Hello folks of the Hive realm. It's difficult these days to get motivated to post, for a few reasons.
I am exhausted from work and going to bed at 3 to 4 in the morning. Days off have been us trying to get things in order, like laundry, cleaning,and visiting needy seniors,(Marc's parents). They have an over weight needy dog that doesn't ever go for a walk, unless we are there to take him.
The seniors can barely walk around their house these days. They should have taken seriously, the saying, "if you don't use it, you lose it." Our Hive fitness guru 
I also try to get the cooking done for work days. I like to keep things in the freezer to pull out after work. We usually have dinner around 2 in the morning. Breakfast starts around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Often supper is leftovers of what we had for lunch. We fast with just water in between to lessen the guilt of eating so late.
The water fast lasts for around 12 hours. I get hungry but after sipping on water I can power through the hunger. When I do eat now, it's smaller amounts. I was able to fit into some old clothes finally.
In this post I am sharing one of our soups to freeze. This is a Thai inspired coconut milk based soup with the common Asian ingredients. I have some of them in my freezer. I freeze lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, and galangal. Sometimes the frozen form is the only thing available.
Thai inspired coconut soup broth
5 or 6 lime leaves
1 stalklemon grass
25 g galangal root
25g garlic
15g Thai basil leaves
10g cilantro root
Juice of a lime
Chilies to your liking
1 litre vegetable stock
800 ml coconut milk
Salt to taste
Before I put the other ingredients in the soup I made the coconut broth simmering for quite a while to flavor the soup with the ingredients listed.
The lemongrass was roughly bruised and chopped. I decided to strain everything later. The other ingredients were also roughly chopped.
I added them to a medium hot pot and let them get tender.
I added the vegetable stock which I had made on another occasion. This was made with carrots, celery, parsley, garlic, onion, bay leaves and peppercorns. It's my go to broth which I usually have on hand.
I added coconut milk. It was left to simmer while I prepared the final items to add in at the end. These items were ones that I had already so the choice was made based on that.
I had purchased a kabocha squash not really knowing what I would do with it. This was going into the soup.
Only a portion was used. The rest is still waiting to be made into something.
It was a bit of a struggle to cut it. The skin was difficult to peel and I asked myself, "why did I get this again?"
There is usually tofu in my fridge so what better thing to add to a plant based version of this soup. Some broccoli was also added at the very end. I used the stems for this as well.
Ingredients added to the final broth after simmering and straining
2 cups broccoli
450g tofu
2 cups diced kabocha squash
80g onion
20g garlic
lime juice to taste
2 tablespoons agave nectar or 1 tablespoon sugar
Salt to taste
The tofu was firm. I don't know if it was necessary but I decided to saute the cubes with onion and garlic. I could have just added the tofu to the broth and simmered a while.
The soup was much milder than I wanted so I added a couple of dried chilies in the final soup. I don't always want heavy spice, but I was in the mood this time.
Traditionally the soup would be made with fish sauce added. This is considered a key ingredient in many Thai dishes. I let the herbs do the work. The agave nectar is my choice of sweetener which balances out the tang of the lime juice.
I'm sure that other ingredients, such as cauliflower, leafy greens, sweet potatoes, would go well with this broth.
I put all of the fresh basil in the soup, without thinking. I had planned to leave some for the garnish, along with the fresh cilantro.
I really enjoyed the flavours of the aromatic herbs combined with savoury, slightly sweet, tang and spice. I am happy to have some leftover in my freezer for another time. I could eat this all day. There was no starch with this so it was nice and light especially for breakfast, which is brunch for most people.
I wish everyone well and thanks for stopping by.
Photos taken with a Nikon D 7500 and are of my owneership
