Souper Friday–Potato Broccoli Soup

I don’t know what the deal is, but last night was the third night in a row that I woke up with low blood sugar in the low 50’s.  The two nights before I ate half of one of my granola bars and that did the trick.  Last night we were out, so I ate two Baby Ruth’s that were leftover from our Halloween candy – 170 calories, but it worked! 

My breakfast yesterday was an egg white/spinach and bacon bits breakfast sandwich with an apple – 405 calories, 12 fat, 46 carbs, 5.6 fiber and 27 protein.

I got to the gym yesterday and decided to just run it again without stopping.  I do realize that it takes me a while to get into a rhythm, so I start out slow at 4.7 mph, and then raise the speed as I get more comfortable.  It helps that I watch t.v. when I run.  I tell myself I can’t look down to see how far I have to go until I hit a commercial!

Check out my time yesterday!

I tried so hard to get it to be 37:__, but no such luck.  Still, my slowest time earlier in the week was 40:45, so I think this is good progress. 

My plan this weekend is to still get a minimum of 3.1 miles, but I plan to hit the nature trails by my house.  I downloaded the Nike App to my phone this morning so hope to try that out.  It will be a lot more walking to give my legs a break.  Still at 170 pounds it’s a lot of strain on my knees at that weight, although my legs do feel good today.

So this fall I started Souper Friday at my office.  I bring soup, and people who want some donate a mere $2.  We have a small office, so a crock pot size amount of soup is plenty, which still gives me leftovers.  Yesterday I made a potato/broccoli/cheddar cheese soup.

This makes a lot – a generous 12 servings at 1.5 cups each.  Each serving:

• 190 calories, 5.2 fat, 28 carbs, 4.1 fiber and 11.4 protein

Potato Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Ingredients:

• 8 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
• 4 cups skim milk
• 10 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 3 large carrots, peeled and cubed
• 4 cups chopped fresh broccoli
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt (start with 1 and adjust from there, especially if you are using regular chicken broth)
• 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot.  Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, careful not to brown the garlic.  Add the chicken broth, milk, salt, pepper and the sprigs of rosemary and turn the heat to high and bring to a slight boil.  Now add the potatoes and carrots, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

At the 20 minute mark, add in the broccoli and cheddar cheese.  At the 45 minute mark, I removed from the heat, and used my potato masher to mash up some of the potatoes and broccoli, but it was still a bit chunky.

This picture doesn’t look like the finished product per se, because I put this in the crockpot at work and had the temp on high, and forgot to turn it off.  So by the time I got back from working out, it had kind of separated a bit – it looked a bit more creamy when it was just finished cooking.

Luckily everyone had eaten by the time I got back and it got good reviews.  Winning!

With a sprinkling of fresh cheddar on top, and a side of sesame toast, lunch comes in at 337 calories, 14 fat, 39 carbs, 4.6 fiber and 16 protein.

I made $14!

With my loot I stopped by my 50% off rack at the grocery store on my way home.  I got two sirloin/blue cheese burger patties for $1.83.  I actually plan to morph those into Company Salisbury steak later in the week.

And I got a package of center cut bacon for $2 – normally $7.99!

Now I hope you are all sitting down now.  Because . . . I didn’t have Party Pizza Friday!  What’s going on with me?!

I realized yesterday morning that I had chicken thighs I never cooked up, so I decided to make crispy chicken thighs with risotto.  The risotto recipe is here, except this time I left out the apples.   And my shelled edamame were frozen, so in a shallow pan (like an inch of water) I boiled the water, then tossed both the frozen edamame and the chopped asparagus to blanch for 3 minutes before adding it the end of the risotto.

For the chicken, I used Jacques Pepin’s technique for crispy chicken thighs.  You start off with a cold pan – my cast iron skillet worked perfectly.  Just salt and pepper the chicken.

With the skin side down, put the chicken in the pan and turn the heat on high and put a lid on the pan.  After about 5 minutes you’ll start to hear the skin sear.  Take a peak and make sure the chicken isn’t sticking.  Mind you, there is no oil, Pam or anything.  The chicken skin will render off enough fat to cook.

After about 5 minutes, keeping the skin side down, reduce the heat and cook another 20 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165.

The skin was nice and crispy, the meat was super juicy and tender.  This is a great way to make chicken thighs when the grill is not an option.  That plate comes in at 414 calories, 21 fat, 29 carbs, .5 fiber and 24 protein.

So the rest of our leaves have fallen in our yard.  At least it won’t take us nearly as long to get that chore done as it did last week!  And our fire pit is a lot smaller!

We are supposed to have temps in the 60’s this weekend, so we need to enjoy it while we can.  Our high on Monday?  Only 36!

Stats for the Day:

• 1546 calories, 65 fat, 163 carbs, 14 fiber and 78 protein
• 42% of calories from carbs, 38% from fat 20% protein
• 38:00 minute 5k
• average blood sugar, 131
• no alcohol

Yep, I didn’t have any wine last night – even on a Friday night – woop!  I thought by the weekend I might be tempted, but I wasn’t.  And for the record, there is wine in my house at the moment, so that’s winning in my book!

Enjoy your weekend!