Today is just the kind of day that calls for Hot Soup to warm a person up! But it is also the kind of day where you want to stay home and off the roads. So here is what I do — and in fact what I just did.

Instant Hot Soup From Whole Vegetables

In the wintertime, I make sure I keep several foods on hand for instant soup — including some frozen vegetables and some fresh. I will tell you what I use, but you can add your own favorite vegetables and change anything you like.

Basically the recipe is this — both frozen and fresh vegetables Plus hot spices Plus boiling water Plus some extra virgin olive oil and hot pepper jack cheese — blend in a blender for 2 minutes. Drink, enjoy, warm up and be happy!

Instant Soup for 2 — 2 big soup mugs full

1/2 cup frozen peas — 1 cup frozen broccoli — 2 organic carrots — 2 springs of parsley — 1 stalk of celery

Spices — ginger, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, 1 clove of fresh garlic

3 cups of boiling water — Blend for 2 minutes.

Add 2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil and/or 1 big slice of pepper jack cheese (or other kind of cheese or leave out) Blend for another 30 seconds.

Done. Drink. Enjoy. Be warm and Happy! 

It has been cold and rainy here, now snowy too. I have not yet begun my Christmas Cookie baking binge, so I am totally out of cookies. But I wanted a treat — a fast treat — so this is what I did.

Hot Holistic Cookie for One

Bring to a boil — 1/2 cup organic oat meal with 1 cup of water, cinnamon, ginger and other favorite spices, 2 medjool dates, cut into little pieces, 1 tsp. butter, plus 1 tsp. agave nectar or honey.  After it boils for a minute, turn off the heat and put into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup chocolate chips and let melt. Eat with gusto!

Ok, so it is not a crunchy cookie. But it is hot and fresh and tasted wonderful with the chocolate chips and the dates.

I made it again tonight and added walnuts and a Fuji apple, cut into pieces.

My philosophy — it tastes so rich and good — but it is also really good for you.

Vita-Spelt flour looks just like white flour but it contains more protein than wheat flour because it is not wheat. Vita-Spelt flour is made from an ancient grain known as “spelt”. 

Spelt has this other unusual quality that goes against what we have been taught. This might not be true of any other whole grain except for spelt.  All the B vitamins and other vitamins are in the white center of the grain, not in the bran. The bran is indigestible and can be eliminated. So this fluffy white flour can be used in your Christmas baking to make treats that look just like what you would expect them to — not too flat or too oily. They just look like normal cookies. But the protein and vitamin content will be higher.

To find Vita-Spelt flour at a store near you, visit http://www.purityfoods.com