Veggie galore!

I must be hungry. Second recipe this week. Well, let's make this a week of recipes. Today's is sponsored by Weight Watchers. They have a fabulous veggie soup (0-1 points for anyone who does WW) that is simple and very tasty. If you want to add more veggies to your diet or wish to lose weight, then make this soup and eat a bowl before lunch or dinner. It's healthier than a salad--that salad dressing can be a killer.

Ingredients:

Basically, whatever veggies you want. I suggest for the minimum you have:

onion
garlic
carrots
celery
cabbage
green beans

6 cups of chicken or veggie broth
1 teaspoon of basil leaves
1 teaspoon of oregano
1 tablespoon tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste

Start off using either cooking spray or olive oil (1 tablespoon) and saute minced garlic (I LOVE garlic so I use about 3-4 cloves) and diced onion (I use about 1/2 of an onion) in a big pot. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add diced carrots (I use about 1/2 small bag of baby carrots or 3-4 large carrots) and diced celery (about 3-4 ribs). Cook about 5 min. Now add broth and rest of veggies. I made some this week and used asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash, corn, cabbage, green beans. Add the rest of ingredients. Taste and adjust your salt as necessary.

Side story: I bought tons of veggies and while ringing them up, the kid at the register didn't know half of them. "Uh, ma'am, what's this?" It's green cabbage, it's zucchini, it's squash. Finally, his manager came over (he was new and needed some help) and after hearing him ask what the various items were said, "Son, you need to eat more veggies at home."

You only need to cook the soup as long as you wish the veggies to be soft. I like my veggies with some bite to them, so I cook everything about a total of 20-30 min tops. I also add some veggies towards the last 5-10 minutes: squash, zucchini, asparagus. These will get very squishy if you add them too soon.

Healthy eating!