Zuppa Toscana Clone (Olive Garden Clone)

Roger and I love pretty much all of the soups that The Olive Garden makes. The Zuppa Toscana is his favorite so he decided to make this one for the week.  We aren't sure what to do with the leftover kale, so leave some ideas in the comments if you have any recipes that use kale.

Zuppa Toscana (Olive Garden Clone)
makes 14 2-cup servings 
about 400 calories per serving

2 lbs. Italian sausage

4 large russet potatoes

1 large onion

2 strips bacon

4 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed 

3 cups chopped kale

64 oz. chicken broth

2 cups heavy cream

Salt

Pepper

Fennel

Chop bacon strips. Brown Italian sausage and bacon in soup pot. Season lightly with pepper and fennel. Remove meat from pot and add onions.

Cook onions until tender then add chicken broth, bring to boil.

Meanwhile Cut potatoes in half lengthwise, then into quarter-inch slices, add potatoes and garlic to soup when boiling. Return to simmer. Cook 10 to 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. 

 Return meats to soup. Season with salt and pepper if necessary. Return to simmer. 

Trim stem away from the kale. Add kale and cream to soup. 

Spicy Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

This soup was like Thanksgiving in my mouth. In fact, we plan on recreating this soup with turkey instead of chicken in November. I was glad to relive Thanksgiving since it's my favorite holiday.

You will have to clean more than one pot, an oven pan and the blender before its done, but it's worth it. The key ingredient for this soup is the crushed red pepper. It had this nice spice that offset the creamy goodness of the squash. Make this soup if you like butternut squash, you love Thanksgiving like me, or if you just enjoy delicious soup.

Spicy Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
makes 14 2-cup servings 
about 350 calories per serving


5lbs. butternut squash
2 cups diced sweet onions
1 bunch chopped green onion
2 carrots peeled and diced
3 lbs. split chicken breasts with bones and skin
3 tbsp. butter
1 cup heavy cream
olive oil
crushed red pepper
salt 
pepper


Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Season exposed flesh with salt and pepper and drizzle a small amount of olive oil on cut edges. Place squash face down on a baking sheet and roast until soft, roughly 1 hour.


While squash is roasting, trim excess fat and skin from chicken and season well with salt and pepper. Place chicken in pot with at least 6 cups of water; bring to just below boiling and hold for 20 minutes. Remove chicken from water and set aside to cool. Reserve chicken stock; do not dump.


Remove squash from oven and set aside to cool.


In large sauce pan, heat butter and cook sweet onions and carrots over medium heat until tender. Scoop squash flesh from shell into saucepan then add 2 cups of the remaining chicken stock. Bring mixture to a boil and then reduce to a slow simmer. Season with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes. Continue simmering for 10 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to cool. Ladle into blender and purée.


Transfer purée into a stockpot. Add 4 additional cups of reserved chicken stock. Bring to a slow simmer and add green onion and cream. 


Remove skin and bones then cube the chicken into bite size pieces or shred if preferred. Add chicken to soup and allow it to simmer for 25 minutes before serving. 

Vegetable Chili

There is no question I am a meat-eater. I'm okay with you if you're vegetarian, but if I'm being honest, I find vegans irritating. Meat is so delicious that it is suspicious to me when you cut it out of your diet. That's why when Roger suggested that we do his Nana's vegetable chili for the week I was skeptical. 


As usual, I was wrong, especially if you don't think of this vegetable chili as a substitute for meat chili, but rather as a delicious soup where the vegetables are made tasty by the chili powder. The recipe below is rather spicy, so if you're intolerant of spicy food, cut out the jalapeno and you should be okay. Also, if you are one of those slightly annoying vegetarians or downright exasperating vegans, substitute the beef broth for vegetable broth. Actually, I'm not knowledgeable of vegan diets- they can eat beans, right? 

Vegetable Chili
makes 14 2-cup servings 
about 160 calories per serving

2 green bell peppers
1 orange bell pepper
2 jalapeno peppers (seeds removed)
1 medium onion
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
2 (15 ounce) cans pinto beans
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans
2 (14.5 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
16 ounces beef broth (or vegetable broth for vegetarian substitute)
1 10-ounce can Rotel
1 1/2 cup frozen corn

2 tbsp. olive oil
4 tbsp. chili powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper


Chop bell peppers and jalapenos. Cut zucchini and yellow squash lengthwise into quarters; cut each quarter crosswise into 1/2 inch thick wedges.


