DCSD Staff Wellness October 2026
Newsletter
📅 When: Thursday, October 22 + October 29, 2026 (must be available both dates)
🕟 Time: 4:30–6:30 PM
📍 Where: Chaparral High School, Art Room | 15655 Brookstone Dr, Parker 80134
Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Red Peppers and Caramelized Onions
Roasting your veggies brings out the flavors in this creamy pumpkin soup, the perfect healthy comfort food for those cooler autumn and winter days.
Ingredients:
- 2.5 cups pumpkin puree (homemade pumpkin purée tastes best)
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 onion
- 2 red bell peppers
- 2 cups bone broth
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. cumin
- 2 leaves sage fresh
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions:
If you are making the soup completely from scratch, begin by starting to make a pumpkin purée (or a butternut squash purée).
Caramelize the onion
Peel and cut the onion in half and slice into thin half-moons to get thin ribbons of onions to caramelize.
Pour the oil into a large frying pan and warm it at medium to high heat. Add the onion ribbons, breaking them up into thin strips, and sauté them until they brown.
As the onions begin to stick to the bottom of the pan, add a little water to unstick them as you stir and continue to sauté them and let them get progressively darker and sweeter. Repeat this process several times until they have reached the desired level of caramelization.
Roasting the vegetables
Meanwhile, roast the red peppers under your broiler and peel and de-seed them as explained here: roasted red peppers.
Remove the caramelized onions from the pan, setting them aside, and add the pumpkin puree to the pan. If you are using a pre-made pumpkin purée or one that has been made by boiling, you can bring out the flavors by caramelizing the pumpkin a little bit, just as you did earlier with the onions. (You won't need to cook the pumpkin for nearly as long, though. You just want to bring out some of the sweetness of the pumpkin.)
Add in the roasted red peppers, half of the caramelized onions, the cumin, sage, salt, and pepper.
Add the broth. (~2 cups to make a thick soup, ready for decorating, but you can add more to get a thinner consistency if desired.)
Warm the ingredients over medium heat for several minutes to get the ingredients to the desired temperature.
To obtain a creamy texture, blend the ingredients together for several minutes until smooth. You can either carefully use an immersion blender in the same pan or pour the mixture into a stand blender instead.
Serve immediately in bowls and garnish with the rest of the caramelized onions. You can also garnish with pumpkin seeds, baked proscuitto or serrano ham, or even a bit of greek yogurt or cottage cheese for higher protein!
Mark your calendars! On Wednesday, October 7th, our District is encouraging all of our schools to participate in Walk & Roll to School Day! We want as much participation as possible!
This nationwide event is a fantastic way to encourage healthy habits, teach bike safety, build community, and help ease that morning car-line busyness. Did you know that school drop-off traffic accounts for up to 14% of all morning commute cars? Fewer cars in our parking lots means safer school zones and cleaner air right outside our front doors.
Beyond traffic, physical activity before the bell helps our students burn off morning jitters, improves focus, and sets them up to walk into classrooms ready to learn. It’s also the perfect opportunity to model and reinforce lifelong safety skills—like proper helmet fit, staying on sidewalks, and using crosswalks carefully. Teaching these habits ensures our students stay safe on their commute all year long.
How to Get Involved:
Plan an event for your school: Keep it simple & easy
Talk it Up: Advertise at your school, for example, put up some posters, morning announcements, get students involved in the planning!!
Walk the Talk: If you live close by, consider walking or biking to school that day!
Greet at the Doors: Help us cheer on and high-five our students as they walk, bike, or scooter onto campus in the morning.
You made it to the end of the newsletter, time for the monthly giveaway! 🎉
This month, we’re giving away Mad Greens Catering for up to 10 people Click here to enter the October Staff Wellness Giveaway Drawing!
And a big congratulations to last month's winners:
- Matt Jaques @ Rock Ridge Elementary
- Madalyn Vermeulen@ Mesa Middle School
- Angela Davis@ Acres Green Elementary
Good luck, and thanks for being part of our community!
