Hey Gals ~ Since I have started my "journey of better choices", I have been taking soup and a sandwichwich almost every day for my lunch. I have been taking Progresso turkey or chicken soups or Campbells Healthy Select. I was thinking if I made it myself that it would probably be healthier....

any suggestions or recipes that you make/like?

I love bean based soups. One of the sites I use for inspiration is FatFreeVegan

Here are a few good looking recipes
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/10...-pea-soup.html
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/04...rlic-stew.html
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/02...bean-soup.html
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/11...ntil-soup.html
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/10...bean-soup.html

Ok that is all for now

Oooh, I am so checking out those recipes, Nelie! I love bean based soups as well. I also love all veggie soups - especially those that involve cabbage. Mmmm!

Here's my favorite soup recipe at the moment. It makes a TON. I've used the boxed onion soup mix in it in the past, but I think I'm just going to use the spices and dehydrated onions next time. That way there's no added ingredients that aren't necessary. Oh, and I only use one large onion. Four small onions seems like way too much.

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=10538.0

Unfortunately, I don't have recipes to share. I normally just thrown what I have on hand in the soup pot and see what happens. I made a barley mushroom soup that was heavenly a while back. I used fresh and dried mushrooms, barley, the usual soup veggies (onion, carrot, celery), veggie broth, and lots of seasoning. If you want smokiness without adding pork you can add a teaspoon or two of liquid smoke. I also love worchestshire sauce in soup too.

I like split pea, lentil (regular and red), mixed bean, etc. I also love miso soup and make that periodically too. I always have a tub of miso in the fridge. Oh, and I made chicken whole wheat noodle soup the other day too. That turned out well.

I absolutely LOVE the corn chowder recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. I found it reposted here. (thanks Google!) Hey, look I even commented on that blog post back in 2006. 2 years later I still love and make this soup often, and I own the cookbook.

ETA: I ususlly use sweet potatoes instead of russets. They make for yummy happy orange soup!

Over the past few weeks, I've been making soups for dinner most nights and then taking the leftovers for lunch the next day. Most of the recipes came from Cooking Light (.com).

tomato lentil
Italian chicken
Hot Italian sausage (rather like minestrone and I did it a second time with different vegetables)
clam chowder (made with fat free 1/2 & 1/2)--2 varieties
chicken gumbo (the only canned one so far)
split pea (boy did the kids love that and boy did that surprise me!!)
black bean soup--2 varieties
navy bean soup
turkey noodle (with ww noodles)

I absolutely love love love black bean soup. I've been threatening to make some at home so I can have it for lunch during the week. Since it's nasty weather, soup sounds devine!

Oh, I love soup too. Though Shan I made that recipe for corn chowder with sweet potatoes once, and as much as I like sweet potatoes, I didn't like them in this soup.

This month's edition of Cook's Illustrated, a magazine I love, though it's quite over-the-top in its search for perfection of whatever they're making, is all soups! Veggies soups, meat soups, chili - I think there are about 20 soup recipes if you include the variations. It's a little pricey at $6.95, but fun reading along with great recipes. My SIL got me started on it, and everything I've made from the mag has been good, though not necessarily low-cal.

But like Zenor, my favorite soups are those that I just throw together from what I have on hand. Sometimes when they come out extra good I try to remember what I put in them.....

I love soups, stews, and chilis; we eat them all the time.

A really easy way to make soup is to saute some pre-diced onions with turkey sausage. Add several cups of chicken broth; a bag of stir-fry veggies (I get mine from Trader Joe's); a carton of pre-sliced mushrooms; a bag of shirtake noodles (best if you chop them up first) or a couple ounces of pasta or rice; and whatever spices you like. You can also through in a can of diced tomatoes and some wine.

Here are a couple of my favorite soups:

Bean and Peanut Butter Soup
6 oz diced onions (about 1 cup)
7 oz diced celery (about 2 cups)
5 oz diced carrots (about 1 cup)
12 oz diced, cooked lean ham
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups fat free chicken broth
14.5 oz canned tomatoes
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
15 oz can white beans, rinsed and drained
15 oz can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
3 tbsp peanut butter

Spray a large saucepan or dutch oven with cooking spray and saute the onions, celery, carrots, ham and garlic over med-high heat until the onions are tender. Add the remaining ingredients except peanut butter, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 to 15 min (until veggies are as tender as you like). Add peanut butter and simmer for 5 more minutes.

If you eat this as a main dish (and it's very filling), it works out to six servings at about 260 calories each. If you eat it as a side dish, you could probably get 8 servings. You also could reduce the amount of ham to 8 ounces and leave out one can of beans to get the calories down to about 140 per serving (depending on how high in calories you like your side dishes to be).

Creamy Wild-Rice and Smoked Turkey Soup
1 tbsp margarine
6 oz diced onions (about 1 cup)
4 oz sliced scallions (about 1 cup)
5 cups fat free chicken broth, more if needed
1 cup wild rice
5 oz diced carrots (about 1 cup)
7 oz diced celery (about 2 cups)
1 tsp dried rosemary or 1 tbsp fresh rosemary
1 to 2 tsp dried oregano
1 to 2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
12 oz turkey breast
1/3 cup flour
1 cup 1% milk
3/4 cup 2% milk
2 tbsp white wine
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt, if necessary

Saute onions and white parts of scallions (save the green parts to add at the end) over med-high heat in the 2 tbsp of butter until translucent. Add chicken broth and wild rice and cook for 40 mins or so, until rice is as tender as you'd like it to be. Add carrots through turkey breast and simmer for fifteen minutes.

Stir milk into flour with a whisk. Add just a small amount of milk at a time and stir until it is combined with the flour (this will keep it from being lumpy). Do this until all the milk and flour are combined.

Add milk and flour mixture to the soup. Simmer until thick and creamy. Add 2 tbsp white wine to soup and stir in reserved green parts of scallions. Taste and salt if necessary (taste it first, I did not need to add any salt).

This makes six very filling main-dish servings at about 275 calories each. If I were making it as a side dish, I'd reduce the amount of turkey in it to 8 oz and divide it into 8 servings, which would cut the calories to 190 per serving.

I love making soup, but I find I just don't have the time anymore since my business has become so time consuming. I am ashamed, but I have just been buying the canned organic, no added salt soups. *sigh* . It is hard to choose between successfull/ busy all the time and not so successfull/ no money/ lots of free time. I miss cooking all the time. Now I only get to cook usually once or twice a month.

You made that sound so good I bought the HamBeens 15 bean soup mix at the supermarket yesterday. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Gotta get a ham bone now.

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We start Lent at my church with a soup potluck. I am planning on making Navy bean and ham. I will buy ham hocks at the supermarket. This is a ridiculously easy soup to make and soooooo good.

rED LENTIL LEEK OR DAL ARE MY FAVORITES, or AN ALL VEGETABLE RAINBOW OF COLORS AND FLAVORS (MUCH LIKE WHAT zENOR SAID, i JUST CHUCK IN WHAT i HAVE AT THE TIME AND IT'S A FEAST!)

OOPS! Sorry!

I make split pea soup all the time without ham and use tempeh bacon or liquid smoke if I want a smoky flavor. It is so good!

THANKS! LADIES

I will be back later but I wanted to post what I am going to make today. I saw this awhile back and really wanted to try it...I am a big fan of great northern beans and spinach!

http://lifestyle.msn.com/foodandente...mentid=2524031

Gary, that sounds a lot like one I'm making this week:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/re...cipe_id=231620