Fall is a Time for Soup

Fall is one of my favorite seasons.  It signals that cooler temperatures are on the horizon, fall colors will soon be adorning the trees in our area, and for me the return of enjoying warm soups.  One recipe that I love to make is a black bean soup that I found a couple of years ago in a Cooking Light magazine.  The magazine front said "5 Ingredients & 15 Minutes".  Wow! As a busy college student at the time it called out to me.  I could feed my family on a school night without using all my studying time.  Needless to say I bought it.  This recipe is wonderful in many ways.  It is made with beans, which are high in fiber and protein, it is a vegetarian recipe and it takes very little time and effort to prepare.  Oh, did I mention it is the best black bean soup I have ever tried (not that I have tried a lot of them).  It only makes four servings so a single person could make it and not have a lot of leftovers to deal with.  I always make a double batch as I love having it for lunches.  So if you are a soup lover, I highly recommend trying this recipe.

Black Bean Soup

Serves 4

2 (15 oz) cans lower-sodium black beans, rinsed and drained

1 1/2 C. vegetable broth

1/2 C chunky salsa

1 T fresh lime juice

1 t chopped chipotle-chile, canned in adobo sauce

1/2 t ground cumin

2 T chopped fresh cilantro

1/3 C queso fresco, crumbled

Place beans in a medium saucepan.  Mash beans slightly with a potato masher. 

Stir in broth and next 4 ingredients (through cumin).

Bring to boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Remove from heat, stir in cilantro.  Ladle soup into bowls, sprinkle evenly with cheese.

Enjoy!

Graduation Day At Last!!!!

At times it seemed as if this day would never come, but after four and a half years, last Saturday I graduated with my degree in Nutritional Sciences from OU.  I was very fortunate to have my family at the ceremony.  Friends I had not spent much time with since starting classes, joined us at the after party.  I failed to take pictures at the party, but here are a few from graduation.

The graduate

My class

Alison and I (we carpooled and studied together)

My husband and kids

My in-laws were added in

My hubby

My parents and sisters

Miss Abbie and me

My family

Final Few Days

Well, this past week was full of beginning to prepare for back to school.  Oklahoma has tax-free weekend the first weekend of August so I shopped for myself and our son Riley (Abbie was gone backpacking and Travis was still in LA).  I am beginning to build my professional wardrobe and had to have khakis and a polo for food lab.  Riley hates to shop for clothes so I tried to make it quick and as painless as possible :o)  He came out with some nice items.  Abbie got home early Thursday and all she could think about was food.  The person in charge of planning the food for the trip did a poor job.  After a much needed shower (a whole week without one) and some french toast, bacon and coffee, she was ready to shop.  We hit the shops around campus first, then the local mall.  She was exhausted by the the time we finished there so we came home.  Friday we did the rest of her shopping in the city.  Now Travis is on his way home so I need to spend the weekend prepping the house and getting the rest of Abbie's dorm stuff.  Come Monday I will be making another one of my children "Welcome home" french toast (he has requested it also).  Then we will be heading to the mall to shop for his back to school clothes.  I know this won't be happening much longer as Riley will be graduating from college this year and the others won't be far behind.  Thursday will be move-in day for Abbie at the dorms and I have orientation Wednesday and Thursday, so we are looking at another busy week.

Two Weeks of a Vegetarian Lifestyle

Well, my DH was feeling sluggish and requested a two week vegetarian diet and then slide into a flexitarian lifestyle.  This all started on Friday with black bean soup and caprese sandwiches.  It was wonderful!  Saturday we started the day with cinnamon-apple stuffed french toast and for dinner grilled portobello mushroom burgers with a lovely salad with grilled peaches, blueberries, raspberries, granola, toasted almonds & goat cheese with a lite raspberry vinegrette.  Sunday we started with a frittata with summer vegetables and dinner was baked ziti with summer vegetables.  Last night, I served black bean burrito bake, yellow rice and rotel with tostitoes.  So far it has been enjoyable.  I have been keeping up with articles about vegetarian deficiences and using variety to maintain proper nutrition.  The whole family seem happy with their meals.  Our son has noticed an increase in energy but I have been lacking in energy.  It has taken a lot of time to research in order to have recipes to make but I am happy for the new recipes.

