A Rose Watching Over My Kitchen...

Our VERY last rose of the season.  

This little guy decided to bud in mid October and then fully bloomed earlier this week.  Upon seeing it Kai ran over a picked it!  It really caught me off guard because she's usually so good about not picking flowers with out permission.  So now it sits on my kitchen windowsill.

I kinda love it!

I get to look at it when I make what has become my go-to breakfast...

A BIG bowl of pumpkin topped with chia seeds,
cinnamon, pecans, raisins, oatmeal & almond milk.

It's so satisfying and just starts my day off right!

I also looked at the rose while Kai and I made our lunch.

Some delicious tuna salad - 

1 can of tuna

1 spoonful greek yogurt

1/4 Avocado

squirt of dijon mustard

Kai stirred, and tasted, and stirred, and tasted, and tasted, and stirred, etc...

Finally I had to call an end to the tasting or there'd be nothing left for our lunch.

[sorry, no picture]

And then I looked at my Lovely Rose as I started dinner.

I decided to make a simple egg drop soup so I started by sauteing some onions.

"Simple".  Famous last words...

I had an eggplant in the fridge so I decided to go ahead and add a 1/3 of that to the onions.

Then after they were good and sauteed I looked in our freezer and then decided to add some

frozen okra and some carrots to it.

...and of course I added some Veggie broth.

Then I thought, I need to use up my mushrooms, so I added those.

Then I saw my Kale and thought - duh! I need kale.

Then I looked at my sauce pan and thought, I should have used a bigger pan!

There was no way I could add any more to it....

Well except for the eggs.  It's not egg drop soup without any egg.

Oh, and maybe a handful of Orzo.  :)

NOT-SO-SIMPLE EGG DROP SOUP

1 onion - chopped

1/3 Eggplant - Peeled & chopped

1/2 Bag Frozen Okra

1/2 Bag Frozen Carrots

Veggie Broth to bring the level up to the top of the veggies

1 C Mushrooms - chopped

2 Kale leaves - De-stemmed & chopped

2 Eggs - scrambled together

1/2 C Orzo Pasta

Saute the onions & Eggplant

Add the okra & carrots & saute until not frozen anymore

Add the veggie broth

Add your mushrooms & kale

Let simmer until about 10 minutes before you want to eat.

Pour your eggs in slowly stirring.

Stir in your orzo.

Serve!

Looking good!

Eggs and Orzo added - not as pretty but definitely tasty!

mmmm, I can't wait to eat!

Now, that soup was good.  Like, REALLY good.  But dessert was better.

Dessert was an apple crisp topped with a cinnamon "soft serve".

Yes, that is your mouth drooling!

For the apple crisp I used my slicer to cut up 3 Granny Smith Apples.

Then I topped those with a mix of (amounts are truly approximate - I was just tossing stuff in the bowl):

1 C Oatmeal

1/8 C Sucanat (or brown sugar)

2 T Ground Flax Seed

1 T Maple Syrup

All stirred together and then crumpled over the apples.

Then I spritzed the top with some butter to help it "golden" when it cooked. 

I baked it at 350° for about 30 minutes.

When I went to serve it I realized I didn't put any cinnamon in the mix!  I MUST have cinnamon. :)

Well, nothing goes better with crisp than some soft serve so into my little blender went a frozen banana and a bit of cinnamon (ok maybe 3 bits of cinnamon).  Blended until smooth and placed on top of the crisp - it was definitely the right way to end the day!

Cinnamon "Soft Serve"

YUM!!