Hi honey, I'm home!

Wow, 4 and a half months since my last post...my bad! As most of you know, a lot's been going on for me over that time. Firstly, we made a baby! Super exciting, but it totally wiped me out for about 3 months there. Come August, Bear & I were off on our rather belated honeymoon to the UK & Europe for a few weeks, and then I was treated to a week in hospital upon our return.

And now here we are, past the middle of September, and I'm 5 months through the pregnancy - crazy times! But now that my energy has returned, I don't want to vomit at the smell of red meat being cooked, and I'm staying away from hospitals (touch wood), I'm planning on getting back to blogging.

When I came out of hospital a couple of weeks ago, I was essentially on a fluid diet...which meant a lot of soup & smoothies! Thankfully I'm back to solids now, but I did make a pretty darn good chicken & leek soup, which helped keep me on track with my nutrition over that time.

Chicken & Leek soup

1 whole free-range chicken
2 onions, cut into halves
4 large cloves of garlic
3 small kumara
3 leeks
Vegetable water (from boiling vegetables) (optional)
3 tbsp butter (or other form of fat if you want it strictly paleo)
2 tsp Colemans mustard powder
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt & pepper to taste

Place the chicken in a large stock pot. Add onion and whole garlic cloves. Season with salt & pepper. Fill pot with water until chicken is almost covered. Boil for 60-90 minutes, until chicken is almost falling apart. Leave to cool for about half an hour.

Remove chicken from the pot, setting aside the liquid. With a knife and fork (I found this the easiest way), take all the meat off the bones and return the meat to the pot of liquid. Add in chopped kumara and leeks, then top up with vegetable water or tap water. Season, stir, then bring the mixture to boil. 

Simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Allow to cool slightly, then add 2 tbsp of butter and the mustard powder. Blend with a stick blender until smooth. Stir in the remaining butter, lemon juice, and salt & pepper if needed.