Simple Veggie Soup

For anyone who is a fan of my blog - I apologize, but I will be taking a brief hiatus until school is finished; I am really bogged down with grading and lessons...but stay tuned once the summer arrives!

Have you ever looked in your fridge and realized you had a bunch of vegetables that would soon rot if gone unconsumed?  This happens to me ALL the time!  A frustrating idea - throwing food and money into the literal trash. I find soup to be an easy way to use up these veggies and make a great meal-filler.

Feel free to be creative about the vegetables you choose - except the onion, carrots, and celery are a must-have as a soup base. You can add potatoes instead of pasta, if you want the soup itself to be heartier.

Serving Size: 10. Weight Watchers Points Plus Per Serving: 3; With Pasta: 8

Ingredients

•  8 cups of tap water
•       1 bay leaf
•       1 teaspoon salt
•       1-2 teaspoons of pepper
•       1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
•       1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
•       1 onion
•       3 Tblsp Olive Oil
•       2 Tblsp Better-than-Bouillon Chicken Flavor 
•       10 Celery Stalks
•        1/2 pound baby carrots
•        1 zucchini
•        3/4--1 pound green beans
•        1 can diced tomatoes (drained)
•        1 small can of mushrooms (drained)
•        1/2 pound Angel Hair spaghetti (broken into 1-2 inch pieces)

Instructions

• Wash and chop up all the vegetables, including the onion. Saute onion and oil in a large pot. Once onion is browned, add all vegetables, bouillon, and water. Add all spices and the bay leaf. (Make sure you take the bay leaf out once the soup is cooked.)  Let simmer on medium heat for about 40 minutes. It's okay to cook a little longer, but the vegetables should be tender-crisp.  In a separate pot, boil water and cook pasta. (Keep pasta separate.) Once ready to serve, add pasta to a bowl and soup on top - mix in each separate bowl. Add salt & pepper to taste.  I like to add about a tablespoon of parmesan in each person's bowl for an extra kick.

Portabella Mushroom Pizza

I was really in the mood for pizza, but I also want to minimize the carbs in my life. So, I bought some portabella mushroom caps and decided the mushrooms would be my "crust." In my last post, I gave the recipe to make Garlic Marinara Sauce; I recommend using that sauce for these healthy pizzas.

Start with roasting the mushrooms in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit with Pam cooking spray for about 5 minutes, or until the caps are brown. Then take them out, add the sauce, sprinkle a little parmesan on each, and then add the cheese.

Serving Size: 2 Mushroom Pizzas. Weight Watchers Points Plus Per Serving: 5

Ingredients

•  12 Servings Garlic Marinara Sauce
•        8 Portabella Mushroom Caps (washed and dried)
•        Pam Cooking Spray
•       2 cups Fat Free Mozzarella
•       2 Tblsp Parmesan Cheese 

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. After washing and drying the Portabella mushrooms, spray them with Pam on both sides and lay them flat (caps up) on a cookie sheet or roasting pan. Roast mushrooms for about 5-7 minutes, or until the caps are browned. Take mushrooms out. Flip mushrooms so caps are down. Add enough sauce on each so they are covered. Sprinkle Parmesan on each. Add 1/4 cup of FF mozzarella to each.  Reduce heat in oven to about 325. Place back in oven and roast for about 10 minutes; cheese will be melted and mushrooms will be releasing water.

Garlic Marinara Sauce

As a person who identifies with my Italian heritage, it is imperative to make your own sauce. In fact, in the culture I grew up with, one would be considered incompetent if one couldn't create sauce and - gasp - bought sauce in a jar! Aside from cultural commitment, I sincerely prefer my own sauce because I like to keep the ingredients fresh and healthy.  For those of you who find fear in sauce, I hope you will find this recipe super-easy to follow. 

It's a huge portion of sauce, but that's because I like to save a bunch to use throughout the week in various recipes.  Adjust measurements accordingly based on your own needs, of course.  Also, you could ask 5 different Italians how to make sauce and you'll get 5 different answers, so if you have any questions, just make a comment!

I firmly believe in using organic crushed tomatoes for the sauce. You can use other brands - I would recommend Progresso, if you can't get your hands on Nature's Promise, but you will get a different flavor. Out of all the tomatoes I've tried, I swear by Nature's Promise.  I also believe in organic olive oil, but any extra virgin olive oil will be fine.

Servings - about 15. Weight Watchers Points Plus Per Serving: 1

Ingredients

•  1 tsp dried oregano   
•  5 clove(s) (medium) garlic clove(s), finely chopped   
•  1/8 cup(s) olive oil   
•  2 Tbsp ground basil   
•   56 oz Natures Promise Organics Crushed Tomatoes, Organic, with Basil   

Instructions

• Add olive oil to heated pot. Add garlic to heated olive oil. Brown garlic. Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook on medium heat until it boils, then reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir every 4 minutes to make sure sauce isn't sticking to pot.