I think it's fantastic that you're thinking about what works for you and incorporating it into your life. I'm a big fan of soup and grab any of the hearty, healthy recipies I run across. Making a big pot of it and putting it in the fridge for lunches is ideal in my case. I would miss the crunching/chewing aspect too so that's a great idea of having salads once in awhile. Really interested in how it turns out for you.
I actually think eating mainly soup could help with some other aspects of my overall "diet," too. For one thing, I tend to do a lot of "eating on the fly" and distracted eating. Soup requires me to actually sit down (can't just grab a handful of soup while I'm chasing my toddler lol), so I think it will really help me learn to appreciate and concentrate better on my meals. I also like to eat my soup super hot, which will slow down my "wolfing down" problem that I tend to have with food, too.
Yeah for soups! One of our fall favorites is what I call Harvest Soup; it has 5 types of orange veggies: carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, butternut squash, and blue hubbard squash. I season it with oriental 5 spice (cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg, anise) and thyme. It's delicious and so filling (you can add soy, almond, or rice milk too).
Another favorite is curry lentil spinach soup: saute onions in olive oil, add water or stock, rinsed red lentils, curry, bouillon (if using plain water), and spinach (I've used chopped frozen or fresh). I add a splash of lemon juice to each bowl before serving and sometimes also add some crumbled feta cheese (the tang of the lemon and feta go well with the spice of the curry).
Okay since there is a soup thread I must share my favorite soup of all time. Since I come from a middle eastern background, my Mom always used to make a lentil soup called Adas. It's so simple and great for you. I should probably call my Mom and ask for the exact ingredients but this is the closest I found to hers.
-2 cups brown lentils
-8 cups chicken broth (preferably homemade)
-1 large onion, grated
-2 teaspoons freshly ground cumin seeds
-2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (taste it if you want more add some! I always like mine more lemony and yummy!)
-Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
-Carrots and Potatoes (my Mom always puts these in there cut up! So good!)
Usually people eat it with pita bread. But not needed. I think some people will also add chicken to it? But my Mom never does.
I don't eat only soup but I do eat soup almost every day - homemade, so I know there is a minimal amount of salt in it.
While I have nothing against being creative, I'll also put in a plug for my standard, which is chicken soup with lots of the cooked chicken meat in it, along with broccoli rather than noodles.
I've tried this, actually. It didn't work for me. I love having a good, brothy soup; I especially like anything with a good chicken broth. And it worked for a few days, sure. Then it got. . .dull. Boring.
Soup isn't convenient. This is good when it comes to stopping mindless eating. It isn't good for when you are dead tired, and running late, and you need to be out the door in ten minutes. If you can make sure that you're going to have the chance to sit down and eat all your meals, that might not be an issue for you. I also found that, for me, soups were tied to bread; I want my soup with buttered bread, dipped in and soaked in umami-goodness. This isn't exactly ideal for calorie counting .
That being said, soup is great, and if it works for you, it works for you. I've found it to be most helpful when I'm going out somewhere without calorie counts. A clear broth soup will fill me up a bit, and the calorie count is usually not terrible. It's especially useful when I go out for sushi--a bit of miso soup will sate me and keep me from pigging out on the rolls and nigiri.
I made a quick pureed soup tonight! I cooked about 3/4 pound of frozen broccoli in a can of Mexican chicken soup with some extra water added. I didn't bother to cook it long, just enough to get the base boiling. I stirred in some extra red lentils that had been sitting in the fridge (and helped cool it down). Then pureed it in a blender, returned it to the heat and it was done! Delish! I only ate about 1/4 of the result, so 1/2 serving of the sodium in the canned soup.
I do think you have to be careful about puree-ing things that are hot. I've done that in the past and seem to remember that it's not a good idea.
Anyway, I intend to brown bag some of he leftovers tomorrow. DH hasn't gotten home yet. He can have some if he wants it, but there are other leftovers available too.
After reading this thread I went to the grocery store and piled cans upon cans of soup into my cart. You'd think I was donating for a canned food drive. I also picked up ingredients to make a few homemade kind that will be a little thicker in consistency. Oh, and a ton of freezer containers. I'm so excited!
And I'm like you banananut-- I don't eat conventional breakfast foods either. If I want me some beef and veggie soup, I say I should eat it! .... with a glass of milk.
I follow an exchange plan, (so get foods from each grouping protein, fat, dairy, starch, fruit and veggies) and I love soups. I've put just about every food group in soup. Rhubarb for example is a great "sour" ingredient for asian hot and sour soups. I've even thought of trying to create a soup with all (and only) my exchanges for the day (yep fats, fruits, and milk included) - and just eat the whole batch, all day.
Never could find a recipe that worked right (came close though and just ate the remaining ingredients seperately.
