Beef and Vegetable Soup and Other Healthy Recipes

Courtesy of Betty Crocker

Beef and Vegetable Soup
Heat oil in big soup pot on stove; brown meat, then drain fat and return meat to pot
1 pound beef stew meat
1 tbls. olive oil

Add below to pot, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 1 hour:
32 ounces beef stock
4 cups of water
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1/2 tsp. dried marjoram, crushed
1/4 tsp. black pepper (or more)

Then add below, bring back to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes more:
1 can stewed tomatoes, chopped (with juice)
1 16 oz package mixed frozen vegetables
2 cups new potatoes, halved
2 carrots, sliced
1/2 cup pearl onions, peeled (boil for 3 minutes, then rinse in cold water, cut off root end and squeeze from the other end)

Salt to taste. Eat! This makes 8 servings, about 235 calories each.


Tuna With Lemon and Relish
1 can tuna
2 tbs. dill pickle relish
Juice from 1/2 lemon

Mix and Eat. 20 grams of protein and just a little over 100 calories.


Sludge
1 scoop vanilla casein protein powder
1 tbs. peanut butter
Little bit of water

Mix the casein powder and peanut butter together. Slowly add a little bit of water at a time until it becomes thick and creamy. Freeze for at least 30 minutes. The colder the better.


Above are a few of the recipes we've tried this weekend. When my husband and I get onto healthy kicks, we go all out. It's all or nothing in our house. So when we decided about three weeks ago that we were going to get back into "pre-dating" shape, we meant it.

"Pre-dating" shape refers to before we met eat other, when we both were hitting the gym six to seven days a week, eating clean and drinking protein shakes, and being in pretty great overall health. Once we starting dating, we were going out to eat three to four times a week (Seafood! Sushi! Mexican! Indian!), drinking bottles of wine, scarfing thigh-size pieces of french silk pie and skipping workouts left and right.

Those days are over. Granted, the Sludge recipe above is not like eating ice cream, pudding or french silk pie for that matter, but it's reasonably eatable and is very filling. It basically tastes like really thick, cold peanut butter, with a slightly pasty aftertaste. But don't let that discourage you. It has a lot of protein and makes a great snack after dinner when you need something to hold you over until morning.

The soup recipe hit the spot yesterday while we watched six inches of snow fall outside. A perfect snowy Saturday meal. It made enough for us for lunch, a big tupperware to put into the freezer, then two more smaller tupperwares full to put in the fridge. And it was pretty low effort to make. Perfect! Enjoy!