Replies

This isn’t about summer squashes, but I wanted to share one of my extra-special soup recipes:

Veggie Beef Soup:
2 oz lean beef, browned (Yes, that says 2 OUNCES)
2 cups tomatoes (I use pureed or crushed, but diced works too)
1 cup carrots, thinly sliced
1 cup sweet peas
1 cup diced potato
1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds
1/8th tsp flax seeds
1/2 tsp salt substitute (the potassium kind, not the herbal kind)
1 tablespoon parsley flakes (or 5 sprigs fresh parsley)
Beef bullion, rosemary, and bay leaf, to taste.

Brown the beef, simmer until the veggies are cooked. You guys know how soups are made, so I won’t take too much time explaining it.

But, why is this soup extra-special? Because, if you eat this entire batch of soup, plus one egg, 2 12-oz glasses of milk, an ounce of dark chocolate, and 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds, you will have eaten 100% or more of the RDA of every vitamin and mineral, while only eating around 1600 calories!

Personally, that’s too much food for me. I can only eat about 1/3 of that. 1/2 if I’m super hungry. If anyone is having trouble sticking to a diet, try this one!

Kevkrom: You’ve mentioned on other threads how you’d like to find something that provides all the nutrients a person needs, here’s a start.

Wintertime: You mentioned on a thread that you (like me) have to keep below 1200 calories because of a hyper-efficient matabolism. Try cutting this eating plan in half, maybe it might help with the hunger pains?

I like to make a big batch of this soup, and another batch of split pea soup, on the weekends so I don’t have to cook much during the week. The split pea soup is also calculated, and with the two flavors I’m less likely to get bored. Sometimes I change the spices, making italian beef veggie soup with basil, garlic, and oregano instead of rosemary and bay. The parsley is neccesary, it’s a concentrated source of vitamin K.

Special Split Pea Soup:
1 oz chicken
1/2 cup carrots, thinly sliced
1 1/4 cup potato, diced
2 cups sweet peas
1 tablespoon parsley
1/2 tsp salt substitute
Chicken bullion, thyme, other seasonings to taste

Brown the chicken, simmer with the potatoes and carrots until they’re tender. Then, whiz the peas in a blender until smooth, using part of the cooking liquid. Add pea puree to the rest of the soup, and add seasonings. Simmer gently until done.

I like pureed fresh/frozen peas better than the dried ones. I think it gives it a better flavor. If you’d rather use the dried kind, just do the calculations to see how much to use (I don’t have that chart handy).

This soup also needs the same other foods (egg, milk, etc) in order to provide complete nutrition. You can swap the soups with each other if you like, so you aren’t eating the same flavor all day.

Let me know what you think!

(Disclaimers: I am not a nutritionist, none of this is to be mistaken for expert advice. Any spelling or grammatical errors are to be attributed to the fact that I’m typing in the dark while starting to fall asleep.)