Easy Cream-less Cauliflower Soup

When I went home a few weeks ago, the family I babysat for had this soup for dinner. It was so good and refreshing! I had to get the recipe! (I do not know where the original source is from) This soup is very easy to make and great for a light lunch, snack or an appetizer! I have been having it for dinner with some crackers! Let me know what you think!

xo Jackie

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 40 minutes Yields: 12 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 medium leek, sliced and washed
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 large head Cauliflower
• 4 ½ cup of water
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• salt & white pepper to taste
• ½ teaspoon sherry wine vinegar
• minced chives for garnish

Directions:

In a large sauce pan, sauté the leek and onion in 2 tablespoon for butter until translucent (about 8 to 10 minutes).

 

Core the cauliflower and cut away the leaves and gray outer sides of the stem. Slice stem and set aside. Cut enough tiny florets to make one cup and set aside. Slice the rest of the cauliflower into steaks.

 

When leeks and onion are done, add 4 ½ cups of water, cauliflower stems and half of the cauliflower steaks. Cook for 15 minutes. Add in rest of cauliflower steak and cook for 15 more minutes. (When you cook cauliflower for a longer time, it develops a sweet and nutty flavor. When you cook it for a shorter time, it has a fresh and grassy flavor. Doing it this way creates depth of flavor).

 

Puree cauliflower soup until smooth. Transfer soup back into saucepan. At this point you can add more water if you want a thinner soup or not. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. (Soup can be made up until this point and refrigerated for a week or frozen.)

Calories: 56

Protein: 2g

Sodium: 25mg

Fat: 3g

Carbohydrates: 7g

WW+pts: +2 pts

Flourless Thumbprint Breakfast Cookies

This recipe was from Oh She Glows blog! These cookies are so easy to make and great for you! I have been looking for snacks for on the go since I never know when I will be coming home from my rotations. This cookie is perfect for that! I recommend using less oats than what the recipe says. Let me know what you think!

xo Jackie

Prep Time: 5 minute Cook Time: 11-13 minutes Yields: 8 serving

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 large bananas)
• 2 cups rolled oats (I ended only using 1 1/2 cups)
• 3 tbs ground flax seed
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt (recommended sea salt)
• 8 tsp jam
• Optional: Peanut butter (or almond or sunflower seed butter for serving)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.In a food processor, add the oats and pulse until a coarse meal forms. Next, in a large bowl, mash the banana. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, except the jam and nut butter. The mixture will be very wet and dense.

With a retractable ice cream scoop or a spoon, scoop the dough into 8 mounds. The cookies do not need to be spaced far apart on the baking sheet as they don’t spread out. Press your thumb (or small spoon) into the centre of each cookie to create a well. Fill each well with 1 heaping teaspoon of jam.

Bake cookies at 350F for 11-13 minutes, until the cookies are slightly firm, but soft and doughy in the middle. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack for 10 minutes or so.

If desired, serve cookies with your preference of nut or seed butter.

Calories: 115

Fat: 3g

Protein: 3g

Carbohydrates: 21g

Sodium: 6mg

WW+pts: +3

Recipe from: Oh She Glows 

Lentil Tomato Sauce

This is a great recipe as fall is slowly approaching! I made this “sauce” and put it over farro. Now, I did not add the farro in my ingredients, directions or caloric intake. That is because, I found that you can really swap any grain or starch for farro. Spaghetti, rice, brown rice and or quinoa are all great options! I am trying really hard to not eat any meat now and slowly start a vegan diet. This would a great option! Enjoy!

xo Jackie

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 55 minutes. Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of dried green lentils
• 2 tbs of olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 tbs of tomato sauce

 

• 2/3  cup vegetable stock
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• **Optional: chopped basil leaves, choice of cheese

Directions:

Put the lentils in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes, or according to the package directions, until just tender. Drain well. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. Cover and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, stock, red bell pepper, tomato paste, rosemary and oregano. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, until the sauce is thickened and the vegetables are tender. Add the lentils and cook, stirring, for an additional 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Calories: 146

Protein: 7g

Sodium: 247mg

Fat: 2.8g

Carbohydrates: 26g

WW+pts:+3 pts

Modified from: The Supper Foods: 50 best foods to change your life.

Vegan Mango Smoothie

I was babysitting and one of the girls made this for me! It was so easy and great! I am trying to come up with more vegan recipes so it is a great one to add to the collection!

xo Jackie

Prep Time: 5 minutes Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of cut up mango
• 1 cup of sliced strawberries
• 1 cup of water
• 1 banana

Directions:

Blend until smooth consistency.

