Waking up to an extra hour of sleep and a chilly fall morning on a beautiful Sunday morning. Talking about one degree of change, this morning represents several degrees of change, as in temperature.  Just like the change in temperature, it brings change.  We pull out sweatshirts, sweatpants and put away the flip flops.  We have an extra cup of hot coffee or tea to take the chill off.  And we make a big crock pot of veggie soup.  We have a change in wardrobe, routine and foods that we eat, all because of a few degrees of change in outside temperature. What if you would consider a one degree of change in your life?

Last week we traveled by car to upstate New York to pick up a friend who has congestive heart failure to bring her back to her Florida home.  It was a dead head trip on the way up.  Sleep five hours then switch and drive five hours.  We made it in 16.5 hours.  That gave us a day and a half to enjoy the fall beauty and vineyards of the region before heading home.  Because our friend is only able to travel for so many hours in a day due to the possibility of complications from her condition, we broke the trip up into two days on the way back.  As I was enjoying the fall beauty during the trip as a passenger, I was inspired to make a list of 100 degrees of change.  It started out as a list of 25, which turned into 50 and slowed to a total of 87 degrees of change!  Well you can’t stop at an uneven number, at least I couldn’t, so it became a list of 100 degrees of change.  My inspiration was drawn from my own personal changes and ones that I would like to incorporate in my life.

Drawing from this list and saving you from having to be creative, my mission is to demonstrate how easy it is to make one degree of change!  Twice a week, I will give you two ideas to select as your one degree of change.

1. Eat local within a 10 mile radius. You will have a better chance of eating organic if you select local produce.  In our neighborhood we have several choices: in Lake County @veggie table of lake county. @give organics. @leesburg herb shoppe. All can be found on Facebook.  Google in your area for a local organic choice of produce!  Here is a website that will let you search your community for organic co-ops: www.organicconsumers.org

Take the challenge! Now to enjoy my fresh veggie soup!  Here’s the recipe:

Dr. B’s “Clean Out the Frig” Veggie Soup

Get out the Crock pot, start the soup first thing in the morning.

1 quart chicken stock (I had some frozen that I had made)
1 can organic roasted tomatoes with garlic (BPA free can)
1 large organic sweet potato, cubed with skin
1 large organic beet, cubed
1 head of broccoli, chopped including stalk
1 large yellow onion, chopped & sauteed in organic butter
1 cup chopped organic carrots
1/2 large red pepper, chopped
1 pint of grape tomatoes (whole)
1/2 bag of organic baby spinach
leftover crumbles of cheezy kale chips (cleaned out the cabinet too! 🙂
1 Tbsp of granulated garlic, I was out of fresh garlic!
1 Tbsp of Turmeric
1/2 tsp Curry powder
1 tsp of red pepper flakes (optional)
Himalayan salt to taste

Turn the crock pot on high.  Add chicken stock and can of tomatoes.  Chop the onion and saute in organic butter till clear, while chopping the rest of the veggies.  Put everything in the crock pot and bring to boil.  Turn heat down to simmer or warm. Season to taste and enjoy! We grated fresh Parmesan on top!  Remember you can use any veggies.  These were veggies that were leftovers in our refrigerator.

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