How did it go? Eating with dignity at Work.

The salad was great.  I call it a "7 layer guacamole salad".  A year ago Stephanie and others at work introduced me to the 7 layer salad, a kind of salad found at church dinners, people's family gathering, etc.  It was a salad I had never heard of, but the concept appealed to me.  This time I decided to make the salad with ingredients that would keep it at that 300  calorie mark, with all fresh vegies and topped with a guacamole dip and decorated with carrot strips alternated with my home grown basil leaves.   I loved it mostly because of the TASTE, the tomato layer was just under the guacamole layer, and the decorative celery sticks were great dipped in the guacamole.

7 layers topped with guacamoled

carrot strips and homegrown basil

Pumpkin Squash Soup with Ciabatta Croutons

Eating With Dignity

The pumpkin squash soup got mixed reviews, too sweet mostly.  It was sauteed onions, mixed with squash and pumpkin, brown sugar and very little half and half cream.  I used my wand blender to mix it.  I added cracked pepper and salt to add spice, but still not enough for my tastes.  I would add more cumin...maybe that would help.  My daughter tells me I should have covered the squash with aluminum foil when I baked it.  That makes sense because it came out tough and I had to cook it overnight in the crockpot before I used my blender to mix it  She also used VERY LITTLE brown sugar, because the squash was sweet by itself.  So now I know.   I have some left overs so I will add some spice to see if it can counteract the sweet, we'll see.
 I like to eat with dignity whenever I eat.  It is too easy to remember horrible meals (like Applebee's where their low calorie meal with red potatoes coated with a garlic sauce looked and tasted like they had just been removed from the garbage disposal with a phlegm like coating and the meal was so salty it required 4 glasses of water to remove the salt and disgusting taste), so when I make my own meals with LOVE and CARE and TIME and the desire to share all of those elements I want to remember them forever.  Perhaps this blog will help to promote that.  Thanks to everyone at work that has been willing to try these out and give me feed back.  LOL  Barbara