Hot Dish: "Free" Veggie Soup

As part of the Jenny Craig diet, you are able to purchase something called Soupitizers which are 7 oz containers of a light broth/vegetable soup. They are optional and go toward two of the three "Limited Foods" you get daily. I enjoy them and find that if I add a bunch of steamed veggies, they are filling and help curb my appetite when it's not quite dinnertime. However, they are about $3.00 each and are seriously not worth that cost!



So, I did a bit of research yesterday, perused the Jenny message board and discovered that I can make better-tasting soup of my own that serves the same purpose, costs less and is considered a "Free" food. Since I kinda miss the amount of cooking I used to do before starting the program, this is a perfect solution for me!

It didn't take long for me to find this old Weight Watchers stand-by, the Zero Point Soup. My favorite veggie blogger, Veggieventure, posted it recently. (You can zip on over to her blog for pics and more fabulous recipes!)

WEIGHT WATCHERS ZERO POINTS GARDEN VEGETABLE SOUP RECIPE
Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 1 1/4 hour
Makes 9 cups

6 cups broth (today I used Light Vegetable Stock)

Cooking spray
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
4 teaspoons garlic (from a jar or substitute four cloves minced garlic)
1/2 cabbage, chopped (or use a bag of slaw, the biggest chunks you can find vs the fine, don't skip the cabbage for it somehow makes the soup)
1/2 pound frozen green beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large zucchini, diced

Bring the broth to a boil in the microwave. (This is a time-saving tip that can be skipped if there's no hurry.)

Spray a Dutch oven with cooking spray and heat on MEDIUM HIGH. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the zucchini and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the beans are tender. Add the zucchini and cook until the zucchini are tender. Serve and enjoy!

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Cup: 61 Cal (3% from Fat, 24% from Protein, 73% from Carb); 4 g Protein; 0 g Tot Fat; 0 g Sat Fat; 13 g Carb; 3 g Fiber; NetCarb10; NetCarb10; 52 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 701 mg Sodium; 0 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers ... hmmm ... 1 point

NUTRITION NOTES This soup is low-cal, low-carb, high-fiber and no-fat. But hmmm. What about the claim that it has no points in the Weight Watchers world? I suppose so, since all the ingredients are "free". But honestly, a calorie's a calorie and so I count every one of them whether from chocolate cake or fresh vegetables. In my book, this Garden Vegetable Soup counts as 1 point but is a definite one-point winner.

KITCHEN NOTES
Zero point soups are easy to make without a recipe. Just cook a pile of non-starchy vegetables in 6 cups of a non-fat broth. It's even easy to convert one-point soups to zero-point soups.

So last night's dinner for the family was pasta & meatballs, garlic bread and this soup. I had a big bowl of soup before my Jenny meal, completely satisfied that I was eating something healthy and got my cooking fix!

Victory List:

*Despite bread being one of my favorite things on the planet, I did not eat a single crumb of the aforementioned garlic bread
*Ditto with the pasta
*Ditto with the fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies my daughter Lily made last night
*Ditto with the apple & cherry turnovers I bought (on sale) for the family yesterday
*Though I didn't do any formal exercise, turning away from all of that decadence was a work-out in itself!

Have a Beauty-Full Day, TGIF!