In a large pot heat olive oil and cook bell peppers, onions, and jalapenos until tender. Add zucchini, yellow squash, chili powder, salt, and cayenne pepper; cook 1 minute.


Drain and rinse pinto and black beans.


Add stewed tomatoes, pinto beans, black beans, beef broth, green chilies and corn; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste. 

Italian Sausage Minestrone

Roger and I were thinking of doing an Olive Garden clone because they have some delicious soups. His favorite is Sopa Toscana (and I'm sure we'll be trying to emulate that soon). While thinking of how to do a minestrone for this week, Roger was looking around at various recipes and (as usual) had a stroke of brilliance: add Italian sausage, because we all know that everything is better when you add Italian sausage. Word of warning though- this is an exorbitantly rich soup. There were days during the week where I couldn't even finish it all, but I'm a girl who can't even finish a piece of rich chocolate cake so the rest of you should be fine. Roger finished all of his.

Italian Sausage Minestrone

about 230 to 250 calories per serving
makes 14 2-cup servings
about $12-$15

2 lbs. sweet Italian sausage (you can buy this in bulk or buy the links and remove the casing)
2 or 3 chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onion
28 oz. (2 cans) cannellini beans, drained
28 oz. (2 cans) garbanzo beans, drained
64 oz. chicken broth
3 or 4 plum tomatoes
1/2 lb. salad macaroni or the pasta of your choice
pinch rosemary, thyme and basil; either dried or fresh would work
1/2 cup grated or shredded parmigiana cheese
dash sea salt
dash fresh ground pepper
olive oil

Coat the bottom of the pot with olive oil and brown the Italian sausage. Remove sausage and set aside. Add carrots, garlic, onion. Season with salt and pepper, cook until tender, then return sausage to pot and add  beans and chicken broth. Bring to simmer.

Using the largest holes on your grater, grate the tomatoes into the pot. Add rosemary, thyme and basil then season with salt and pepper. Simmer soup for 20 to 30 minutes.

If serving immediately, bring soup to a boil and add pasta; cook until pasta is al dente. Or if you're packaging the soup for the week like we are, prepare pasta separately and add the pasta as you reheat the individual servings.

Serve topped with cheese.

Chili Tomato Chicken Soup (Chicken Explosion)

The secret to this recipe is the chili-style diced tomatoes. Many brands carry it: Hunts, Red Gold, Del Monte, and more. Being here in Texas though, we used the H-E-B store brand because we rarely go wrong with them. Don't be afraid of the title's chili flavor. I don't usually prefer chili flavors either, but it doesn't overwhelm the soup at all. For those of you who like chili powder, this recipe still will not disappoint. This is perhaps my favorite soup yet. 

Roger and I (once again) disagree over the title of this week's soup. He thinks it should be Chicken Explosion because it's more exciting than last week's Hamburger Soup. I think including the key ingredient in the title is more descriptive. As usual, feel free to comment with a more appropriate title.

Chili Tomato Chicken Soup (or Chicken Explosion Soup)

about 180 calories per serving
makes 14 1-cup servings
about $12-$15

2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast
2 cans (14.5 oz. each) chili-style diced tomatoes
64 oz. chicken broth
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 cloves pressed garlic
2 cups frozen crinkle cut carrots
2 cups frozen petite peas
2 cups frozen corn
1 lb. russet potatoes
1 tbsp. olive oil
salt
pepper
basil

Cube chicken and season with salt, pepper and basil. Cook chicken in stock pot with olive oil, adding pressed garlic once chicken in nearly cooked.

Add diced tomatoes, 16 oz. of chicken broth, and onion; bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and add frozen vegetables and remaining chicken broth. Simmer for 30 minutes. Season to taste.

Add potatoes that have been cubed to approximately square inch pieces. Again, season to taste.

Hamburger Soup (for lack of a better name)

Roger wanted to go with a soup from his childhood this week. His mother used to make him this one, and she called it Hamburger Soup because it has ground beef in it. However, ground beef is the only thing it has in common with an actual hamburger. I don't like to the name hamburger because it makes it sound heavy when it's really rather light. I think the vegetable broth helps lighten it, so if you prefer a thicker soup, replace the vegetable broth with more beef broth.

This week's recipe is simple so when you're finished, leave an alternative name for the soup in the comments so we can find a better name.

Hamburger Soup
about 200 calories per serving
makes 14 1-cup servings
about $15

1.5 lbs. lean ground beef
64 oz. beef broth
32 oz. vegetable broth
16 oz. frozen carrots
16 oz. frozen corn
16 oz. frozen peas
1.5 lbs. potatoes
1 cup chopped onion
salt and pepper

Season and brown the ground beef in a large pot then drain the fat. Add beef broth, vegetable broth, chopped onions, carrots, corn and peas. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Clean and cut unpeeled potatoes into uniform 1 inch cubes. Add cubed potatoes and simmer for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Season to taste.

