skinny soup

Whenever I feel like I've been overindulging and I need to get my eating back on track, I make skinny soup. It came into our home as one of my mom's old Weight Watchers recipes, and has evolved from there. Whoever makes it adds their own ingredients, and basically wings it, as to the best of my knowledge, the recipe has never been written down.

The holiday season this year was a bit rough for me, I basically ate anything I wanted, in any quantity, and in Mexico I subsisted almost entirely on margaritas and snack food, so it was definitely time for a pot of skinny soup.

The great thing about this soup is it is delicious, totally full of fiber and protein, and about 800 servings of veggies per cup, and it actually fills you up for hours so you aren't tempted to snack between meals. Also, it's really easy to make.

Here are the ingredients (if you want to make it even healthier, omit the potato):

1 LB extra lean ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large cube beef bouillion

1 can black beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can chick peas

1 can lima beans

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 small can diced green chili's

1/2 of a small can of diced jalapeno's
1 can Rotel diced tomato and green chili's

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

1 cup chopped carrots

1 small, or 1/2 of a large potato, cubed

Water

Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the onions and ground beef in a large stockpot. Once meat is cooked through, drain any grease from the meat, and transfer back into the stock pot. Open and rinse all of the beans and add them into the pot, along with the crushed and diced tomatoes, the can of green chili's, and half the jalapenos.

You can add the whole can of jalapenos if you like it super spicy, I only add half the can and it still has a really good kick to it.

Let the mixture simmer while you chop carrots and potato, and add them in. Add in the beef bouillion cube, and approximately 3 cups of water, enough to fill the stock pot up almost to the top. Add in some salt and pepper to taste, and let it simmer on low to medium for at least 2 hours, or until carrots and potatoes are soft. The longer it simmers, the better the soup will be.

Serve.

This mixture makes a lot, so I make a huge pot of it, and eat it every day until it's gone. It's so hearty and delicious that you won't feel deprived, and the mixture of protein and fiber will keep you full for hours. You will be back in your skinny jeans before you know it.