Best Ever Low Fat/Low Calorie Vegetarian* Vegetable Beef Soup

*It can be modified to be Vegan if you prefer, by substituting soy milk and soy cheese, but don't ask me the calories or fat content on those 'cause I can't stand soy cheese...
I'd love to say this recipe was handed down to me by my great-great-great-great grandmother or something, but that would be a lie. It was developed and tweaked by me over time as I tried to create a filling, good tasting diet soup to shed some pounds. If you've ever subjected yourself to the "Cabbage Soup Diet" (cabbage and tomatoes and water), you'll thak God you found this one. It's a little more fattening, but worth it. To lighten the load a little, you can remove the tofu, or veggie ground beef, or noodles or all of the above. All calories and fat content are listed, so with a little calculating, you can modify it to suit your needs. I swore that I'd never give out this recipe, but.. I'm bored, can't sleep, and can't think of anything funny to write about.

Oh yeah, I should mention that this soup is great whether you're dieting or not. Who says you can't have it all?

This recipe will make about 18 bowls of soup.

INGREDIENTS


Tomatos 2 cans* (56oz, or 1594ml) 0g fat 254 calories
Corn 1 can** (12oz, or 341ml)1.4g fat 191 calories
Green beans 2 cans** (28oz, or 796ml) 0.6g fat 128 calories
Carrots 2 med 1.2g fat 50 calories
Yams 1/2 cup 0.25g fat 88 calories
Bok choy 2 cups 0.6 g fat 40 calories
Celery 3 stalks 0.2g fat 17 calories
Broccoli 3 cups 1.8g fat 90 calories
Turnip 1 cup 0.3g fat 34 calories
Cabbage 4 cups 0.4 g fat 84 calories
1.5 cups tofu(cubed) 16.8 g fat 291 calories
2 C Skim milk 1.2 g fat 182 calories
Kidney beans 1 can** (14oz, or 398ml) 1.6g fat 318 calories
Milk 1% 2 cups 7.2g fat 306 calories
Philly 95% fat free cream cheese (4.5oz, or 125g) 4g fat 167 calories
Yves veggie ground 1 pkg 2.8 g fat 340 calories
Vegetable boullion 60g 0g fat 133 calories
Water 9 cups 0g fat 0 calories
1/3 cup cooked noodles .3 g fat 67 calories
1 T basil
1 t oregano
Pepper
Salt to taste (approx 60 heavy shakes, don't ask me how much that is, I never measured).
2 T Splenda or 2-3 pkg Sweet and Low

DIRECTIONS

Take tomatoes and blend them in a blender until smooth. Put in large pot. Add water, milk, cream cheese, vegetable boullion, Splenda, salt, pepper, oregano, basil and bring to a boil. Stir and lower heat to med/hi. Add remaining ingredients (veggies, tofu, and veggie ground beef), and cover. Bring to a low boil, stir, and lower temperature to medium. Cook with lid on, but not completely covering pot for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

In another pot, cook noodles. When serving add noodles to each bowl, do not add to the pot as they will become mushy. (according to "Wok with Yan", this is the actual technical term for it, so leave me alone)!

CALORIES/FAT

Per pot.
2780 Calories
40.65 g fat

Per bowl
154.4 calories
2.25 g fat

Keep in mind, that over 1/3 of the fat content in the soup is the tofu, so if you aren't a big tofu fan, drop it. Each bowl will then only have 1.3 g fat and 138 calories.

Anyway, that's my soup recipe. If you make it and it's not what you expected (ie; it's not as fabulous as I know it is, play with the salt, Splenda and boullion to get the taste you like). Once you get that worked out, I know you'll love it. And if you can spare the calories (or you're bulimic and don't care about counting calories), add more cream cheese for an even richer taste!

ENJOY!

**It's been brought to my attention, and rightly so, that whenever possible, use fresh instead of canned vegetables.