slide too far.

Create your own version of feasting without sliding. 
Kirstin Lindquist 
Owner, 21 Day Manager

Slightly modified from @bh.alhamad on Tiktok. PS He makes a grilled cheese sandwich along with the soup and nope, you cannot do that during the cleanse ;)

Ingredients (all vegetables should fit in your roasting pan)

• 1 whole butternut squash with stem removed, cut in half, and seeds scooped out

• Handful of cherry tomatoes - If available otherwise substitute with red pepper, beets or red radish. If you do sub beets or red radish, don’t blend with rest of ingredients but use to garnish on top when serving. Squeeze of lemon if you sub out tomatoes.

• 1 red onion halved

• 3 whole carrots

• 1 whole bulb of garlic with the head cut off

• Dried herbs (your choice - thyme, rosemary, herb de Provence, etc)

• Olive oil

• Vegetable or chicken broth

• Canned coconut milk

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Optional: parsley or cilantro, red pepper flakes

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F

2. In one roasting pan, lay all your vegetables. To make it picturesque, put your cherry tomatoes in one of the seed wells and the halved red onion in the other.

3. Sprinkle generously with your choice of herbs.

4. Drizzle equally generously with olive oil.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Roast in oven for 30 to 40 min or when squash and carrots are tender.

7. Remove from oven and scoop out squash into a blender. Squeeze out garlic into blender. Add all other ingredients as is into blender.

8. Add broth to cover vegetables.

9. Puree and pour into soup pot.

10. Add canned coconut milk to taste and heat through.

11. If you subbed out the cherry tomatoes, add a squeeze of lemon for some acidity.

12. Top with chopped parsley or cilantro, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and more coconut milk.