Abbie's Senior Prom

I thought I would share a photo of Abbie all dressed up for her senior prom.  This is before her date arrived.  This weekend she is attending her second prom with a friend at her school.  She set her up with a date so they could hang out together and enjoy some more girl dress up time :o)  Last weekend in preparation for her prom I declared Saturday "Abbie Day" and refused to do or talk about college classes.  We had the best time getting her nails done, a pedicure and having her hair done.  We also had a couple of things to buy last minute.  I hope she got some pictures last night.

Another Semester

Well, I'm down to finals week and am I ever ready to see Friday!  I would have to say this has been the most challenging semester yet.  But the good news is I will have completed my gen. eds. and I have been accepted to HSC for their Nutritional Science program.  I am so excited to finally get to this point.  Believe it or not, in a few short weeks all of my children will have graduated high school!!!  So proud of each one of them!  So needless to say as soon as I bubble in the last multiple choice question and answer the last critical thinking short answer question I will be addressing Abbie's announcements.  I know she is ready for this to be over, as she has also been taking classes on campus this year.  Now if I can just get her to fill out her housing form.  Well, I will post again next weekend on the other side.  Who knew going to college in your 40's could be so much work :o)

Fast Food/Fat Food

Well, I am in my 4th (or 6th if you include summer school) semester of college with only one more semester of gen. eds. before I am eligible to attend for the Nutritional Science program. I start my application process later this semester.

This semester one of the classes I am taking is Intro to Nutrition. All I can say is that I am loving it!!! Our current assignment is to plan a days weight loss menu at a fast food restaurant that is also heart healthy. This means that the food item must have less than 30% total fat, 10% saturated fat and for the day, no more than 300 mg of cholesterol.

I texted family and friends to tell me what FF places they would like to know about. I have a list of 7 restaurants and will rate them below.

Arby's only had 3 food items that met the requirements and none of them were breakfast items so for breakfast I listed an applesauce from the kids menu.

Sonic scored even lower. There were only 2 items on the breakfast menu that could be considered at first glance because they were the only 2 that didn't have OVER 3oomg of cholesterol. When I calculated fat percentages those were knocked off also. So Sonic had 2 food items, the veggie burger and apple slices. Oh, you could also have the fat-free caramel dip for your apples.

I was unable to do a menu for Braum's because their nutritional facts are not on their website and I saw some problems with the sites that did list some of their items.

Taco Bueno does not list their cholesterol facts so they must have something to hide.

What a Burger was very limited also. They had a total of 5 food items that met heart healthy guidelines. This included cinnamon rolls, pancakes with or without bacon and 2 salad options but they fail to list dressing on their sight. So to be safe you would have to eat the Grilled Chicken Salad and side salad without dressing.

My 2 favorites were McDonalds and Chick Fil A. They were very good and you didn't feel like you were going to starve to stay within the calorie constraints. So below was what I selected from each.

McDonalds

Breakfast calories total fat sat.fat chol.

Fruit and Yogurt Parfait 160 2 1 5

Coffee 0 0 0 0

Lunch

Prem. SW Salad w/ gr. chick 290 8 2.5 70

Apple Dippers 35 0 0 0

Newman's LF Ses. Ging. Dress. 90 2.5 0 0

Snack

Straw/Ban. Smoothie 12oz. 210 .5 0 5

Dinner

Prem. Gr. Chick. Clas. Sand. 350 9 2 65

Side Salad 20 0 0 0

Newman's LF Ses. Ging. Dress. 90 2.5 0 0

Dessert

Kiddie cone 45 1 .5 5

Total 1290 25.5 6 150

Chick Fil A

Breakfast

Yogurt parfait w/ granola 290 6 2 10

Mixed fruit blend 45 0 0 0

Lunch

Chargrilled Chick Cool Wrap 410 12 4 55

Fruit Cup 70 0 0 0

Dinner

Chargrilled Chick. Sand. 290 4 1 55

Hearty Breast of Chick Soup 140 4 1 25

Total 1245 26 8 145

I think these are great options. McDonalds did give a bit more variety but I would do both of these. So now we know we can eat heart healthy at a fast food restaurant.