Spicy Shrimp and Cabbage Soup

I love soup.  Doesn't matter whether it's summer or winter, I just enjoy a big, hot bowl of soup!  I was craving soup the other day, so I took a look through my always well stocked kitchen, and created this delicious soup!

I make it a point to keep my kitchen stocked with the basics, and then some.  That way, I always have something healthy to make, and can resist ordering out or grabbing fast food.  The only thing in this recipe that I don't usually have was the cabbage, but luckily I picked up a head at the store yesterday!  I make sure to always keep a bag of frozen, cleaned raw shrimp in my freezer.  They thaw out in minutes and cook quickly, and are such a great protein!

This recipe makes 2 servings.  

Each serving has 204 calories, 31.5g carbs, .5 g fat, and 15g protein.

Ingredients

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 75g buckwheat noodles (I use Sau Tao noodles, they are pre-portioned into 75g bunches.  Each bunch has 264 calories, so depending on your noodles, you might have a higher/lower calorie count)
• 2 cups napa cabbage, roughly chopped
• 12 shrimp, raw and cleaned (if frozen, thaw before using)
• 1 tbsp sriracha sauce

Bring broth to a boil in a medium pot.  Add noodles, stirring to avoid clumping.  After about a minute, add the cabbage and sriracha.  When noodles are almost done, add shrimp. Cook until shrimp are just cooked through, about 2 minutes.

Enjoy!

**Like LosingLexy on Facebook for even more updates, pictures, tips and recipes!  Click Here!**

Butternut Squash Bisque

I love thick, creamy soups.  Unfortunately, my favorite one is loaded with potatoes, cream and cheese.  Not so Weight Watchers friendly.


Since butternut squashes are abundant this time of year, I decided to create a soup to utilize their texture and really taste like the fall season.  The recipe below makes 6 big servings (depending on the size of your squash) and each only has a Points+ value of 2!  It's so delicious, too!  Most of the ingredients have a zero points, so this is perfect for when you are craving a nice, hearty soup in the colder months, but don't want to abandon your eating goals.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp Brummel and Brown Spread
1 clove garlic, diced
1/2 onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 apples (Galas are delicious), peeled and diced
3 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup light cream
Salt
Pepper 
Nutmeg


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.  Carefully cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise.  Place each half in a pyrex, cut side up, and fill pyrex with about an inch of water.  Bake squash until tender, at least an hour, more for larger squashes.


In a medium-large pot, heat up oil and B&B spread over medium heat.  Add onion, saute until translucent.  Add garlic and saute for another 2 minutes until it just begins to brown.


Add carrots, apples and stock.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, simmer until the carrots are tender.  Scoop the squash flesh out of the skin with a spoon, and chop it roughly.  Once the carrots are soft, add the butternut squash and simmer for 5 more minutes.


Remove pot from heat.  Use an immersion blender to puree the ingredients.  Leave it as chunky as you'd like.  Once everything is smooth, slowly add in the cream and stir.  Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.


Note:  Nutmeg is stronger than you think.  I'd start with a half-teaspoon and add more from there.  

It's a Stock Party!

A few years ago, I started making my own chicken stock.  It's really easy to do, it's relatively cost-free since you use things you would normally be throwing out, and it's delicious!


Here are a few steps to take before you actually want to make the stock.  Whenever you make chicken with bones, SAVE THE BONES!  Put them in a bag in the freezer.  It's a guarantee that if I'm somewhere and there's a roasted chicken or turkey and they are about to throw out the carcass, I will bag it up and take it home for stock.  Why waste it?  The same goes for veggie scraps.  Peeling an onion?  Put the ends and the skin in a bag, freeze it.  Other items- carrot peel, celery ends, bell pepper tops, scallion tops and bottoms, etc.  Anything that would add flavor, freeze it.  Don't throw it out.


