Wednesday, July 13, 2011

A few quick clean eating recipes I've been throwing around...

I've had some requests for these so, here's a quick run-down.

Clean Curried Zucchini and Carrot soup

Ingredients:

1 medium yellow onion
1 pound peeled and shredded zucchini
1 pound peeled and shredded carrots
Optional Yellow pepper (I tried this last night, and I like the sweetness it adds)
32 oz  chicken broth or veggie broth (I use low sodium..I like to use sea salt instead--kind of cancels it out, but, whatever..haha)
1 cup milk (I haven't tried soy, but I'll bet it's great!)
Spices:  Garlic powder, black pepper, sea salt, turmeric, curry powder, cayenne pepper (optional)
chopped parsley (optional---I've tried with and without, and I prefer without)
This is SUPER EASY!  I just bought a blender and a food processor, and this makes a TON of soup.

1. Using a food processor, shred onion
transfer to soup pot and sautee onion until soft (you can also just dice the onion and other veggies if you do not have a food processor)--usually about a minute or two
2.  Shred or slice peeled zucchini and carrot and add to onion
3.  Add spices to taste--I usually sautee onion with garlic powder, salt, and pepper
4.  Add turmeric and curry (a few tbsp of each? or to taste..I like it very aromatic)
5.  Mix all together, including diced yellow pepper over heat for about two minutes
6.  Add chicken or vegetable broth and milk, bring to boil, then lower heat to simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes
7.  Let soup rest for a few minutes
8.  Add half contents of soup pot to blender, and blend on high for 1-2 minutes until smooth, put into another soup pot (for storage or heating later) (make sure there is venting for the steam to escape, and be very careful when pouring soup--do it in the sink as to not burn yourself...yipes!)
9.  Add other half of soup to blender, repeat process, then add to previously blended soup

let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate uneaten soup.  I eat it with toasted Ezekiel sprout bread.  The interesting thing I noticed is that after dipping the bread in the soup, the soup doesn't spill off of the bread--so dense and yummy.  I will add cayenne pepper to the soup once served.

I don't have nutritional information, but Weight Watchers says that points are only for the milk--so, if you use skim it's 1 or two points for the ENTIRE batch?? HUH?   Filling is not the word for this soup....I'm still searching for a better adjective, but I'm drawing a blank.

Clean protein bars:
1 cup natural peanut butter (I like crunchy!)
3 tablespoons natural honey
1 cup of oats
1.5 cups protein powder
1/2 cup of water.

combine peanut butter and honey in a microwave safe bowl
microwave for 30-45 seconds until warm
stir peanut butter and honey,
add oats
mix in protein powder and water

I'm guessing on the water...the recipe asked for 5tbsp of water which was wayy too dry to mix the protein powder, so just experiment.

After getting all ingredients mixed, put mixture in 9x9 pan (or in my case 13x9 because I don't have one of those..lolol), and press pretty firmly to flatten to desired thickness (for 12 servings)

Calories are 211 per bar, just as a reference.  Don't worry, these are so dense you won't want to eat more than one at a time!!!

Enjoy, folks!  Now getcher butt outside, put on those sneaks, get on that bike, get in that pool, get moving, and GETCHUSOMMADAT!

3 comments:

  1. Definitely will try both of these! Paleo fans could substitute Coconut Milk for the cow's milk! I like the seasonings you use... sounds delicious and very satiating! (How do you like that word?) :-)

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  2. Thought about the coconut milk! That's next!! :)

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