Sick in Bed- Cauliflower Kale Soup

On a hike through the Amazon in Ecuador

I'm sick and have been in bed for 4 consecutive days.  This winter it seems I've been sick every few weeks for a week or so.  It is totally against my nature to be home in bed for hours let alone days on end.  So over the past two days I breezed through the book The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.  It's the next book my book club is reading, and just happened to address many topics I have on this here blog.  What I took away from it was the unfortunate waste of an unexamined life.  Now go too far with this topic and one might end up doing just the contrary of my goal to be in the moment- worrying too much about the future.  Just as most things in life are cyclical so are our thoughts.  Think too little or think too much and it might bring you to the same place.

I came across this blog entry at Lists of Note and found it quite suiting:
In 1933, renowned author F. Scott Fitzgerald ended a letter to his 11-year-old daughter, Scottie, with a list of things to worry about, not worry about, and simply think about. It read as follows.

(Source: F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters; Image: F. Scott Fitzgerald with his daughter, Scottie, in 1924.)

Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship

Things not to worry about: 

Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about: 

What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:

(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

With dearest love,

Daddy

In an effort to take care of my body, I made this simple, quick and wholesome soup.  The prep time is just 5 minutes and the whole thing takes about 30.  It is also carb friendly if you are ever cooking for someone concerned about that.

Cauliflower Kale Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 yellow onion diced

2-3 cloves minced garlic

1 1/2 tsp olive oil or grape seed oil (enough to coat the pot)

1 regular size cauliflower chopped into pieces

4 cups of vegetable stock

(I used 2 bouillon cubes with 4 cups of H2O)

4 branches of Kale, with leaves picked off and broken apart

Salt & pepper to taste (depends on the broth you use)

Recipe

1. Heat oil in pot and add onions and garlic. Cook until translucent.
2. Add cauliflower and stock to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for about 20 minutes until cauliflower is soft (not mushy). Poke with a fork and it should go through easily but not fall apart. If you're worried check at 15 minutes.
3. Add kale and cook another 5 minutes on low heat. 

4. Remove from heat then blend/puree with a hand blender/immersion blender
5. Add salt or pepper to taste (mine doesn't need any)