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Creamy Tahini and Sweet Potato Soup

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I’ve been on a roll with the fall recipes lately! I’ve been loving all of the warm spices and fall flavours. Today I made a delicious Creamy Tahini and Sweet Potato Soup that is PERFECT for fall and super easy to make.

I’ve started experimenting with Tahini a bit more, and I love its nutty sesameness😂 I added it into my Carrot and Date Breakfast Cookies, and they were great!! In this soup, tahini adds such a depth of flavour and a nice richness. It pairs really nicely with the sweetness of the sweet potato.

To make this liquid gold, start by caramelized some onions😍😍 The smell of frying onions is the best! Then add your potatoes, some black beans, garlic, tahini, apple cider vinegar, paprika, cinnamon, and chicken broth. If you want to go vegan you can definitely use veggie broth. After all of your ingredients are in the pot (I think there’s only like 7 or 8) then season well with salt and pepper and let the soup simmer till the sweet potatoes are nice and soft❤️ Everything gets tossed in the blender and you’ve got a nice, luscious, creamy soup!

I love blender soups because they’re so simple and not particular at all. Chop your onions too big? Who cares it’s going in a blender. Basically, you cannot go wrong with this awesome fall soup. The flavour from the tahini and the cinnamon and paprika is insannnneeee. I know you may not like the sound of cinnamon in soup, but trust me it works. Make sure you try out this recipe because it’s definitely a winner!!

Creamy Tahini and Sweet Potato Soup

Serves: 4-6

Total Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium sized sweet potato, chopped into 1 centimetre cubes
  • 1 large white onion, diced
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 1 cup cooked black beans
  • 4 cups chicken or veggie broth
  • 1/4 cup tahini
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add in the onions and cook until caramelized, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding water if necessary so that they don’t burn.
  2. Add the sweet potatoes, black beans, tahini, garlic and apple cider vinegar to the pot and cook for another 2 minutes.
  3. Dump the broth, cinnamon, and paprika into the pot and season liberally with salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
  4. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and let cook until the sweet potatoes are soft, about 30-40 minutes.
  5. Use a ladle to scoop all of the soup into a large blender, and blend until smooth. If you need to you can blend the soup in a few batches.
  6. Return the soup to the pot and season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Hope you love this soup recipe!! Have a great weekend:)

Your Truly,

MyDayIsBooked:)

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

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Hey guys! You know it’s fall when it gets too dark to take good food pics after dinner… yesterday I made these AWESOME muffins but taking pictures of them in the semi-darkness would not have done them justice. But don’t worry, today you get the recipe.

This was my first fall baking project, and I’m really happy with the way that it turned out. When you need an easy, healthy fall treat, hit up these muffins. They’re mixed in a blender, so it’s actually a zero bowl recipe, and they have SO much cinnamon-y apple flavour. I used the rest of my Homemade Applesauce that I had frozen, as well as all of the fall spices, and maple syrup to top it off. There is zero refined sugar in these, and they’re also gluten free if you use gluten free oats. I haven’t tested this recipe with a flax or chia egg, but you can definitely try it out if you’d like to make these muffins vegan.

These kind of remind me of an apple cake, and are GREAT for breakfast or a quick snack. They might be some of my favourite muffins- I love my original Sugar-Free Muffins recipe, and my Mini Protein Muffins, but I’m a sucker for these fall flavours. Hope you enjoy!!

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Serves: Makes 9 Muffins

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups oats (I used quick-cooking steel cut, but rolled work too)
  • 1 small egg
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup apples, peeled and diced
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Add all of the muffin ingredients, except for the diced apples, into a blender or food processor. Blend until mostly smooth; if you can see some oats still that’s all good.
  3. Using a spoon, mix the diced apples evenly into the batter.
  4. Grease 9 holes in a muffin tin with some more coconut oil. Scoop out the batter and fill the holes about 3/4 of the way using a tablespoon.
  5. Bake the muffins for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown on the outside, and cooked through on the inside; you shouldn’t see any raw batter.
  6. Let the muffins cool completely and enjoy!

These muffins are so tasty! You can make a big batch and freeze them for a handy snack anytime:) Enjoy!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Fall Reading List

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‘Sup guys? I pretty much finished all of the books on my past reading list; I’m just finishing up The Great Gatsby and am waiting for The Guinevere Deception to come out in paperback form😂 But I have an AWESOME reading list going on right know, so I thought I’d share.

I’m making pretty decent headway into my 2020 Reading Challenge, and I read a couple books that didn’t really apply to it lately, like The Rule of Four, which was pretty good. I just need to keep going hard because I have a few prompts that I have NO idea how I’m going to meet but… that’s why it’s a challenge I guess😂 Anyways, out of the three new books on my reading list, two pertain to my challenge and one is a “side book” that I thought it’d be great to read during spooky season.

