Comfort Food + A Leap Day Giveaway!

Winter persists here in Massachusetts, so comfort food is essential. I made Mango Scones last week and enjoyed them with lots of hot drinks. I haven't forgotten about my Homemade Bread Pledge.

The Roasted Vegetable Soup made a nice dinner a few nights ago and will hopefully keep me going this week. And something else keeping me going this week is a Free Giveaway! I'm so excited! Read more about it after the recipes.

For the scones, I used my standby Raisin Scone recipe, but used freshly chopped mango instead of raisins. The baking time was much longer though, closer to an hour.


Since I took a shortcut with the vegetables in this recipe, I decided to roast several winter vegetables for a nice soup. I made up the recipe as I went along and based on what I had handy. I tried to write everything down as I was making it, so I can make it again. The measurements are approximations and will vary based on the size of the vegetables and how spicy you like your soup. I never knew that parsnips were such a sweet and lovely vegetable. I'm going to buy them on a regular basis now and will probably try a roasted parsnip and onion soup.

Roasted Vegetable Soup
2 parsnips
2 sweet potatoes
3 carrots
1 red onion
1/4 cup canola oil
1 T garlic powder (unsalted)
2 T butter
1 T ground thyme
1 T light brown sugar
6 cups water
2 chicken bullion cubes
*Updated* 1 T crushed ginger

Peel and chop parsnips, sweet potatoes, carrots, and onion into large chunks. Place onions and sweet potatoes on a foil lined baking sheet. Place the parsnips and carrots on a separate foil lined baking sheet. Drizzle canola oil over vegetables. Sprinkle garlic powder on the vegetables, so they are well coated. Bake in 450 degree oven for about 50 minutes. The carrots and parsnips will probably roast in about 25 minutes, so you will remove them from the oven first.

In a medium soup pot, add water and bullion cubes. Bring to a boil and make sure bullion cubes are dissolved. I did not have any vegetable stock, so I used bullion cubes. Add roasted vegetables to boiling water. Add butter, thyme, sugar, and *crushed ginger. Stir, cover and let boil for about an hour. Remove from heat. Use an immersion blender to blend soup until smooth. Serve warm and enjoy!

A FREE GIVEAWAY!

We all know that it can take a lot of time to come up with different meal ideas each day. I recently learned about Meal Mixer, which is a service that can help. This service creates a new menu specifically for your taste, diet, time, and family size. You're allowed to change your menu, swap recipes and meals, switch serving sizes and do what makes the plan work for you. You print your plan, which includes a shopping list, menu, and recipes. Read more about Meal Mixer here.

I haven't tried Meal Mixer myself, but it sounds like a pretty cool service that could help a lot of people. A one year membership is only $52.00. And the best part? They have graciously offered to give one of you a free Meal Mixer membership! Yes free!

So if you'd like to win, please leave a comment here telling me what is your all-time favorite meal, of course including dessert. The meal can be a real one that you enjoyed or a fantasy meal. Also, please let me know where you're from (city, state, and country). I'll do a random drawing of the names, so all of you have an equal chance of winning.

You don't need to have a blog to win, but please make sure that I have an email address for you if you don't have a blog with contact information. If you prefer, you can also email me instead of leaving a comment. My email address is analisfirstamendment@hotmail.com.

You have until midnight EST Leap Day, Friday, February 29th to enter. I'll announce the winner by the end of Monday, March 3rd. I hope to hear from many of you, especially those of you who may not have left a comment here before. This would be a great time to delurk!

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