Thursday, September 23

Since it's officially Fall

Even though it was in the 90s today and will be again tomorrow, it's still Fall! For the past month I have been making one new soup a week and then eating it all week for lunch or supper. I am here alone almost every day and most evenings so making a dinner for more than me and the kid is silly. I pack a breakfast and lunch for my guy, so leftovers do get eaten, but never in time to use them up good.

I LOVE SOUP and find a cup of soup a day helps keep me on track. Tonight I made an asparagus soup that uses those left-over ends on the asparagus that most people toss out. I liked it and will make it again, and I can see this being good for left over broccoli ends too. The recipe calls for 1.25lbs of asparagus and I only had about 1 lb, so I tossed some frozen (thawed) broccoli in there and it fits in.

I got 7 servings of soup that will last me several days for lunch. Last week I made a large pot of vegetarian veggie soup that got me 16 servings and was very good, it was like minnestone without the beans or pasta. The veggie soup froze well and so it earns an A+ for me.

What soups are you looking forward to making? Have you tried anything new recently you'd like to share? It's a challenge to constantly come up with ideas for 4-6 meals a day and not be too repetative.

15 comments:

sparky said...

I too love soup. My favs being a good homemade pea soup and italian wedding soup.

Brenda said...

there are lots of soup recipes on allrecipes.com
i made a peruvian chicken soup for soup club last year and it was a huge hit.

longhair75 said...

I love our friend Verbqueen's pasta soup.

UrbanStarGazer said...

The three soups I make the most are 1) what I call minestrone but it's really just a whatever-veges-I-have-plus-some-basics-soup; 2) split pea, which I love; and 3) lentil soup. I haven't been successful in making a flavorful chicken soup but I love chicken soup.

Brenda said...

spideys peruvian chicken soup
6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs - cut in pieces
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon seeded, minced serrano chile
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup green peas (no peas for me)
1 cup corn
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
10 cups chicken broth
4 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut in half (make sure you use Yukon potatoes)
1 cup uncooked white rice

Directions
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the onion, garlic, and serrano chili; cook until the onion has softened, about 1 minute. Add the chicken, and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
Stir in the cilantro, peas, corn, and red pepper; cook for 1 minute. Pour in the chicken broth, potatoes, and rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until the chicken is opaque and the potatoes are tender, about 40 minutes. (i used a slow cooker and cooked it most of the day)

my WV was unchili..;)
and hello to pete!

vq said...

Pete, I just made that pasta soup this week! I, too, always think of soup when autumn rolls back around.

Jenny Robin said...

I love soup but am very picky about it because I don't like cooked vegetables.

I am planning on making my chili tomorrow, since I will actually be in town Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and can have it for dinner all 3 nights.

I can't wait.

Sonya said...

Today I'm making a big batch of the basic variety weight watchers zero point soup. Carrots, onion, celery, green beans, and one sweet potato, sauteed in olive oil. Throw in a bay leaf, some hot sauce (three or four drops) some chicken broth, maybe some garlic, and a can of tomatoes. Going to try to make enough to have for lunch every day this week, and for pre-dinner snacks.(I know it's not really zero point with the sweet potato, but I'm not counting points. I will figure out the calories and track those instead.) I'm having a hard time tracking all the food. For a few months, it was no problem, but I've hit a rut. I have a general idea of how many calories I'm eating, but it's not completely accurate. Hope today to get back on track. My eventual goal is eat from a variety of foods within reason without tracking. But that's a ways off.

Jilly said...

that sounds good tree. I make an italian 0pt WW soup someone gave me a recipe card for. i get 14-16 cups out of a pot and freeze half and eat the other half. i was actually going to make that this week. it calls for 2 cans fire roasted tomatoes, 3 cans vegetable broth, 9 oz water, 1 head escarole endive, 1 bag spinach, 1/2 a purple onion, 1 yellow squash, 1-2 zucchini, fennel, 1 red bell pepper, crushed red pepper, and fresh italian herbs. i use dried italian seasoning because fresh herbs go bad before i use them all. i think kale would work well too if escarole was hard to find or spinach wasn't a favorite.

when i feed it to the kid, i blend it up so she thinks she's eating veggie broth instead of big chunks (for her) of veggies.

Sometimes i toss in some beans and have though of adding some quinoa or rice or pasta even though that'll add a lot of calories.

do you track online tree? i find i do better filling in a small notebook, so that's what i do, but i know some phones have trackers aps and there are make websites that offer tracking, i just find it cumbersome to remember what i ate long enough to sit at the computer and fill it in. if i write it down as soon as i eat it, it's tracked and i don't have to fuss with it again or fight my failing memory.

jilly

vq said...

I use Fitday. It's kind of difficult at first (the titles they come up with for some foods are just bizarre and sometimes you have to REALLY search their data base) but I've been using it for so many years that that nearly anything I routinely eat is already on my "Recent Foods" list or entered as a Custom Food, so I don't have to track it down.

Sonya said...

Jilly, that soup sounds really good. I might make it next week. My soup is cooling on the stove. I track on sparkpeople, and there's an app for the phone too. It's not so much the forgetting, it's the complacency of thinking I'm eating pretty much the same things every single day so why write it down? A mindset, more than anything. On the plus side, I did walk 4.3 miles this morning in 69 minutes. It was gratifying, a nice sunny morning; my arms were chilly in a t-shirt until the end of the walk. It's oddly hot here in the afternoons still, close to 90 every day. Usually we're in the 70s at this time of year. Next week, we're going to San Francisco. I'm so excited. I've never been there. We're also spending one night in Monterrey. Should be really fun.

UrbanStarGazer said...

Have any of you ever made beet greens? I've been buying a lot of beets at the farmer's market and have been throwing away the greens but I hear they're good.

I try to keep track of what I eat because of the diabetes and use www.myfooddiary.com -- I like that site the best of any I've tried. Mostly because it's easy to use and has a huge list of foods.

Sonya said...

Urb, I hate beets. I wonder if the greens are better than the root? Couldn't you try sauteeing them in olive oil and garlic and see?

UrbanStarGazer said...

I think I'll try that. Don't know that my opinion will be valid for you though cuz, I love beets!

UrbanStarGazer said...

They're good. They're like chard or kale withouth the squeaky teeth feeling.