Plum, Apple, Yam Soup/Sauce/Something-or-Other

Looking at the produce I received and trying to figure out how to use it up before it goes bad.  Decided it's not a day to go out shopping but I'm in the mood to throw something together-happens often which is when soup happens.  I bought yams after Thanksgiving last year on clearance for 25 cents a can-bonus!  

4 - 15 oz cans yams in syrup (don’t drain) on clearance for 25 cents per can.

4 – 5 honey crisp apples

30 plums

1 TBSP minced (dried) onions  

1 cup chicken broth  (can't lie, packet from one of those ramen noodle packages)

1 large shallot (wooohoooo found one-leftover from last weekend's soup recipe)

1 13.5 oz can Coconut Cream 

Ground Allspice to taste

Stick everything EXCEPT Coconut cream and Allspice (except in all caps because I don't notice the except in recipes until after I added everything) in slow cooker on low for 8 hours.  Kept on warm for 1 ½ hours.  Used the emersion blender in the morning to blend it up.  Turned out tart.  Found a can of coconut cream and some ground Allspice and added those.  Tasted pretty good cold or hot.  

Butternut Squash, Kabocha Squash, Apple Soup

The weather is getting a little bit chilly, time for some soup.  I was given quite a few honey crisp apples and needed to do something with them.  Squash soup has been sounding good.  I made a squash soup last year and figured I would just add apples.  Turned out pretty good.  

24 oz cut butternut squash (bought the bags with cut up squash)

1 three-lb-ish Kabocha squash

3 honey crisp apples cut up (various size pieces)

2 large shallots, chopped fairly finely, or as finely as your eyes can handle without tearing to where you can’t see anything. 

1 32 fl oz organic free range carton chicken broth (Trader Joe’s)

1-13.5 oz can organic coconut milk (Trader Joe’s)

nutmeg to taste

I do not have the strength to cut squash, so I rinsed the squash and put it on a toaster oven tray lined with tin foil (the tray lined with tin foil, not the squash).  Baked it at 400 for 20 minutes until soft enough to cut, clean out seeds, cut into quarters and stick in the crockpot. 

While the Kabocha squash is cooking, I put the butternut squash, the apples, chicken broth in a crockpot.  Takes me awhile to get things organized and chopped and cleaned so by now the kabocha squash is done enough for me to cut.  I cut the top 1/3-ish of the squash off.  Scooped out the seeds.  Chop the top and the bottom portions into a few pieces.  I stick skin of squash and all in the crockpot.  Cook on low for 8 hours (after 8 hours my crockpot goes to “warm” mode).  The crockpot was on “warm” mode for probably 1 ½ hours before I shut it off.  I scooped out the kabocha squash, removed the skin (so much easier to remove the skin after it cooks) and put the “meat” of the squash back in the crockpot.  I used an emersion blender to blend it all together.  I then added the coconut milk and some nutmeg, blended again.