Its a soup sort of week

I don't know why, but I've been on a soup kick lately. Maybe it was the sudden shift from beautiful sunny days, to dark rainy days that did it. Whatever the reason, I've made three different soups in the past four days - all of them no more than 2 points a cup. The other great thing I love about soup is that you can make a huge batch and freeze it for ... forever... I guess ... do frozen things really ever go bad? I guess they do, but it does take a reallllly long time. 

Below are the recipes for the three soups I made (keep in mind, I often just use what is laying around the house, so if you want to make these, the ingredients are - shall we say - flexible). 

Butternut Squash Soup 

Points: 2 points per cup

6 cups broth (amount may vary depending on size of butternut squash)

add 1 butternut squash pealed and cubed to broth

add 2 big leaks to broth

Boil until squash is tender

Cool

Blend until smooth and creamy

I love the taste of butternut squash, so I don't add anything extra, but you certainly could add spices and even other veggies if you wanted to get creative.

Lentil Soup

Points: 2 points per cup

4 cups broth

1 cup green lentils (soak for 15 minutes before adding to broth)

Carrots chopped (if you'd like)

1 potato cubed

Other veggies chopped (if you'd like)

1 onion chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

garlic, salt, any other spices that you like

Sauté the oil, onions, and garlic until onions are brown

Add onion mixture to broth

Add other veggies and lentils to both

Add spices to taste

Bring to a boil then simmer for 1 hour until everything is tender

Veggie (aka all my veggies are about to go bad, what do I do) Soup

Points: 0 maybe 1 if  you eat a lot of it

8 cups broth

Any and all veggies you want to include (I used carrots, cabbage, onion, zucchini, peas, corn, and a potato)

Noodles (if you like them)

Garlic and spices to taste (I used rosemary and cilantro from the garden) 

Boil broth will all the veggies, noodles, garlic, and spices

Let simmer for 1 hour

I forgot - I actually made 4 soups! The last one I made was a green chili stew. I found New Mexico green chilies on sale and couldn't resist. 

Green Chili Stew

Points: 1 point per cup

2 cups roasted green chili

2 onions

garlic

1 potato

4 cups broth

Optional: beans, meat, rice...

Saute onion and garlic (if you want to add meat, saute it with onions)

Put onion mixture, and cubed potatoes (and anything else you want to add - beans, rice...) into pot with broth and boil. Simmer for 1 hour. 

Add chili

Heat for 15 min.

All are wonderfully filling and cost practically nothing if you break it down per meal.