Now, if you want to make stock but don't have anything saved up, no worries.  I didn't for this batch either.  What I did instead was go out and buy a rotisserie chicken.  You can use this two ways- you can take off the meat and just boil the bones, or you could plop the whole thing in the pot.  I chose to put the whole thing in, but you'll see why later!  


This batch of stock was the best stock I've made in my entire life!  Some of the ingredients were added since I was going with an asian style stock for recipes I made later in the week (which shall be posted here soon).  If you want a basic, plain chicken stock recipe, leave out the ingredients noted by the asterisk.  I'm writing the amounts I added in, but you can put in whatever you happen to have in the house, it doesn't need to be too specific.

Ingredients:
Chicken bones, or one rotisserie chicken
1 onion, sliced in half
1 cup carrots
2 parsnips
Handful of fresh parsley
One bunch of scallions*
15 Garlic Cloves
1/4 cup soy sauce*
1/8 cup sriracha*
3 tbsp ground ginger*
Salt and Pepper to taste


Instructions:
Place everything in a large pot and fill with water (leave at least 2 inches on top so that it won't over-boil).  Cook covered over high heat until it comes to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for about 3 hours.  You want to get the flavor out of your ingredients.  Give it a stir every 30-60 minutes, and taste it for flavor.  You might want to add more soy, sriracha or salt depending on your water and your taste.


Once it has been cooking for a long time, you have a few options.  Sometimes, if you use a whole chicken, the meat loses all of it's flavor.  In this case, we would give it to our dogs.  In the case of this amazing batch of stock, the chicken actually gained flavor, and my husband at the chicken meat instead of the rest of the meal I prepared.  To each his own...


You can let it cool a bit, fish out the big pieces of your ingredients, then put the rest through a colander or a strainer.  This method will clear out the larger pieces, but you will still have some bits in your stock.  You may be okay with this, but I'm not.  I want a bit-free stock, thank you very much.

Get a very big bowl.  Place a colander on top of the bowl, and put one layer of paper towel in the colander (2 small sheets for me).  DON'T RIP THEM APART, you want it to act as a solid filter.  After you fish out the large pieces and discard them, use a measuring cup or a large ladle to scoop the stock out and run it through your "filter."  The paper towel will catch all of the small bits while allowing the liquid to pass through.  After a few cups of liquid, the paper towel will clog up, so just throw out the used sheets and add in clean towels.  This will also catch a good amount of any fat that came out of the chicken.  


You will be left with BEAUTIFUL stock, which I of course didn't get a picture of!  It might be darker than you're used to, but it will be so much more flavorful than canned broth.

Baked Potato Soup

I love baked potato soup.  I also make a very delicious one that's often requested at work.  Sadly, it's packed with things that are bad for you.  


I've been browsing around Gina's Skinny Recipes and decided to make this recipe as my first try from her website.  I slightly tweaked the ingredients and recipe as follows:


2 potatoes (about 400 grams for calculating purposes)
1 large head cauliflower (0 points, so the bigger, the better!)
1 1/2 cups fat free chicken broth
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup light sour cream
10 tbsp reduced fat shredded Mexican blend cheese
6 tbsp chives, chopped
salt and pepper to taste


Wash and pierce potatoes, microwave until soft.  Meanwhile, chop cauliflower and steam until soft.  Drain, return cauliflower to the pot.  Peel potatoes, add them to the pot.  Add broth and milk, bring to a boil.  Use an immersion blender to achieve desired consistency ( I like mine smooth, you might like it chunky).  Add remainder of ingredients, turn heat to low, and stir until well incorporated.  


While it's not as delicious as my fat-filled version, it's pretty darn good!  I was surprised at how creamy it is, and how the cauliflower blends in perfectly- you don't even know it's in there!


A serving of about 1 1/2 cups is 4 Points+!  I left out the bacon in the original recipe because I don't like how it turns chewy in soup, and the skim milk instead of the 1% didn't bother me.  If you add both, a cup would be 5 Points+, still a bargain for a very yummy soup.