My 2018 Healthy Habit Trick and a Recipe for Thai Curry Soup

I've already told you that for 2018 I chose a word instead of a singular resolution. I've done this before and it's worked great because it tends to get infused into a lot of different areas of life. Last year's word was Creativity and I feel like it did help me be super creative. The word of the year is kind of like that app on your phone that runs in the background, but instead of draining energy it adds it.

This year's word is nourish. 

Whenever I go to eat something, the word nourish pops in my head. Well, usually. It was nowhere to be found while I stuffed lemon squares into my face during a recent flea market. Many times so far this year I have had something in my hand or already in the glass and thought Will this nourish me? I don't even want this. As much as I love a good cocktail by the fire this little trick has even made it possible for me to save that treat for restaurants. If you can have a glass of wine or slice of cake only when you eat out, it greatly reduces both the opportunity and amount available.

I'd never go in a restaurant and say "Can you bring me half a cake in little slivers at a time because the chef is just evening it up?" But if I have a cake at home I may do exactly that. Okay, I actually have done that! And brownies, and cookies, and that time I made pralines...

Where was I? 


One of my favorite winter foods is soup. To me, it just says NOURISH. I have a Healthy Meals Pinterest board. Although you'll find some not so healthy pins on there as well. I recently pinned a yummy looking Thai Coconut Curry Soup. Thursday I cooked some stock overnight (chicken stock is something I have high standards about, unlike, say, frozen pizza) and, knowing I was making this soup, added some frozen lemon grass from the garden.

Here's the link to the original recipe from Key Ingredient. 

Here's the ingredient list.

Meat

• 2 Chicken breasts

Produce

• 1 handful Bean sprouts
• 1 Carrot
• 1 bunch Cilantro, roots
• 1 bunch Cilantro, leaves
• 1 small knob Ginger, frozen
• 2 Green onions
• 2 stalks Lemon grass
• 4 Lime, leaves
• 2 Limes, zest and juice

Canned Goods

• 2 cups Chicken broth
• 2 (14-ounce) cans Premium coconut milk
• 1 heaping tbsp Thai curry paste

Condiments

• 2 tbsp Fish sauce
• 1 Sprinkle or two of salt or soy sauce

Pasta & Grains

1 (8-ounce) package Rice noodles

 You could easily make this vegetarian by substituting vegetable stock and eliminating the chicken, or pescetarian by using vegetable stock and substituting shrimp. 

I added mushrooms and some shrimp.  I skipped the noodles and the bean sprouts I had were canned. I also omitted fish sauce because I can be weirdly squeamish about food and that sounds disgusting. It's the same reason I have no interest in home made kombucha. My main kitchen goal is to not have anything living on my counter.

You can see why this isn't a food blog. 

Y'all! This soup was amazing!  I'll definitely be making this again and frankly, it's all I can do not to have the leftovers for breakfast this morning. 

So there you go. When you don't know how to initiate change, pick a theme word and make some soup.

 Ya gotta start somewhere.