I found out that one of my favourite authors, Sarah J Maas, who wrote the Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses series, wrote a new book this year and I didn’t even know about it. I reallllly want to read this book, but I checked it out on my bookstores website and it’s only available as a German e-book right now😂 I could order it on Amazon, but I have a bunch of book store gift cards, so I don’t want to spend like thirty bucks when I could wait. So that’s a bit disappointing, but keep an eye out for it on future booklists because I WILL be reading it.

Ideally I’d like to finish all four of these books by the end of October so that I’m doing good going into the home stretch of my challenge. 👌These all seem like pretty awesome books so that shouldn’t be a problem. When I’m really into a book I just zoom through it, ya know? I’m feeling good about these picks and can’t wait to dig in to some great novels! Fall is a time for snuggling up with a nice hot beverage (or something with peanut butter in it because peanut butter works in every season✌️) in your cozy clothes with a good book:) Check out some of these reads if you’re not sure what to read this autumn!❤️

PS. The Guinevere Deception is coming out in paperback on October 13th, so when that day comes I will be picking it up and reading it ASAP👍

All The Light We Cannot See

This book has won multiple prizes, and looks like an incredible story. It intertwines the lives of two young people; a blind French girl from Paris and a boy in a small German mining town, both living during the Second World War. When the Germans occupy Paris, the girl flees with her father and one of the most valued jewels in the city to her great uncle’s house by the sea, while the boy is enlisted to help destroy resistance to the Nazi regime. The author tries to highlight the goodness of humanity, even during these troubling times. This book has over 500 pages, so it fits into my challenge which is great👌 I’m excited to read it!!

And Then There Were None

This is an Agatha Christie novel, and I’ve never read one of her mysteries before so I’m looking forward to it! I thought it’d be great with Halloween coming up. This one is about ten people, all with mysterious pasts, who are invited to an island for the weekend by a millionaire. But when they arrive, their host is no where to be found, and there’s a strange nursery rhyme framed in every room. When murders begin occurring that match up with the rhyme, the guests begin to panic. Which one of them is the murderer? Usually I’m a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to mystery novels, but I’m going to put my brave pants on and read this one. It looks really good🙌

Sophie’s World

I like philosophy a lot; I think it’s really interesting to think about the major questions in life. I have a few books on philosophy that mostly just explain the ideas of big philosophers, but this book is different. It’s a novel, and it’s about a girl named Sophie who begins receiving mysterious letters in her mailbox with questions on them like “who are you?” And “where does the world come from?”. She begins corresponding with an unknown philosopher who teaches her the ideas of many of the world’s philosophers, while receiving the mail of a girl named Hilde. To find out who this girl is, she must use her new philosophical knowledge. I thought that this sounds really interesting, because instead of just explaining the philosophies, this novel actually puts them into a story-like format. I need to read a book about philosophy for my challenge, and this is it!

I hope you read some of these novels too! They look promising and I can’t wait to start them🥰 See you tomorrow!

Yours Truly,

MyDayIsBooked:))

October 2020 Bullet Journal Set-Up

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Hey guys! I’m a little late in posting this, but I promise that it’ll be worth the wait. I don’t know why I keep doing themes that take so long😂 I thought this one would be more simple but nope! For October this year I’m doing a phases of the moon theme, and this is different for me because I’m ONLY using black and white, which I’ve never done before. If you want to know which phases are happening on which days of the month, check out this website that I found- it’s really helpful! This theme is inspired by AmandaRachLee, whose journal I love! Here’s the link to her video if you want to check it out: AmandaRachLee

She did this theme last year, but I’ve definitely tweaked it and made it my own.

I love these spreads but it just took me a while to colour in all of the black parts😂 I was impressed with how much ink is in my Tombow Fudenoske brush pens, because I coloured in SO much area with them! They’re almost running out though so I have to order some more. I also made good use of my white gel pen by doing cursive over the black, and a bunch of star doodles🥰 So yeah, these pages look simple but they kind of take a lot of work😂 If you’re looking for something a bit less time consuming, you could use black paper instead of colouring in with black, I just like how the black ink looks.

There are so many fun things that you can do with a moon theme though, which you’ll see in my journal down below👇 I can’t wait to start using these spreads! They’re so simple but pretty and timeless. Hope you find some inspiration in this post! Happy journaling:)

Here’s my title page:) As you can see there’s lots of black😂 I did a big black circle with stars in it and wrote October in there, surrounded by a bunch of moons in different phases. Then we have that black border with the moons in the four corners. I love the quote I used for this month; it fits my theme perfectly and reminds me that sometimes I don’t get the full picture!

