Oven-Roasted Butternut Squash & Red Kidney Bean Soup

the perfect ending for winter and a subtle hello to spring.

*tries to breathe in fresh air* this week has been anything but ordinary. We’ve been out of school/work since Tuesday because of the weather, and living here in the south the weather can get a little bipolar, but this is getting out of hand. It’s a few days before the start of spring (as if we really had a winter) and the heavens have opened the flood-gates. Literally, there have been flash floods since Wednesday (March 9th) and it continues to rain as I type this.

Last year around this time we had “snow” and that again shut down the city, but being originally from the Midwest, snow cannot be considered snow unless it reaches your knee caps, in my opinion.

Nonetheless, G and I decided to take advantage of our unexpected vacation. Me, especially, because I had the chance to finally start on the spring cleaning. I mean, I went through every stitch of clothing, every pair of shoes, and all of my accessories. Washed the dishes, cleaned the bathroom (bought new decor for the bathroom), gave the pooch a bath, and got rid of ALOT of paperwork, junk mail, and any expired pantry goodies.

Day 2, we passed the time by making some delicious and savory Oven-Roasted Butternut Squash and Kidney Bean Soup. Now I must admit, being the carnivore that I am, I wanted chicken nuggets for lunch but I didn’t want to weather the storm, so I settled for the soup.

One very memorable thing that happened this week along with the soup was G creating a very cool homemade lighting setup. Being new to the food blogging business one thing we wanted to make sure of was how our pictures would look. In comparison to other food blogs, we discovered during our research, we definitely wanted to come prepared. And G came thrrrruuuuu. As he usually does.

In my opinion, the layout and colors of the blog would come second on the list of things that needed to be done. The next thing was the recipes, obviously, but that’s G’s department and he does a great job at coming up with dishes on a whim. This soup was a great way to end a not-so-wintery season and a simple hello to spring.