Legal Vegetable Soup

I really like soup. I especially like to find things that I think will go together well, and create my own homemade soup. In the past, that usually included doing things like sauteing onions in butter and adding cream, or oil or sausage. Well, I know I can't do THAT on this diet, so here's a cream, meat & butter free soup that is actually quite satisfying, but still fits into the guidelines of the 'at home' HMR diet. This makes a big pot of soup. I ate about two cups of soup, and figured out that it is between 120 & 140 calories for that size serving. It uses mostly canned and frozen ingredients, so it is fairly high in sodium, but that's not a terrible drawback for me, since my blood pressure is normal. I won't be eating this every day, and I think that's the balancing act everyone has to perform in healthy eating. If I had left out the garbanzo beans, it would have come in at about 100 calories per 2 cup serving, and if I'd eat the soup that way as an accompaniment to an entree, using 1 cup as my serving size, I could get it down to 45 - 50 calories. My family ate it with me, and even thought it was 'pretty good.'

1 Quart canned tomato juice (I thought about V8, but the tomato was on sale at the grocery store)

1 lb. frozen mixed vegetables

1 cup frozen seasoning mix vegetables (onions, peppers, parsley, celery)

1 tablespoon 'Better than Bullion' seasoning OR two cups worth of vegetable bullion

2 small or 1 large potato, cut into bite size cubes

Additional seasoning greens- parsley & basil were used, but dill, oregano, cilantro sage or whatever you like could be added or substituted

1 can drained garbanzo beans (black beans can be substituted for a dash of color if you prefer.)

1 - 2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 to 2 cups additional water

Using a large soup pot, place the pot on medium high heat. Add and stir around the seasoning vegetables until they begin to brown, or until they begin to stick to the pot. Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring between each addition. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn down the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about an hour, or until potatoes are done.

Creamy Carrot Soup

Here is a recipe for carrot soup that has a few variations. This particular soup can be made a couple of ways, depending upon if you have the HMR chicken soup available or nonfat dry milk powder. I make this in tandem with the orange shake recipe, then put the finished soup in the fridge so I have it available to microwave for lunch. In the olden days, I used to make this with lots of butter and real half & half. The variation here is not quite as creamy, but using the immersion blender gives it a nice, smooth consistency, and I can live with that.

1 lb bag of baby carrots

1 small potato

1 onion, diced

6 to 10 basil leaves

2 tsp. "Better Than Bullion" vegetable stock

1 package HMR chilcken soup mix OR 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk mix

1 small green pepper and parsley (both optional)

Peel and cut potato into 1 inch chunks. Add baby carrots and potatoes to 2 cups of water in a soup pan. Bring to a boil, then simmer until carrots are soft. Remove 6 -8 carrots, slice into rounds, and set aside. (At this point, I remove 6 additional carrots and 3/4 cup liquid for an orange shake if I want it.) Add onion and basil leaves. I have also added green pepper from the garden at this point, but that's optional. After all of the vegetables are very soft, remove a few pepper bits and larger onion pieces. Using the immersion blender, blend the remaining vegetables smooth. Add either the soup mix or nonfat dry milk to 1/2 cup of cool water, blending until smooth. Add this mixture and the vegetable stock to the soup, and heat, stirring well. You may wish to blend again after this step if you like your soup super smooth. Add reserved vegetables to the mix, and serve, or pack into a container for rewarming. Garnish with parsley.