I’m still using the little mini calendar, and this month there actually isn’t any room to write anything in there. I just drew which phase the moon will be in on each day, so it’s more for me to get a sense of what the month looks like. Then on the other page I have a space where I can write down events, tasks, school stuff, and goals for the month. I don’t know, I might switch back to a full calendar spread next month and just see if it works better with school, but for now this is pretty good for me. These spreads are pretty simple👌

This tracker layout has captured my heart, so it’s here to stay❤️ This month it’s pretty simple with those moons on the side, and a black header with white writing. I’m tracking all my habits, my mood, my productivity, and my workouts. This month I’m tracking if I worked out in the morning or not instead of if I just worked out anytime, because my workout tracker at the bottom will let me know if I worked out that day or not. I think this turned out really cute!

Here I have my gratitude and blog planner together on the same pages, so I’ll write what I’m grateful for on one side of the black divider, and plan blog stuff on the other. I did all of the moon phases again, and the black header, which both look great:)

I included a moon journal on half of this spread, which I thought was pretty cool! The basic premise is that during different phases of the moon, you focus on and journal about different things. Like for example, the Full Moon is gratitude, and the New Moon is your hopes and dreams. There’s actually a lot you can do with moon journaling, so feel free to do some more research. Here’s the link that I used for some info: Moon Journaling Info

Then on the other page I have my first weekly spread, which looks simple but was a lot of colouring😂 My hand was dead after I finished filling in all of the stars. But it looks really good!

I really like this theme and how different it is! Which themes are you guys doing for October? Have a great rest of your weekend and I’ll see you tomorrow:)

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))

Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

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I’m SUPER excited about this recipe it turned out really great:) I’m part Polish, so I grew up eating cabbage rolls a lot, and they’re pretty delicious. I had a couple of heads of cabbage in my fridge and thought I’d try and make a lighter, vegetarian version, and they’re AWESOME. In the filling I used mushrooms for some meatiness, as well as lots of onion, parsley, black beans, and oregano. All of this amazingness is wrapped up in some softened cabbage leaves, then baked in the simplest sauce you will ever make. These rolls are a win for meal prep, a vegetarian side dish, or main course.

Making these rolls is also really fun, because you get to stuff and roll them up. To soften the cabbage leaves, I boiled the whole head for around 5 minutes, then removed the outer leaves and continued the process until all of the usable cabbage was soft. Then you simply scoop some filling in the middle, fold in the sides, and then roll like you would a burrito. Once you get into your cabbage roll groove, you’ll be pumping out rolls like nobody’s business.

After carefully placing the rolls in a glass baking dish, you’ll cover them in sauce (which has only THREE ingredients), and bake them up until they’re a leetle bit crispy. You gotta love those slightly burned edges. And voila. You’re set with delicious food for the next while! These rolls are so healthy and hearty; they’ll keep you going all day long. I hope you get around to making these, because this is definitely one of my new favourite recipes. Happy rolling!:)

Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Serves: 4-5 (Makes 20-24 rolls)

Total Time: 105 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Rolls:

  • 2 heads of green cabbage, about 1-2 pounds each
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 1 large white onion, diced
  • 2 cups of diced mushrooms
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 cup of brown rice
  • 2 cups of water
  • 1/2 cup of packed parsley
  • 1 egg
  • 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tbsp of soy sauce
  • 2 tsp of dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper to taste

For the Sauce:

  • 1 6 oz can of tomato paste
  • 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 tsp of dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Bring the water and brown rice to boil in a pot, then lower to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15-20 minutes. You want to rice to be slightly under cooked, as it will cook more in the oven later. Set aside.
  2. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large pan. Add in the onions, garlic, and mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to caramelize; about 10-15 minutes. At this point, stir in the soy sauce and season with salt and pepper, continuing to cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and dump into a big bowl.
  3. Add the brown rice, parsley, oregano, black beans, egg, and some more salt and pepper to the onion and mushroom mixture. Stir until combined and set aside.
  4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Use tongs to transfer a head of cabbage into it, and boil for five minutes. Remove the cabbage with the tongs and carefully remove the outer layer of leaves, placing them on a cutting board or wherever you plan to roll your rolls. Continue this process until all of the usable cabbage leaves are soft and ready to go.
  5. Take a leaf of cabbage and cut out any outstanding stem pieces at the base of the leaf that will make it harder to roll. Place a tablespoon of filling inside, and form it into a sort of log shape with your hands. Fold the two sides into the centre and then roll the cabbage away from you, forming a tight, burrito like roll. Place in a glass baking dish.
  6. Continue to fill and roll the cabbage until all of the leaves have been used up. If you have some extra filling and stem pieces, fry them up for a quick snack later:)
  7. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  8. Mix together all of the sauce ingredients in a bowl, and spoon the sauce evenly on top of the cabbage rolls.
  9. Bake the rolls uncovered for 40-45 minutes in the oven. Remove and enjoy!!

I can’t wait to make these delicious rolls again! Let me know if you try them out. See you Friday!!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))