Usually I make a huge batch of soup and then eat it all week. I actually don't get bored, because I make a basic soup but then customize it with flavorings and condiments - so one soup can be eaten in dozens of different variations (sort of like Pho and other soups where each person customizes the soup to their tastes at the table. Or like the european peasant perpetual "soup pot" in which the soup kettle was never emptied - new ingredients were just added every day - making it a "new" soup every day by adding new ingredients as reflected in the nursery rhyme "peas porridge in the pot - 9 days old").
I've always found soup very convenient to heat and eat. It takes only 2 minutes to warm soup up in the microwave, and it's "drinkable" even if it's chunky. To grab and go, I'll heat the soup in a glass measuring cup and then pour it into a paper cup (you can also find thermos jars, soup mugs with lids, travel mugs with very wide openings and other travel containers for soup).
For the past month (since I saw the dentist in late September), I've been eating alot of soups, because I have a very painful broken and infected tooth (and can't get it pulled until November, because there's such a long waiting list for reduced-fee dental care).
Chewing is painful, so I've been eating a lot of semi-solid foods. A lot of soft foods are very high carb and high calorie, but soups can be made (or bought) in a wide range of calorie levels. So I've been eating a lot of soup, yogurt, sugar free pudding, greek yogurt, scrambled eggs, and over-cooked veggies.
I'm starting to do more soups now that it's getting cold. I just recently made a WONDERFUL tortellini en brodo. I tweak recipes, so they ultimately end up my very own recipes. It's on my diet blog http://healthynibbles.blogspot.com/
You can definitely expect that over the next few weeks there will be more soups.
And after ever recipe you can find the calories and old WW and new WW points values.
I think it's awesome you're trying to incorporate your love of soups into your diet. That will just help you stay on your diet that much more.
Last night I had chicken soup made with brown rice and veggies. Keeping in mind some of the comments here about sodium, I didn't add any salt to my homemade stock. But then... I ended up salting my bowl because, well, soup does taste better with salt.
When I told Hubby we'd be eating a lot more soup now, he said, "Great! I love soup!" LOL
Sounds delicious! Today my goal is to make a rather large pot of tarka dal- indian spiced lentils. Thick and hearty and keeps me full for hours, easy to freeze and thaw quickly. I'm liking your idea more and more, I think I'm gonna jump on the soup train as well!
The main thing I'd be careful of, after making sure the soups are suitably balanced nutritionally (if one soup a day is miso, you may not want to put stock or much salt in the others), is boredom. You don't want to end up eating soup for a while, then finding that you honestly cannot look at another bowl of soup again for months because you've overdone it. This would be more of a problem if you intend to keep having soup regularly once you transition to the long-term diet. How wide is your repertoire of soups?
My answer to the convenience problem, by the way, is bulk-cooking, a freezer and a microwave. It also makes it easier to keep tabs on the nutritional content, you just save the data for one portion. I eat soup several times a week for lunch, and usually find that by the time I've worked through a few batches of the same soup (e.g. butternut squash and lentil), I don't want to eat it for a few months.
Really, you aren't eating 'soups" you are eating stews and chilis and so on. What is different between having those versus a regular meal are that they are made with liquid instead of dry and put in a bowl instead of a plate. Otherwise, it's a standard meal, as far as I can see.
We eat a LOT of soups in the fall and winter and I love it. (Cannot stand store bought soups).
Just made lentils last night and it's my new favorite lentil recipe (i've tried at least a dozen). Here's how it goes:
1 package of green lentils (picked over) - about 2 cups
8 cups beef broth (other broth will work)
2 cups water -adding as needed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 large carrots (large!!!), chopped
4 medium red potatoes (peeled and cubed)
1/2 a pound of spinach - chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (do not skip this - trust me)
I did not need to add additional salt because of what is added to the soup at serving:
Serve with:
Homemade croutons (recipe: 1/2 loaf day old white bread/stale bread, 3 tablespoons olive oil, steakhouse seasoning/spice mix)
Feta cheese - crumbled
It is divine!
Saute the onions and celery in the olive oil until tender. Add the carrots and saute a bit too. Add the broth and water and lentils and potatoes. Cook until lentils are tender (about 45 minutes). Add the spinach and red wine vinegar. Cook until the spinach leaves are wilted (about 3 additional minutes). Ladle them in a bowl and then serve with the feta cheese sprinkled on top (about a teaspoon or two) and topped with a few croutons.
To make croutons, cut day old artisan type bread into 3/4 inch cubes. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a big frying pan, toss in the bread cubes and toss with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle a steakhouse seasoning/spice mix over top (garlic, black pepper, dill seed, salt, etc mix - light on salt as the ingredient list). Keep tossing in the pan until lightly toasted - about 3 minutes. Really, that's all it takes to make croutons - 5 -7 minutes of your time and way yummier than dry croutons and tastier than stale white bread. Of course, it can be done with other multigrain/whole grain artisan breads too.
This will make a big pot. It feeds 4 adults for 2 meals in our family.
Last edited by berryblondeboys; 10-25-2011 at 02:52 PM.
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