Progresso Italian Style Meatball Soup-alike

One of the reasons we started the blog in the first place was to cut down on our soup bill because we eat it so often. Naturally, you begin to crave the can of soup you would eat so often. One of the soups I used to eat most often was Progresso's Light Italian-Style Meatball soup. The nutrition facts for Progresso's version is below. Their version checks in at 180 calories per can. We ended up with more than that, but still well below our goal of 500 calories per serving. We ended up with a lot of meatballs in our version, so if you want to get closer to Progresso's "light", use half the amount of meat.

The recipe below was developed by Roger, and I have to say it came pretty darn close. It was really hard to get the meatballs as tiny as Progresso does, and if we could do it all over again, we might adjust the recipe so that we yielded a little more broth, but all in all, I would say it was a success. We forgot to put carrots in our version, so we've deleted them from the recipe. But add them in if it's a deal breaker!

Italian Style Meatball
less than 350 calories per serving
makes 12 1-cup servings
between $10 and $12

1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
1.25 cups breadcrumbs
3 eggs
64 ounces (8 cups) beef broth
14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
14.5 ounce can crushed tomatoes
2; 8 ounce cans (16 ounces) tomato sauce
1 cup onion
3/4 cup celery
1/2 lb. penne pasta (we prefer whole wheat, but Progresso uses regular)
salt, pepper and Italian seasoning

Combine beef broth, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, celery and onion into large stock pot; cover and simmer.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, then combine ground beef, ground pork, breadcrumbs and eggs in large bowl; season to taste. Lightly grease baking pan. Form mixture into half-inch meatblass and place in baking pan. Bake meatballs for 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove cover and bring soup to rapid boil. Add pasta with 5 minutes remaining on meatball bake time.

Let meatballs sit for 5 minutes, then add to soup. Remove soup from heat. Season to taste

Inaugural week: 15 Bean Soup

I eat soup almost every single day for lunch. My friends at work make fun of me eating the same meal everyday, but truthfully nothing is more comforting than a hot bowl of soup. Why I have to defend a healthy, low-calorie yet filling lunch is a mystery.  


 I'm creating this new blog for more than my love of soup. A combination of events inspired me. My husband decided a few weeks ago that we should go on a diet. No problem, I can still eat soup for lunch. I agreed since we could both stand to lose a little weight. Roger calls it "The Caveman Diet". We aren't doing anything drastic really. We just try to stick to natural foods. It includes meat and vegetables, though we eat some dairy, fruits and nuts too. We emphasize protein and try  to avoid carbohydrates and sugar when we can.  


After some weight loss an unwelcome side-effect accompanied this diet- our grocery bill. Besides being enthusiastic about our fitness of late, Roger also has a cheapskate streak in him. We are both starting grad school in the fall, so that's probably a good thing anyway... It turns out that buying fresh meat and fruits and vegetables is more expensive than buying processed food. Roger did some analyzing of our groceries to find that even at lucky sale prices we spend $1.50 a can and therefore more than $80 a month on soup.  


 And now we get to the point. Because of our more expensive diet and our conflicting need to save money, Roger thinks that we can create a soup for all of the lunches for the week that is three-quarters to half the cost of the cans but still only a few hundred calories per serving. Our goal is to make 10 to 14 servings of soup every Sunday that costs somewhere between $10 and $15 but for 500 calories or less per serving.


We chose our first soup because it is something that we know and love already: 15-Bean Soup. The recipe is from the back of the 15-Bean mix but adapted to cook in a crockpot, but feel free to follow the bag's instructions if that makes you more comfortable with a stove pot or don't own a crockpot.  


15-Bean Soup 
approximately 285 calories per serving  
makes 12 1-cup serving 
Between $7 to $9 total 


1 lb. bag of grocery-store mix  of 15 beans  
14 ounces of the sausage of your choice (We used a pork/beef combo.) 
14.5 ounce can of chili-style diced tomatoes   (substitute: regular diced tomatoes with a tsp.of chili powder)
1 cup of onion (chopped) 
4 cloves of garlic (pressed) 


 Soak the beans overnight. Drain and rinse the beans.  Combine all ingredients with 2 quarts of water in a large crockpot. Allow soup to simmer on high for 5 to 8 hours.