Soups - Measuring Cups, Optional

French Onion Soup

It’s cold. Actually, it’s beyond cold. We were hit with snow early this week and it was terrible. Fairfax County schools, DC schools and the Federal Government all failed to call – at a minimum – a two-hour delay causing mass chaos during the morning commute.

Since Tuesday’s snowfall, the snow hasn’t melted. We’ve been seeing temperatures no warmer than 30 F with mornings at 8 F and afternoons hovering around 25 F. I’ve probably said this at least 10 times on the blog, but I am not a fan of cold weather. If it were up to me, I would hibernate all winter and come back to life when it’s no colder than 60 F, sometime around late March. The layers: sweaters, coats, socks, leggings, gloves, hats, ear muffs; it’s all too much for me. And to top it all off, the days are cut short when the sun sets at 5pm. (more…)

Tomato Basil Soup

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Posts, Recipes, Soups

Let me just say that I’m a Northern Virginian, born and raised and I went to grad school at Syracuse. Did I mention the Northern VA part? For those of you who don’t know, it’s distinct enough from the rest of Virginia to require a prefix (but that’s a discussion for another day). What you do need to know is that NoVa and cold precipitation are not a good mix. Blame it on the location – an in-between zone where we don’t quite get fluffy snow and when it rains in 30 degree weather it usually comes down on us in a nice “wintery mix.” Snow, not for me. My favorite winters are the ones where we don’t get any snow. In Syracuse, I wasn’t so lucky. I didn’t understand the concept of Lake Effect Snow until I saw it in action… that is constant snow from October through April. (more…)

Nacho Corn Soup

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Posts, Recipes, Soups

I don’t really cook with corn, unless in corn on the cob. So lately, I’ve been trying to find recipes with corn as an ingredient. I just so happened to come across this recipe from Slodka Babka and thought it’d be a nice addition to Taco Night. The Nacho Doritos really amp up the flavor give it that nacho-ey feel. I received compliments from everyone (mom and dad included). (more…)

Skinny Corn Chowder

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Posts, Recipes, Soups

It’s Ramadan, that month on the lunar calendar when you can’t have food, water, or gum from sunrise to sunset. It’s also a month when you’re supposed to concentrate on other things besides food, being a better person, getting closer to your faith, etc. While all that’s true, I find more and more that Ramadan is really All About the Food. We’ve received numerous dinner invites, even a few weeks before Ramadan even started. With the long days (16 hours, give or take), all I can think about is food. What happens, is that although I’ve been eying the sweets in the fridge, or thinking about burgers, dinner time rolls around and I can’t down more than soup and salad. Go figure. All those cravings for nothing. It makes sense, you’re stomach contracts when you’re fasting so you can’t stuff it like you usually do. Unless you’re one of those people that doesn’t mind the uncomfortable feeling of being so full you need to unbutton the top button on your jeans and lay down until you fall asleep. (more…)

Freekeh Soup [Green Wheat Soup]

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Arabic Food Made Easy, Posts, Recipes, Soups

In an attempt to curb a cold, I thought whipping up some soup might do the trick. I’m pretty sick of chicken noodle soup. So I decided to try something different. Freekeh.

For those who don’t know what Freekeh is … it’s not freaky. It’s basically a type of green wheat that goes through a roasting process in its production. It’s very healthy and very popular in the areas of the Levant, Arabian Peninsula and found in North African and Egyptian cuisine.

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Freekeh Soup [Green Wheat Soup]

Yield: 6 Servings

Ingredients

3 pieces Skinless Chicken Breast
Water
1 Onion, chopped
1 tablespoon Seven Spice
Salt, to taste
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 cup Freekeh

Instructions

Prepare the chicken stock by sauteeing the onion with olive oil in a medium saucepan until translucent.
Add the chicken and cover with water (to desired amount). Add salt to taste and boil for about 20 minutes.
Drain. Do not discard the chicken water. Set it aside.
Meanwhile, pick out the stones from the freekeh, wash with lukewarm water and then soak in water until ready.
In a medium saucepan, boil the freekeh with fresh water. Once the water is absorbed, add the chicken stock and simmer on medium-low until the freekeh is soft.

Tip: Don't discard the boiled chicken. You can bake it in the oven (with veggies if you so desire) on 350 degrees for 20 minutes and serve with the soup.

Notes

Nutrition Information: Cals 106. Carbs 2g, Fat 1g. Protein 1g. Sodium 58mg.

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Chicken Noodle Soup for the Sick of Being Sick Soul

categories: Posts, Recipes, Soups

All year, I work to try to avoid this very thing – getting sick. And I’m not talking cough, sniffle, sneeze sick, I’m talking shivers, trouble swallowing, ear aching, nose won’t stop running even though you blew it dry, sick. Let me tell you, it sucks.

I felt it coming on late Monday, after I spent my whole day (starting at 6:45am) on site at a client conference. Then, bam! Tuesday morning I woke up with half a sore throat, an aching ear and an inability to swallow anything with a consistency more solid than mashed potatoes.

Blame it on the change in weather – which by the way, is amazing at the moment but I can’t enjoy it because I’m home, sick as a dog, working while laying on the couch with the TV off. What frustrates me is that I can’t do anything about it. After seeing my doctor. Pure luck that I scheduled an appointment for yesterday. She broke the news to me. “It looks like you have a virus.” Dum dum dum. My world came crashing down. A virus? How in the world did that happen? I wash my hands, eat well, make sure I stay away from sick people, and yet … I have been diagnosed by the professional. The only good news is that she put me on a Z-Pak, a five-day antibiotic treatment whose powers are so great that hopefully it will have me feeling better before the long weekend rolls around.

Between email and projects, I’ve managed to create a giant pile of Kleenex and also make myself some really easy chicken noodle soup.

Why chicken noodle soup? You might ask. Well, a handful of scientific studies show that chicken soup really could have medicinal value. A study published in 2000 in the medical journal Chest by Dr. Stephen Rennard of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha found that chicken noodle soup helps reduce upper respiratory cold symptoms by inhibiting the migration neutrophils, infection-fighting cells.

Dr. Rennard conducted lab tests to determine why chicken soup might help colds, starting with his wife’s homemade recipe. The recipe was handed down by her Lithuanian grandmother. Using blood samples from volunteers, he showed that the soup inhibited the movement of neutrophils, the most common type of white blood cell that defends against infection. To find out more about Dr. Rennard’s findings, visit http://www.unmc.edu/chickensoup/index.htm

So here’s my chicken noodle soup recipe. Mostly made of food I had in my fridge (not much really).

Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Ingredients

2 Chicken Breasts

2 large Carrots

1 Medium Onion, chopped

2 Red Potatoes, chopped

1 box Low Sodium Chicken Broth

1 ½ cups Thin Spaghetti, broken in half

Olive Oil

Salt to taste

Oregano to taste

Directions

Boil chicken breasts for 20 minutes, drain water.

Cut chicken into small squares, or shreds

Sauté onion with 1 tablespoon (I used 2 swirls) olive oil until translucent

Add carrots and potatoes, sauté for 2 minutes.

Add chicken broth

Add noodles

Add chicken

Stir carefully as not to break the noodles.

Let boil once it boils, add salt and oregano to taste

Allow the soup to continue boiling on low-medium for another 20 minutes.

Serve with a box of Kleenex and a warm blanket.