Today I invited my neighbor, whom also works from home, over for lunch. About an hour or so before lunch time I popped a whole butternut squash, one large peeled onion and 2 large cloves of elephant garlic in a baking dish and into a 375° oven. The house smelled so good while it roasted and while I got some work done. When it was time for lunch, I took the stuff out of the oven, peeled the squash, simple when baked whole, (get rid of the seeds) and put the squash, onion and garlic into a stockpot with almond milk, salt, and thyme, I added a splash of lemon juice for brightness, about 3 sprigs of parsley and heated it through. I didn’t measure, I made it on the thick side for heartiness. When it was lightly bubbling…or in my case bubbled out of the pot a few splashes…yikes! Use your immersion blender to puree and make it smooth.’

My friend brought over a hot Pumpkin-beer bread to have alongside it and we enjoyed lunch on the back porch on this beautiful autumn day.

Don’t work at home? That’s okay, you can still bring this healthy dish into work. Make it the night before while your dinner is cooking…or make this for dinner and bring leftover soup! For dinner, while the veggies are roasting you can get stuff done around the house to lessen your chores after dinner.

Healthy isn’t complicated. Be creative, have fun and cook!