Cabbage Soup

It's still raining and gray outside and I was craving warm food, so for lunch today I pulled out some cabbage soup I made as a starter a few nights ago. I paired it with a mini version of last night's chicken taco salad minus the beans and tortilla chips and also had some pepper strips with bleu cheese dressing and 1 c. nonfat milk. When I made lunch, it didn't seem to be a lot of food, and not very calorically dense, but as usual, my eyes were bigger than my stomach and I couldn't finish the soup.

I'm hoping the weather clears up enough for me to go for a walk this afternoon, but if not, I'm pulling out the Pilates DVD again. We'll see if Mother Nature wants me to get outside, or to work on my abs and arms. Ha!

My recipe for cabbage soup follows the next picture. Enjoy!

The soup was pretty easy to make and a good way to fool my kids into eating their veggies. It has an almost sweet flavor and is extremely creamy. While they didn't gobble it down, they did get a few bites down which is all this mom can ask for!

Cabbage Soup by Joie de vivre

Serves: About 8, it made quite a large pot

Ingredients:

2 Tbls. olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 head smooth, green cabbage, shredded

1 red potato, chunked. Leave skin on.

2 tsp. salt (or more depending on taste)

1 quart chicken broth

Directions:

1. In a large soup pot, warm the olive oil and place in onion, cooking and stirring until translucent.

2. Place cabbage in the pot and stir. Cover and let sit a few minutes, stir again. Recover and let sit again a few minutes. Do this until cabbage is mostly wilted.

3. Add the chicken broth and the potato chunks as well as the salt. Turn the heat up and bring the soup to a boil. Partially cover the soup with lid, turn down the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until all of the vegetables are cooked and softened.

4. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup completely.

Lunch

Thank God for sunshine and spring like temperatures today. I took my youngest and his bicycle to a bike path and we had a lovely walk/bike for an hour this afternoon. He definitely was tired on the way back as he'd bike a little, stop, point out the tiniest of pebbles, and then resume riding. He was a trooper though!

Lunch was basically a repeat of yesterday as that cream cheese and salami sandwich was so yummy and kept me going until dinner, I just substituted out different veggies and also had 1/2 c. greek yogurt and some grapes. Dinner tonight will incorporate the seasoned chicken I used for chicken soft tacos, but in some sort of different form as I'm out of tortillas! I'll think of something. Have a great afternoon!

Salami and cream cheese sandwich

It's amazing what 24 hours can do. I feel sooooo much better this afternoon than yesterday afternoon. My head is clear and I have more energy. Hooray! Lunch was fabulous and filling as well, 2 slices lite whole wheat bread smeared with some cream cheese and 4 salami slices, pepper slices with bleu cheese dip, grapes and 1/2 c. greek yogurt. I also poured myself a glass of Perrier and served myself on a place mat. I felt fancy and spoiled indeed.

After lunch I was going to take my youngest on a bike ride but we both decided it was far too windy outside and that it looked nicer than it actually was. Instead I pulled out one of my old Windsor Pilates DVDs. I was able to do it without problem and settled in to watch Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie while I stretched. It was a fun episode about Turkish cuisine, but it was during this time that my muscles caught up with me! I think I'll be a little sore tomorrow.

I'm having a lack of inspiration about dinner. I had planned frozen fish (yeah, I really did) but it just seems so blah now. I need to think of a way to pep it up a little yet not so much the boys won't eat it. More to come....


The evil DVD