Chop bell peppers, celery, garlic, carrots and onion. Place into large saucepan with butter and saute. Saute until just starting to caramelize and brown. Meanwhile, you can chop other veggies

After saute mixture has browned slightly, add one box of chicken broth to deglaze the pan. Use a spoon to stir and scrape the bottom to make sure that all the “goods” are loose

Add the remaining ingredients, with the exception of the lentils and bring the mixture up to a good boil. Stir occassionally. Add water as needed as the broth boils off. You shouldn’t need to add that much

Cook for approximately 1hr. At the end of the hour, add the lentils and continue to cook for about anoter 30 – 40 mins. Remove from heat and serve.

Chop all peppers, onion, garlic and carrots. Put into saucepan with butter to saute.

Cut butternut squash, yellow squash and zucchini squash into cubes and put into saucepan with water to boil.

Saute pepper mixutre until they just start to brown. Remove from heat and put into a food processor.

Pulse pepper mixture until somewhat pureed, but still chunky. This is up to personal preference as far texture goes.

Put pepper mixture back into saucepan with approximately 6- 8oz. of chicken broth. Set heat to low simmer.

When butternut squash is fork tender, remove from heat and drain in a colander. Make sure you drain as much liquid as you can.

When squash mixture is drained, put into the food processor and puree it. Add one or two tbsp. of chicken broth if necessary to get a smooth puree.

When squash is pureed to the proper consistency, put into the same saucepan with pepper mixture.

Continue to simmer and reduce the mixture until it reaches the desired consistency for the application. If it is to be used as a sauce for rasted vegetables or pasta, leave it slightly thickened, just so it will coat a spoon.If it is to b3e a soup, add chicken broth until the desired consistency is reached.

For a pasta sauce, put the desired amount of gluten free pasta (quinoa, rice or soba) into a saucepan and boil until just al-dente (approximately 8-10 mins)

Drain the pasta and put into a serving dish. Pur the pepper/squash sauce over the pasta and garnish with parsley or chopped chives. Serve with homeade whole wheat crustini bread.

For soup pour the mixture into serving bowls and garnish with parsley and/or a small dollop of low-fat sour cream.

Place the walnuts in a food processor fitted with a regular cutting blade. Process the nuts. After about 30 secons, the nuts will begin to look like graham cracker crumbs. After about 45 seconds, stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Continue processing. After about 1-1/2 minutes, the nuts will come together in a ball. Stop and taste test the butter. Add seaoning as you see fit. You can get a sweeter or saltier product at this stage of the process.

Pulse the mixture after you’ve added seasonings until it reaches the desired consistency.

Remove the nut butter from the processor and put into a covered container. Store in refridgerator.