Winter Warmers

With the crisp weather imminently upon us, I thought it timely to post one of my favourite winter warmers.

I'm sorry this photo really doesn't give the soup justice

This recipe has a very funny story attached to it. Growing up (and still now) this was/is my second favourite soup, behind Matzoh Ball Soup, but my mother was not always honest about it's content.

As children, the G kids loved broccoli but hated zucchini (don't worry, I now love all vegies) ... so of course as all mothers do, Mumma G told us all it was "Broccoli Soup"... it wasn't until I was late in my teens that my mother slipped up and told me that it was actually made with zucchinis and that broccoli wasn't even an ingredient!

Never the less.. this soup is amazing.. I have never heard a complaint and it is one of the only times where my man will eat carrot or zucchini. This soup is extremely healthy with 4 types of vegetables and is served best with some crusty toasted bread. One serve is filling enough to have as a main dinner meal or to make it go longer serve a small amount as a starter.

Big shout out to Mumma G, hope you don't mind that I shared another amazing family recipe but I couldn't help myself!!

Preparation time 10 minutes

Cooking time 20 minutes

Serves 6

Ingredients

60g butter 

4 zucchinis, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 potato, finely chopped

2 leeks, finely chopped

3 tsp chicken stock powder (if you use Massel brand then the soup will be completely Vegetarian friendly and Gluten free!!)

3 ½ cups boiling water

2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

½ cup extra light thickened cream

Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

1. Melt the butter in a large pot and add the zucchini, carrot, potato and leek. Stir the vegetables for about 5 minutes until they are all covered in the butter 

step 1 - chopped vegies covered in butter

2. Dissolve the chicken stock powder in the boiling water and add to the pot and bring to the boil
3. Add the parsley, reduce the heat and simmer covered for about 15 minutes

Step 3 - brought to the boil and about to cover and simmer

4. Use a Bamix (stick blender) to puree the soup and stir through the cream just before serving

I love freezing all of the leftovers into individual portions for a really healthy meal on the go!!

ENJOY!

$0 to Rich

Now that I have your attention, I want to blog about something which should be meaningful to most people out there. Money is a very delicate topic and it's so easy to try and put the value of money out of our minds by telling ourselves that there are more important things in life but at the end of the day... money makes the world go around and how we earn, spend and value it can often define who we are as people.

I was very fortunate to grow up in a household where my parents held it in the highest regard to give me and my three siblings every opportunity to ensure that we grew up as well rounded individuals. They did an amazing job at this but not without lots of sacrifices. I personally struggled a lot when I first moved out of home because I got stuck in the trap of wanting everything that I was used to and not only did I just want everything, I wanted everything NOW. I fell into the trap of credit cards and basically excused away every single purchase, holiday or concert that I wanted.

Once I realised my problems, in typical style I immediately tried to fix things but unfortunately it takes a whole lot longer to repay thousands of dollars of debt than it does to rack it up. To this day I am still paying the price of my irresponsibility but have been determined to turn things around.

A real turning point for me was reading a book by a very smart and savvy Australian woman, Tracey Edwards.

$0 to Rich was the second book by Tracey and was very pivotal in my realisation that my habits had to change and that getting back on my feet wasn't going to be the impossible task that I had always made it out to be in my head. She helps you define what it means to be "Rich" as it doesn't always have to be about how much money you have. I would recommend this book to anybody, not just females (even though the bright pink cover may be a bit off putting for some), and even to people who may not be in financial trouble.

The most important message for people is to start now. Don't wait for that payrise or until after your next holiday... Spend the time now setting your goal and work out how to reach it.

Here a few tips of my own that I have worked out along the way:

• Always pay off debt first... If you choose to "save some" while you still have debt you are essentially tipping money down the drain because banks will always charge you more interest than they are willing to give you.
• Set yourself realistic goals... if you stretch yourself too far with your savings/debt repaying you will fall short and end up undoing all of your hard work
• Monitor what you spend your money on and then set a budget around that... The easiest budget out there is 33.33/33.33/33.33. This means 33.33% of your net wage goes to expenses, 33.33% goes to spending and 33.33% goes to paying off debt/saving.
• It doesn't matter how much you earn... the best pay rise you can give yourself in order to save more is to spend less!!!

A great place to start with spending less is budgeting. The government has a fantastic MoneySmart website which covers a lot of ground and is a free place to find all of the tools that you need to get yourself into a healthy financial position.

I hope some of the above has helped... I have been known to tailor some budgets and saving plans for friends so if you do want some more personal help just drop me a line!

xx Suzie G