Cream of Broccoli Soup - Second Kind

This cream of broccoli soup has a secret ingredient - cauliflower. The immersion blender really helps make this a thick, hearty soup. I've also started using nonfat milk powder & chicken boullion granules instead of the HMR chicken soup for recipes. Cost is the big factor, here. If you want to keep it 'in the box' use the chicken soup mix.

1 stalk broccoli

1/4 head cauliflower

2 cups water

1 teaspoon dried diced onion

1 tablespoon chicken boullion  and 2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup nonfat milk powder (or 1 pack of chicken soup mix instead.)

1/4 additional cup cold water


Wash and cut broccoli & cauliflower into small florets. Add the broccoli to the water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes. Gently remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon. Add cauliflower and onions to the water, and cook, covered, until very soft. (About 20 minutes.) Using your immersion blender, blend the cauliflower and onions to a smooth consistency. In a separate bowl or cup,
to 1/4 cup cold water, add the boullion and milk powder or pack of chicken soup mix. Whisk until blended. Temper this with a few tablespoons of hot mixture from the saucepan, stirring after each addition. Add the tempered soup mixture to the saucepan along with the cooked broccoli. Stir and heat through. Add hot water if it is too thick. This is very easy to double, and is good as a leftover.

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.

Simple Salsa - Summer Memories

This is a great vegetable dish. No oils, sugars or dressings are needed beyond lime juice and salt, making it a low calorie accompaniment for anyone, particularly the HMR dieter.  I enjoy fresh vegetables in season. I probably won't make this again until next summer, but I can at least put the picture up to remind me of how tasty it is.

2 tomatoes

2 bell peppers

1 or 2 banana peppers (optional)

1 small onion

1/2 bunch cilantro

2 tablespoons lime juice (I use bottled unless limes are really cheap)

1/2 can corn kernels, drained

1/2 can black beans, drained

salt

Chop all fresh vegetables to pieces the size of your little fingernail into a large bowl. Chop cilantro leaves into very small bits with a kitchen shears. Add to bowl. Add drained corn and black beans. Add salt to taste. If I am making it to last for a few meals, I wait to add the salt until just before eating. This keeps the vegetables from getting soft while it sits in the fridge. This recipe is very easy to double, and has hundreds of variations. Different kinds of tomatoes or peppers or additional garden vegetables will change the flavor.

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.

Zucchini, Onions & Mushrooms

End of season for zucchini is sometimes a good thing. Still, I did like this dish, and I'll probably make it with store-bought zucchini as the winter approaches. I do it both with tomatoes and without tomatoes, so try it both ways to see which you like better.

2 - 3 small zucchini (or one big zuc with seeds and tough skin removed.) sliced in rounds

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1small can sliced mushrooms, undrained

2 or 3 roma tomatoes or 1 or 2 garden variety tomatoes (optional), cut into pieces, save juice

non-stick spray

1 tablespoon "Better Than Bullion" Vegetable Stock

Coat bottom of skillet with cooking spray. Turning heat to medium high, lay onion slices in a single layer into the pan. Cook until transparent, and push to the side. Lay zucchini slices in pan in single layer, and cook until soft. Onions should be starting to brown. Stir and cook until zucchini starts to brown. Add tomatoes (if using) with juice, vegetable stock and mushrooms. Cook on medium high, stirring often, until mushrooms are cooked through and liquid cooks down. Add pepper to taste. Makes 2 to 4 servings.

End of Summer Chopped Salad

This is not a shake. This is a chopped salad that uses vegetables that are plentiful at the end of summer in Wisconsin. If you don't have your own tomatoes, cucumbers and parsley in abundance, they are fairly inexpensive at the farmer's market right now, or even at the grocery store. Make this about a half hour in advance of eating, so flavors can meld, and so that you get a bit of juice from the tomatoes and cucumbers. I like to make a couple of servings at a time, so I have it for lunch at work the next day. If you try to keep it more than 24 hours, it gets a little mushy, so make only enough for one or two meals at a time. Here's the recipe:

2 or 3 ripe tomatoes

2 slicing size cucumbers

4 to 8 stems of parsley (I prefer curled parsley to flat leaf parsley)

1/2 small onion

1 tablespoon lemon juice

salt & pepper to taste

7 or 8 medium mint leaves, well washed (optional)

Cut all vegetables directly into your serving bowl. Cut out top of tomatoes, and cut into quarters, then quarters into 3 or 4 pieces each.  Chop cucumbers into similar sized pieces, discarding large seeds if necessary. Using a kitchen shears, chop parsley leaves into bowl, discarding thick stems. Stack mint leaves, and cut into thin slivers into bowl. Finally, chop onion into bowl. Sprinkle lemon juice over all, add a few shakes of salt, and a couple of pepper, and stir well. Allow to marinade for a half hour before eating. This recipe is two meals worth for me, but as an accompaniment salad, it's probably about 4 servings.