Fresh Tomato Basil Soup Recipe
I have been on a quest to make the PERFECT Fresh Healthy Tomato Basil Soup that is not cream based ever since we had it one Christmas in Michigan at the 42nd parallel café. I LOVE fresh, hearty vegetable soups, but, often find most of them are cream based and high in fat. I always am disappointed when I hear that they add CREAM to my healthy soup since I am not a big fan of cream based soups. I am sure this soup is better in the summer,but, I couldn’t wait THAT long 
I really feel like adding sun dried tomatoes is the secret to this fabulous soup and a great addition to any meal to help you get in more veggies.
Fresh Tomato Basil Soup Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 large red onion, diced
½ c chopped celery
½ c chopped carrot
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
4 cups whole roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 jar sun dried tomatoes, drained and rinsed
4 cups low sodium, fat free chicken broth (you could use vegetable)
1 c picked basil leaves
Sea Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes plus more for topping
1 Tbsp shaved parmesan plus additional sprinkles for topping, optional
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. In a large saucepan and a little olive oil, caramelize the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and brown sugar.
2. Add the tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Season with salt & pepper.
3. Add the stock, simmer on low heat until very soft, at least 20 minutes. Add the basil and puree.
4. Add crushed red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese. Check for seasoning and enjoy!
Makes 6 1 1/2 cup servings
Nutritional information per serving:
STEP-BY-STEPS:
1. Caramelize your onions through brown sugar.
You know they are slightly caramelized when you see them brown slightly.
2. While your vegetables are caramelizing, chop your tomatoes.
3. Add your tomatoes plus a little salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes and bring to a simmer.
Stir in your broth and allow to simmer for at least 20 minutes until the tomatoes are soft.
4. Stir in your basil.
5. Use your Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender to puree your soup.
I LOVE THIS Hand Blender because it’s easy to use, powerful to puree, yet, not splash all over the place (like the cheaper versions) and you don’t need to pour your hot soup in a blender (spilling it along the way). It’s my FAVORITE go to gadget any time I am trying to make a creamy, rich pureed soup. You can find the one I use in My Open Sky Shop. (HINT ~ solve the Jigsaw puzzle on My Open Sky Tab and get 15% off your order)
30 seconds later ~ tadah!!! Creamy, rich, CREAMLESS Fresh Tomato Basil Soup.
Add a little fresh parmesan and crushed red pepper flakes for good measure.
This soup definitely gets better the longer it sits and it freezes well too.
Add this recipe to your recipe collection by clicking the Spring It Button ~ 
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Enjoy!
Crockpot Steel Cut Oats w/Peaches & Blueberries
Last night I decided it’s been too long since I’ve made up a big batch of Crock Pot Steel Cut Oats. Steel Cut Oats are My FAVORITE type of oat because they are completely unrefined and they have such a chewy texture that almost “pops” in your mouth. I am pretty sure once you try REAL Steel Cut Oats (NOT the Quick Cooking Kind), it will be hard for you to go back to regular oatmeal. This recipe is so easy and you wake to a big pot of Steel Cut Oats.
CROCKPOT STEEL CUT OATS WITH PEACHES & BLUEBERRIES
INGREDIENTS:
3 C Steel Cut Oats (I used Trader Joe’s)
1/4 C Ground Flax Seeds
8 C water
2 Cinnamon Sticks
1 Tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract (I used Bourbon Vanilla )
Pinch of Salt, optional
1 lb frozen peaches
1-2 c frozen blueberries
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Spray your crock pot with nonstick spray or use a crock pot liner. DO NOT SKIP this step you will be scrubbing for days.
2. Combine all the ingredients in your crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours.
3. Remove cinnamon sticks. Serve with your favorite toppings. I LOVE making this into a dessert and using brown sugar, whipped butter and coconut.
Makes 10 cups, 4 points per cup.
Nutritional information per serving (I think this estimate is high ~ calculated at sparksrecipes.com):
Calories 216.8, Total Fat 4.6 g, Saturated Fat 0.1 g, Polyunsaturated Fat 0.8 g, Monounsaturated Fat 0.2 g, Cholesterol 0.0 mg, Sodium 51.9 mg, Potassium 97.0 mg, Total Carbohydrate 39.4 g, Dietary Fiber 6.8 g, Sugars 9.7 g, Protein 6.9 g
I didn’t really do any step by steps for this recipe. I fill my crock pot to the brim and all the fruit rises at it cooks over night.
