Gazpacho with Goat Cheese Salsa

Summer is finally coming to an end, so it's time to hurry up and make your final summer dishes.  Gazpacho is definitely one of those recipes that require in-season produce.  If you tried to make this during the winter, you would end up with a watery flavorless soup.  In the summer this soup is vibrant and fresh and delightful!  It's one of my absolute favorite summer side dishes.  I like to pair it with a BLAT, and it makes for the perfect meal on a hot summer day.  

Sweet Potato Beef Stew

How about one last hearty soup before Winter officially ends?  The weather here in Georgia keeps flip flopping between 80 degree sunny days and 40 degree drizzly evenings.  On one of those recent chilly nights, I felt motivated to put a healthy spin on the traditional Beef Stew.  I made sure to fill the soup with as much veggies as possible, and I swapped out the white potatoes for sweet potatoes.  I think the sweet potatoes added a needed touch of natural sugar to balance out the saltiness of all the other ingredients in the stew.  I don't think I'll ever go back to regular old white potatoes in a beef stew again!

Zuppa Toscana

My favorite new recipe find this season is Gimme Some Oven's 7-Ingredient Easy Zuppa Toscana.  It's a creamy Italian soup made with sausage and gnocchi, and it warms up your entire body when you eat it.  It's super simple to make, and takes only about half an hour to whip up.  While this hearty soup definitely tastes like it's an indulgent high calorie meal, it's actually under 450 calories for a huge bowl of it.  So slurp away!

Cream of Asparagus Soup

I've always loved Cream of Asparagus soup, but indulge only rarely, because it's so high in calories.  However, with asparagus being in season, I kept finding myself craving that rich, creamy soup.  So I decided to rework the recipe and create a healthier version.  I reduced the amount of butter and cream, and upped the veggies, but I promise you can't tell.  My version of Cream of Asparagus Soup tastes just as rich and creamy as its higher calorie counterpart.  This recipe also gets high marks in my other two important areas:  it's easy and quick to make, and it's kid friendly.  If you find yourself craving this soup when it's no longer asparagus season, don't fret:  it works wonderfully with frozen asparagus too.  

(No) Cream of Broccoli Soup

I'm a sucker for creamy vegetable soups.  Its richness makes you completely forget that it's filled with healthy vegetables.  However, these type of soups are often made with heavy cream and loads of butter (yum, I know), making it awfully high in fat and calories.  Well, this particular (No) Cream of Broccoli Soup has all the richness that you know and love, but is actually made with no cream or milk at all.  You'd never know by the taste though; it's just as velvety and creamy as the higher calorie version.  Plus, it has the benefit of being full of not one, but two, healthy green veggies.  So slurp away without guilt!

White Chicken Chili

I've always been intrigued by the idea of a White Chicken Chili, but somehow have made it my entire life without making it or even trying a bite of it.  The other day I decided to remedy that situation and make a huge pot of it.  As I have a habit of doing, I looked at many different recipes for White Chicken Chili, and then came up with my own.  Not to toot my own horn, but the chili turned out to be wonderful!  Not only did it taste great, but it is under 200 calories for a huge bowl of it, and chock full of healthy ingredients.  While it does take around an hour to cook, it makes a massive amount; about ten servings.  I recommend freezing half of it, so you have a dinner (or three) for another day.  Don't forget the garnishes for the chili; I really enjoyed mine topped with diced avocado and shredded cheese.

Hearty & Healthy Chili

I am so happy that it is finally chili season! My recipe for chili was probably the easiest of all my old recipes to make diet friendly.  After all, like most tomato based stews, chili is already pretty low in calories.  To make my chili even healthier, I swapped out the beef for lean ground turkey, and then doubled the amount of all the vegetables.  I even added in some new vegetables, like mushrooms and corn, to increase the nutrients and to make it as hearty as possible.  I promise that despite all my healthy tweaking, my Hearty & Healthy Chili does not taste lean or bland: it even passed the "Man Test", and got grunts of approval from my husband and brother. I highly recommend that you serve each bowl with a pile of diced avocado and a squeeze of lime: it elevates the dish immensely.

Split Pea Soup

Around every New Year, I take the leftover Christmas Ham and spend an entire day making my Split Pea Soup.  Unlike most things I make, this recipe takes a lot of time, but oh man, is it worth it.  I've served it to even the most anti-pea people out there, and even they love this dish.  Case in point: I have a dear friend who gets ragey at even the sight of a single pea on her plate, yet will drop all her plans to come over once I announce that it's "Split Pea Night".  It's that good.

Posole

Yesterday was Election Day.  This presidential race has been a particularly nasty one; not just among the candidates, but also among my friends and acquaintances.  My Facebook news feed has been jammed with political arguments for months now.  I have heard people say such hateful, awful things in the name of politics. I feel this is the real problem with America right now--people are unwilling to compromise or allow themselves to really hear other people's point of view (and I can be guilty of these things too).  We spend so much time arguing that we are the ones who are right, that we do not take the time to really listen to the other side.  After all, we do not live in a world of black and white, but in a world made up of shades of gray.  Anyways, I knew last night, as the votes were tallied, there would be a frenzy of finger pointing and anger all over the country.  Wanting to avoid all the negativity, I knew of one sure-fire solution:  Posole night!  

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Chili

Happy Fall!  Okay, I know, technically the season of fall began two months ago. However, in Georgia, it doesn't actually feel like fall until November.  Today is November 1st, and it is finally cold enough to put a little frost on the grass in the early morning.  In celebration, I made my first pot of hot, comforting stew of the season:  Black Bean & Sweet Potato Chili.  My lovely friend Jessica sent me the recipe a few weeks ago, and I took one look at the recipe, and fell in love.  Sweet Potatoes? Cocoa Powder? Cinnamon?  In a chili?!  I had to make it!  

Black Bean Stew

I lived in Mexico City for several years as a child, and as a result, my favorite cuisine is Latin American.  We make so much of it, that Kroger actually started sending our coupons in Spanish.  Healthy sides can be a bit tricky with this style of food, and low fat canned refried beans get old pretty fast (not to mention that refried beans in the States taste NOTHING like they do in Mexico; not even the ones that are shipped here from Mexico; so if you happen to find yourself in Mexico, pick up a few cans of beans and send them my way!).  Anyways, one of my favorite healthy sides to make is Black Bean Stew.  

Chilled Cucumber Soup

My favorite perk of summer is the produce.  You just cannot beat the in-season vegetables and fruits of summer (sorry, root vegetables of winter!).  Our garden is producing its first produce already: cucumbers and tomatoes.  I knew immediately what I wanted to do with them: make Chilled Cucumber Soup.  Not only is this recipe incredibly delicious, it is incredibly healthy as well.