These last few weeks have been crazy busy and hot. Heat means I can't bake and I miss it. It happened to cool down over the weekend--and rain finally! Oh how I love cool, rainy days. They remind me of fall and I love fall, in all its dreary, drab, cold and wet wonder. Cool weather makes me crave soup!
I have been on what I affectionately call a "Soup Kick" for several years now. I eat soup year-round as opposed to those who only eat it when there's snow on the ground. What could be better than a piping hot bowl of soup in the middle of July?! Maybe a frosty bowl of ice cream... In all seriousness, I love soup. It's like a liquid hotdish and I so enjoy a good hotdish. And bonus: My husband will eat soup while he mostly whines about having hotdish.
If you want to think in terms of weight loss, soup is great! A good veggie soup with 99% fat free broth and lean chicken--it's perfect. It's hearty, filling and good for you. And since you cook all those veggies in the soup, and don't drain out the nutrients, you reap all the goodness those vegetables carry. Add a little barley, which is gluten free, fat free and a whole grain, and you have a one pot meal. That's the other beauty of soup--you typically cook it all in one pot or throw the ingredients into a crock pot, start it to simmer and WALK AWAY. What could be easier?!
Yes, soup is wonderful. Soup is also good to soothe the soul and is often a comfort food for me. It's been a stressful few days here, a stressful few weeks--months--heck, years! And being as food is my coping mechanism, it's not hard to see why I turn to such a comfort food as soup when I'm feeling stressed out and lonely.
So tonight I'm making soup. I cannot lay much claim to this recipe as I found it on the back of the Quaker Barley box, but it's really very tasty and will likely make you feel like a warm hug has embraced you. I usually have all these ingredients on hand, or some form of them, so it's easy to toss together and let simmer away. It will also freeze wonderfully, so you can plunk some in the back of your freezer for when the days are short, the air is icy, and you need a burst of warmth from within.
Quaker Hearty Vegetable Barley Soup
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
7 cups water
1 (14.5 oz) can unsalted whole tomatoes, undrained, cut into pieces (or run through blender to puree)
1/2 cup Quaker Medium Barley, uncooked
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup sliced carrots
2 beef bouillon cubes, or 2 tsp. beef bouillon granules
1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed
1 bay leaf
1 (9 oz) pkg frozen mixed vegetables or equivalent in fresh veggies
In 4 qt saucepan or Dutch oven, brown hamburger. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is tender. Drain off fat. Stir in remaining ingredients except frozen vegetables. Cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 50-60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add frozen vegetables and cook about 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Additional water may be added if soup becomes too thick upon standing. Makes 12 (1 cup) servings.
Try this with my Whole Wheat Beer Bread and you'll be slumped over in your recliner, lids heavy, fighting off that post dinner nap before the 6 o'clock news is over!
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