Once you mix it all up, it looks like delicious oats with firm fruit. It freezes AWESOME too, just be sure to portion into 1 cup containers. A little water might be needed when heating.
I made a BIG 6 point bowl of comfort ~ topped with 1/2 Tbsp Whipped Butter, 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar and a sprinkle of unsweetened organic coconut.
MELTED brown sugar + whipped butter = CARAMEL ~ this tastes just like PEACH COBBLER in every bite if you don’t mix it up!
Mid morning I snacked on a LF Cabot Cheese and small Banana (2 pts)
Last night I was sort of on a roll with preparing foods for the week. I whipped up a Batch of Harvest Grain Salad. I had a 1/2 cup (4 pt) serving over mixed greens with mini peppers, an 1/8 of Avocado (1 pt) and Beniisimo Blueberry Balsamic Vinegar.
Flavored Balsamic Vinegars are my FAVORITE salad topper because they add pretty much zero calories and TONS of flavor.
Since I am debating if I have a cold or not, I added a cup of Muir Glen Organic Chicken Noodle Soup for good measure (2 pts).
And a perfectly hard boiled egg ~ 2 points of Protein
My AWESOME co-worker brought me my FAVORITE ChocoLOVE bar today so I knew that my afternoon snack was ALL ABOUT CHOCOLOVE!
Several of you have ask if their chocolate is really THAT good or why I LOVE it. To me, it’s awesome because they include FULL SIZED ALMONDS plus just hints of sea salt with a super creamy, smooth dark chocolate. I had 6 squares for 3 points (160 calories) which is totally worth it!
By the time I got home, I was pretty much feeling like I have a cold. I decided I NEEDED some spicy soup to scare my cold away. Awhile back, I saw that Biz made THIS VEGETABLE PHO soup and I have been wanting to make it ~ PHO is one of my FAVORITE soups around! I wanted her entire meal actually but I was too lazy to make it all so I put a spin on it!
I started off combining the broth, ginger, jalapeño, pepper corn and cinnamon chips. I was hesitant to add the cinnamon but it honestly added an AMAZING new level of flavor.
While my broth boiled, I chopped up some veggies I had on hand ~ cabbage, carrots, green onion and cilantro.
I pulled out some of the TJ’s MINI Chicken Cilantro Won Tons that I used when I made my Chicken Cilantro Potsticker Veggie Soup.
I removed everything in the chicken broth and added the cabbage and carrots. I cooked them for 5 minutes, then added 12 mini wontons plus the jalepeno slices, oyster sauce and sriracha. I let it cook for 2 minutes.
Tadahhhh! 4 points of deliciousness!
But, you know I couldn’t leave it alone ~ I doused it with more Sriracha! Super HOT ~ hopefully I “singed” my cold away!
I think I could eat a million of these mini won tons ~ so good!
See, I actually did buy the won ton/pot sticker wrappers to make her Thai Basil Won Ton Cups too, but my cold wouldn’t let me 
So, I ended up just baking 5 of them at 350 for 8 minutes. They are pretty tasty and would be awesome topped with some parmesan and black pepper. (2 pts)
I washed it all down with some Sobe Forti-FIGHT!
Plus, broke out my Greenergy to take along with my vitamins.
FUN STUFF TODAY!!!
* I WON!! Biz held a giveaway to celebrate her birthday last week and I was the LUCKY winner today ~ woohoo! Check out what I won – SO EXCITED! Thanks BIZ!
* Tomorrow (03/23) Is FREE Pastry Day @Starbucks ~ Get a FREE pastry w/any drink order PRINT YOUR COUPON and tell me what you got!
* Not that this is related to anything in particular, but, this cool chart for Food Storage came in my Eat Clean Diet Newsletter ~ thought I’d share.
My book and BED are calling my NAME ~ I hope this COLD goes AWAY soon!
Night all!