Calories: 183

Protein: 1.1g

Sodium: 1.5mg

Fat: .5g

Carbohydrates: 46g

WW+pts: +5 pts

Peach Strawberry Sorbet

 

 

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Prep Time: 2 minutes Freeze Time: See directions note Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients: 

• 1 frozen peach
• 1/2 cup strawberries
• 1/4 cup vanilla Greek yogurt

Directions:

Blend all the ingredients up! (Would be best to freeze 5 hours in order to get ultimate sorbet consistency)

Calories: 102

Protein: 8.6g

Sodium: 37mg

Fat: .2g

Carbohydrates: 16.6g

WW+pts: +2 pts

 

Quinoa Sweet Potato Chili

This was made at one of my nutrition workshops at school. I finally have the time to post it onto the blog! It is from Milk Free Mom (http://www.milkfreemom.com/vegan-quinoa-sweet-potato-chili/). This so great to make for large groups, especially when you have vegans at your party! It really fills you up!

xo Jackie

Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 50 minutes Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

• one 29 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
• one 6 oz can tomato paste
• 32 oz vegetable stock
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
• 1 cup dry quinoa
• salt and pepper to taste
• avocado, cilantro for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large heavy soup pot over medium low heat. Add onions, and cook until soft and they start to turn brown (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic, and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and oregano and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the beans, stock, and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper . Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the quinoa. Continue cooking for about 15 minutes – 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until quinoa and potatoes are cooked and the chili has thickened. Add a bit of water if the chili becomes too thick for your liking. Optional: top with avocado and chopped cilantro.

Calories: 324

Protein: 15g

Sodium: 264g

Fat: 4.8g

Carbohydrates: 56g

WW+pts: +8 pts

Sweet Apple Kale Salad

This is a great cleansing/detox salad. This salad is so easy to make and requires little to no ingredients! Look out spring break!

xo Jackie

Prep Time: 2 minutes Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 small apple
• 1 tbs of raisins
• 1 bunch of kale (4 cups)
• 4 tbs of olive oil
• 1 tbs of pine nuts
• 1 tbs of Agave nectar
• 1/2 tbs of sliced almonds

Directions:

Chop up the kale and add all of the ingredients together.

Calories: 146

Protein: 1.9g

Sodium: 19.8mg

Fat: 11g

Carbohydrate: 13g

WW+pts: +4 pts

Moroccan Lentil Soup

Last year I made a Moroccan Lentil soup from a McCormick pre-made bag… It was one of the best soups I have ever had. Sadly, I cannot find it anymore in the grocery stores! I have looked in Ohio, New York and Connecticut! So I decided to attempt to recreate my own version of the soup. This is a modified version of the Eating Well Moroccan Lentil Soup. This soup is so low in calories and WW+pts! This is a great soup to have in the refrigerator on a cold day! Let me know what you think.

xo Jackie

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 4 cups vegetable broth or reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 1  1/2 cups lentils
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 cups chopped fresh spinach or one 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 4 tbs  chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions:

Heat oil in a soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat; add onions and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and pepper; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add broth, water, lentils, tomatoes and tomato paste; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender but not mushy, 45 to 55 minutes. Stir in spinach and cook until wilted, 5 minutes.

Just before serving, stir in cilantro and lemon juice.

Calories: 97

Protein: 4g

Sodium: 528mg

Fat: 3.1g

Carbohydrates: 14.6g

WW+pts: +2 pts

Broccoli Rabe with Garlic and Almonds

Last week was crazy with the holidays that I did not have time to update the blog! This is a very simple side dish to make for any occasion! I have never had broccoli rabe until now. It has a bit of a bitter taste so with the garlic and almonds it helps the bitterness!

Prep time: 2 minutes Cook time: 5 minutes Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients: 

• 2 bunches broccoli rabe (about 2 pounds total), trimmed and cut crosswise into 2-inch lengths
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Working in batches, add broccoli rabe to water and cook until water returns to a boil. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a colander to drain. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add garlic and almonds; cook just until beginning to turn golden, about 5 minutes. Add broccoli rabe and toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Calories: 88

Protein: 5.1g

Sodium: 61mg

Fat: 5.9g

Carbohydrates: 4.8g

WW+pts: +2 pts

Edamame Salad

Our school opened this asian al a carte and the only thing I love is the EDAMAME SALAD! I decided to recreate my own! It is super easy and very cheap! The fiber content for this dish is 8g! You cannot beat that! I have been having this salad on its own, but you can also put it over a bed of lettuce or even in a wrap!

xo Jackie

Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 0 Yield: 5 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 can of edamame (or lima beans), drained
• 1 can of black beans, drained
• 1/2 can of garbanzo beans
• 1/4 of a yellow onion chopped
• 2 tbs of olive oil
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• dash of pepper
• 1/2 tsp of cumin
• 1/4 tsp of chopped cilantro
• 1/2 tsp of cayenne
• Optional: chopped peppers

Directions:

Drain the edamame (or lima beans), black beans and garbanzo beans. Once those are drained, add them to the bowl and chop up the other ingredients. Mix all of the ingredients together and your all set!

Calories: 223

Protein: 10.9g

Sodium: 307mg

Fat: 6.7g

Carbohydrates: 33g

WW+pts: +6 pts