Good afternoon!
I hope you're all looking forward to your weekends, not many hours to go now!
The last few weeks I've been trying to incorporate soup into my diet as much as possible.
I'm not sure if I've told you much about my diet but I eat breakfast at 6am, have a break at 11am, lunch at 2ish, snack at 5 whilst driving before the gym and my evening meal at 8 when I get home. Its a very long day and I need constant grazing to get me through.
I work in a lab so grazing at a desk isn't something that I can do. I'll be writing about my breakfasts and lunches in future, but my 11am break is currently dedicated to soup. I'm lucky that my mum is super amazing and makes soup weekly, if not twice a week because we all love it. Here's some recipe and flavour suggestions:
I hope you're all looking forward to your weekends, not many hours to go now!
The last few weeks I've been trying to incorporate soup into my diet as much as possible.
I'm not sure if I've told you much about my diet but I eat breakfast at 6am, have a break at 11am, lunch at 2ish, snack at 5 whilst driving before the gym and my evening meal at 8 when I get home. Its a very long day and I need constant grazing to get me through.
I work in a lab so grazing at a desk isn't something that I can do. I'll be writing about my breakfasts and lunches in future, but my 11am break is currently dedicated to soup. I'm lucky that my mum is super amazing and makes soup weekly, if not twice a week because we all love it. Here's some recipe and flavour suggestions:
My mum is a very big fan of cooking and we rarely have evening meals that aren't 100% prepared by her. We have a slow cooker that is perfect for casseroles, curries, chilli and pasta sauces and if not its freshly cooked stir fry, pasta bakes and fish and veg.
She absolutely loves her Creuset dishes though and most soups are prepared in these. As a general rule, the veg is prepared and chopped, sweated in the Creuset dish on a high heat with 1 cal spray for 5 minutes and then vegetable stock is added. This is then brought to the boil and then simmers for 20 minutes before being whizzed by a hand mixer and ta dah, a home made batch of soup. We normally add in an onion and some garlic to every recipe so these get added in and cooked in the 1 cal spray first and I can tell you it smells AMAZING.
It's super easy and I wish more people would make their own. It's much healthier than tinned soup with preservatives and cream etc thrown into them to make them taste better.
The photo below shows Pea and Courgette soup, its super green and therefore super nutritious with lots of vitamins and antioxidants. When my mum first made it I was a bit worried I'd hate it....but actually its amazing and it's now one of my favourites.
For this recipe you need 3 courgettes with the garlic and onion, and then add a load of frozen peas at the same time you add the stock. My amounts are a little vague I'll admit...measuring in my house is rarely done unless its cakes so just add 2 mugs or so and go from there. They don't take long to cook in the stock so you can always add more!
Another favourite of mine is Sweet Potato and Butternut squash, you can also substitute the butternut squash for carrot as well. I love that it's bright orange! Using squash and pumpkins in soup is a great way to try new vegetables that you haven't tried before, just add them into a soup that you know you like already and the bigger the variety the better.
I think for this one it's normally 3 sweet potatoes and a whole butternut squash.
I think for this one it's normally 3 sweet potatoes and a whole butternut squash.
Leek and potato was my favourite when I was younger as my nan always used to make it. Now though I much prefer my mums recipe (the horror!) as she makes it without any cream, milk etc and I find it tastes much better. For this recipe its a packet of leeks, normally 4 I think? And then 2 medium sized potatoes.
If you feel you need the creaminess you can add milk instead of cream to save on calories, but I find that it's completely pointless and it tastes much better without!
At home we tend to eat soup from these really cute sets from Ikea, thought I try and forget the plate underneath is for bread.....
For work I have one of these pots which you can buy from Asda. They're so handy and you can put any hot food in them, put them in the microwave and depress the button on the lid to allow some steam out.
They're also great for salads especially as you can shake them up and ensure the dressing is equally distributed.
Most of the soups on this page, as they contain only veg and stock, are only around 100 calories per portion. Although I do eat a lot throughout the day (and some people at work definitely made a few comments at me having soup on my 'tea break') by the time I get to 11am I've been awake 5 hours and need some more sustenance. A 100 calorie portion of soup is a great way to fill you up, get more of your 5 a day in and its lovely and warm on these current rainy days.
I follow it up at 2ish with a salad and a yogurt, so i am unlikely to go over my calorie intake!
Do you like soup? What's your favourite flavour? Do you have any recipes you can link me to?
I looooooooove soup and think so many more people should get involved!
L xxx
I follow it up at 2ish with a salad and a yogurt, so i am unlikely to go over my calorie intake!
Do you like soup? What's your favourite flavour? Do you have any recipes you can link me to?
I looooooooove soup and think so many more people should get involved!
L xxx
