Food Friday!

I am so honored to be asked to participate in my friend Eilyne's "Food Friday" feature!  If you haven't checked out her blog yet, you ABSOLUTELY must.  She has an incredible way with words and inspires me each morning with her posts....please check her out here:  http://www.eilynedavis.com/

So my Food Friday entry is the oh so healthy, "Zero Point Weight Watchers Garden Vegetable Soup"....exciting, no?!  It is, it is!  This is a bit of a twist on the soup that I learned about 5 years ago.  My Mom reintroduced me to it recently and we've been tweaking it to our liking.  The best thing about this soup is that it's low-cal, low-carb, high-fiber and no-fat.  It's also quite filling and keeps me from going crazy at meal times...I have a cup before eating lunch or dinner and find I'm not as hungry and I eat much less.  It's supposedly zero points, even on the new + program, but I still count it as 1 point per cup.  Can't beat that though!

Zero Point Weight Watchers Garden Vegetable Soup

6 cups broth (we actually use water only because of the high content of sodium in broth)
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

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!

Different veggies can be added or substituted.  I love adding bell peppers and a dash of hot sauce. This is a good 'clean out the fridge' soup.  Different spices can be added to give it a different taste too.  Be creative and play around with different tastes.  My next batch I'm going to add in some curry for a twist. 

Thank you so much Eilyne for allowing me to join in on the Food Friday feature!  Make sure you check out her blog at www.EilyneDavis.com....she's sharing yummy, beautiful cake pops...you can indulge in them after eating this healthy soup and feel less guilty!

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Since it's Friday, I gotta get my weigh-in in too!  

Starting weight:  172

Last week's weigh in:  169.9

My current weight:  168.7

My goal weight:  154

Gain/Loss this week: -1.2