why did i wait so long?

today I made a kick ass dinner. I think I have mentioned this soup before, but never wrote out the recipe. I got the original recipe from myrecipes.com but of course did my own tweaking on it.  I have to say it is the best soup I’ve ever made. It is sooooo yummy!! I usually just eyeball amounts on the vegies and stuff so bear with me.  You need about 3 carrots, 3 big celery stalks, one onion, two cloves of garlic, diced ham…I use cumberland gap diced ham (one package)  low sodium, fat free chicken broth (2 reg cans) 2 cans cannelini beans, 1 can great northern beans (just the regular size cans), extra virgin olive oil, parsely, bay leaves, pepper and water.  cut up the carrots, celery, and onion into small bite size pieces and place in a bowl. mince the garlic.  in a big pot (soup type pot) heat half a tbsp of olive oil, then throw in the ham and saute for a couple minutes. then add the vegies and garlic and saute for about ten more minutes. stir frequently. after ten minutes has passed add the chicken broth and beans plus about one can of water (you can make it as watery as you like but if you use more than one can of water, i suggest adding some vegetable powder or ckn powder.  Then add 2 large bay leaves to the pot and stir. let simmer for about 45 minutes or until the vegies are soft. at the last five minutes add pepper and parsley (I just eyeball it). discard the bay leaves before you eat. I am telling you…this soup is awesome!!! I calculated it to be about 300 calories for an average size bowl (about 2 cups) and like 30 g of protein and 14g of fiber from the beans.  It is healthy and tastey.  It does have a lot of sodium from the canned beans, but if you drain and rinse the beans that cuts out the sodium significantly.. if you do this, you may need to add a little more water. This makes a pretty big pot of soup. my family of 5 eats it for dinner, then we have left overs for the next day.  but believe me…it doesn’t last long (we usually fight over the last bowl)  hehe

I did an hr body pump class tonight plus half hour on the elliptical.

B-fruit smoothie with pineapple, orange, banana, flax seeds and nonfat greek yogurt

S- protein shake with peanut butter

L- white bean soup, one piece of corn bread

D- big salad with spinach, romaine and lots of vegies, more white bean soup