Skinny Borscht

It’s almost a crime to make this recipe and not add the ham bone/pork hock but I’m going vegan and skinny here. I can add flavor to almost fool Ben (yet he still stirs around looking for the meat). We just eat a lot of meat to begin with, so anywhere I can skimp – I’m going to!  Time for more veggies.  This is a soup you can totally pig out on and not feel guilty.  I am working my butt off to lose weight these days and I know that I need a caloric deficit at the end of the day and with the amount of physical activity I can get in these days, a veggie soup is most welcome! Alas, I am not one of those mothers with young children that can afford to go and blow 20K on the surgical removal of belly flab and tightening me up (don’t get me started).  A nice kick in the ass feels amazing to get moving hard every. single. day. Right Tanya Fraser? Ha. I’m finding new muscles every day I didn’t know existed with some really cool strength training! When you own a farm you don’t need a gym.  Plywood on the cement floor and some onion weights do the trick! Ha!
Hey - and you can also get ALL the onions, beets, carrots and cabbage for this recipe from our farm at market! ;)

Skinny Borscht:

-          ~ Render 2 medium chopped onions and a handful of chopped carrots with a dash of sea salt in a   heaping tablespoon of coconut oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot.

-         ~ Once browned and sweet, add 2 litres of vegetable stock, about 5-7 medium carrots peeled chopped and 5-6 medium beets peeled and chopped.  A cup or two of chopped green beans too. And sliced cabbage if you feel like it! (I didn't add cabbage today as I'm eating a lot of kraut and slaws lately)

-          ~Bring to a boil, stir and simmer until all veggies are nice and soft.

-          Add a tablespoon of your favourite vinegar. (This combined with the ‘coconut oil fat swirls’ is what fools Ben into thinking it’s greasy pork borscht - until he can't find the meat!!)

-          ~Enjoy and freeze leftovers for quick lunches!

-          ~**Additional: Add coconut milk fat to the top if you need that ‘cream on top’ beautiful pink colour!

I’ve heard recently that there are studies showing how unhealthy it is to be desk-bound sitting on your ass all day. Well, duh.  I’ve always felt so so sorry for the office dwellers.  You will NEVER find me surgically removing my fat, sitting at my desk, only getting up for a cigarette break and to eat my plastic low-cal lunch and then later complaining about health issues. Pretty happy to be a non-smoker these days too. Common sense people: Live, breath and eat for prevention! I got a huge kick out of nutritionist friend Julie Daniluk’s Instagram photo a while back.  Her husband, the dude Alan, constructed her a desk atop her treadmill!  Genius! So she could stand and at least walk while on her laptop.  So I take advice from these nutritionists and use my brain and blog and do most all of my computer/paper work (which seems to be increasing with the business these days) standing up as much as possible always.  Then taking brisk walks around the house while I’m snowbound with the kids. I do ‘lunge’ walking behind my two year old when she walks too slow in front of me.  There are always inventive ways to get off your ass. So do it! Get off your ass and eat real food with lots of veggies! Drop. the. drama. and sweat every day!!!!!!