Experimenting Fun
Happy Friday, er, weekend all! I am so excited for the LONG weekend because we have a bunch of fun birthday stuff planned (well, if the weather doesn’t rain buckets). I started my weekend off early this afternoon by getting out of work early, relaxing, doing a little yoga and a little experimenting with new TJ’s products and in the kitchen.
Breakfast was one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES ~ A WAFFLEWICH!
2 Kashi Strawberry Flax Protein Waffles
1 Tbsp Crunchy Almond Butte
1 Tbsp Organic Apricot Preserves
1 small banana
It is worth ALL 7 pts and kept me going all morning.
I LOVE it when you are super busy (even on a Friday) because time flies by. I had a working lunch so I could head out of the office early today. I continued in my quest to clear out our freezer and pulled out this ALL NATURAL Asian Potsticker Healthy Choice Entree from the Freezer courtesy of Healthy Choice. I LOVE Potstickers so I couldn’t wait to try this one out.
The stats are not too bad….The entire meal is 7 pts.
I LOVED the ingredient list and that companies are getting on board with REAL ingredients you can recognize….nothing funky. WTG HC!
My first impression was that I LOVED seeing BIG vegetable pieces. So many dinners claim to have vegetables, but, they don’t really have that many or they are super small. I absolutely LOVED the potstickers ~ they were dense and chewy and their sauce is sweet plus spicy. I honestly think I could eat an entire meal of just the potstickers plus veggies, trading in the rice
I added a crisp salad with TJ’s LF Cranberry Walnut Gorgonzola dressing to round.
I was super snacky this afternoon so I decided to bust out a snack that I could totally eat a bunch of for very little points. I am not a BIG fan of plain popcorn, so I decided to spice it up a bit.
SALTY CARAMELY CINNAMON POPCORN!!!
You can make it one of two ways.
1. OPTION ONE
5 c air popped popcorn
1 tsp agave nectar
1/2 tsp water
dash of sea salt
sprinkles of cinnamon
Mix agave and water – drizzle over popcorn. Add a dash of salt and sprinkles of cinnamon.
2. OPTION TWO
Follow the above, but, use microwave Smart Butter pop and omit the sea salt.
Salty, sweet, and crunchy. I LOVED this total random creation. I like using agave because you use less than sugar so you don’t add any points. If you have a mister, it could be even better.
I rounded out my snack with a LF Colby cheese while having a CSI marathon ~ awesome!
It was so nice to get off early and just relax. I did a little YogaDownload.com Gentle Hatha Yoga, then, headed out to Trader Joe’s to pick up some dinner supplies. I couldn’t resist picking up a few of their new items.
I LOVE their Dark Chocolate POM seeds, so I knew I had to try these, pretty much as soon as I walked in the door. I am all about POWER BERRIES!
When I bought then I actually thought that the fruits were all separate. I had to re-read the package to realize they were all combined. I had 4 pieces (4 fruits LOL) ~ the flavor is hard to describe but they are pretty tasty. Very chocolately loaded with a tart/slightly sweet fruit filling.
I had been pondering all sorts of ideas for what to make for dinner tonight, but, nothing sounded really good. So, I hopped on Cookinglight.com to see if anything stood out to me as a must try.
Since I have been craving soups, I went straight to their 20/20 Soups ~ 20 Super Fast Soups in 20 minutes.
I pretty much followed THE RECIPE, but, I added a splash of wine, doubled the spinach and added some freshly ground pepper with a pinch of crush red pepper flakes for spice. I LOVED it and bet it will be even better the next day.
1 serving is HUGE too ~ 1 1/2 cups for 5 points.
I served it up with a TJ’s Ciabatta roll topped with light butter, garlic salt and black pepper. (3 pts)
All together it was completely warm, comforting and filling.
I am off to relax with The Husband and watch some show he is addicted to (The Jersey Shore) or something like that.
I am SOOO EXCITED for tomorrow night. We are meeting up with my family at my ALL TIME FAVORITE sushi place to celebrate my birthday party. I LOVE it because my sis and niece LOVE sushi too so we can get a TON of rolls to share while The Husband and everyone else will get something like teriyaki beef Can’t wait, can’t wait. I am glad to have my long run of 5 miles (hopefully) so I can make sure I have a BIG calorie deficit to enjoy with
See you all late Saturday night or Sunday morning for a recap.
Nite all!
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