My favorite soup

I've been making this soup since last fall...nothing better on a cold day than a bowl of hearty, healthy soup!

Here's what goes into my 'kitchen sink' soup:

3 cups Vegetable "Stock-in-a-box"
1 cup V8 Juice
1 can Great Northern Beans or Navy Beans
1 can Petite cut diced tomatoes
2 cups chopped zucchini
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup mixed frozen vegetables (corn, carrots, green beans)
1 cup green beans (frozen)
2 cups baby spinach
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Combine in a stock pot, cover, and cook until the veggies are tender. I usually let it simmer for at least 2 hours.

It will yield about 6 2-cup servings. I portion them out into 2 cup containers and freeze them.

This works out to be a 2 point meal for 2 cups. Not bad!

Pre-packaged protein

I love to eat veggie wraps for lunch and sometimes I like to add a small amount of cooked, grilled chicken. So I grilled a few chicken breasts this morning and cubed them after they cooled.

I recently bought a digital food scale, so I measured out 1 oz. of the cooked chicken, which is just enough for me to add a little protein and flavor to my veggie wraps.

I bagged these 1 oz. portions into snack-size zip top bags and put them in my freezer. I take out a bag as I need it, and it thaws quickly.

A delicious lunch

I've discovered these awesome wraps. They have 12...yes...12 grams of fiber and so they are only 1 point. These are made by LaTortilla Factory and I found them at Wal-mart. My local supermarket usually carries them, but they haven't had any lately so I was thrilled to find them at Wally World. I bought an extra bag and put them in the freezer. I hope they freeze well...I guess I'll find out.

Since I had just returned from running errands, I was hungry and didn't have any cooked chicken to put in it, so I loaded it with tomato slices and lettuce, and sprinkled a little part-skimmed mozzarella cheese on it.. I've tried to eat fat free salad dressing, but I just can't get used to the 'weird' flavors. I can eat anything sugar free, low fat or fat free...but I draw the line at salad dressings. I'd rather use 1 teaspoon of 'real' dressing then use fat free.


So I brushed on 1 tsp of Hidden Vallen Ranch dressing on my tomato-basil wrap, added a few honey wheat pretzels on the side, and a glass of diet cream soda (my fav!), oh, and I had a pear for dessert. It wasn't ripe enough...but I ate it anyway! This lunch has a point value of 3.5.

Lunch time!

I thought I'd share one of my favorite, low point, lunches. I lightly toast a Thomas' Light Whole Grain English muffin (1 pt), 1/4 Barilla Tomato-Basil Pasta sauce (1 pt) and 2 tbsp. Part-Skimmed Mozzerella cheese (.5 pt) and sometimes 1 oz of cubed, cooked chicken (1 pt) if I have some available. I put it into my toaster oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese. The total point value for this is 3.5! Sometimes I add a salad or some cucumber slices. A glass of diet cream soda finished off this lunch for me!