Minestroni-licious

I have been so bad with the blogging.

Well, for those of you who suffer the same dilemma, I am a somewhat chubby vegan, and am in the process of losing that pudge. So, I joined weight watchers and am on the "core" program, which helps me focus on my real food goal, which is to eat 50% vegetables. I was gonna say raw, but frozen veggies rock.

Anyway, we talked about SOUP in this week's meeting and soup is one of my favorite foods. A friend at work teases me and says it's all I ever eat. After talking about it at the meeting, I realized that while Amy's soups might be a godsend, they are fairly unhealthy sodium-wise, environment-wise and I could make my own soup much better.

So I did.

The Harris Teeter by me (I still miss being walking distance from Whole Foods!) has a whole "Kosher Foods" section, from which I have discovered two amazing things:

1. Gabila's Knishes, pictured at left. If you've never had a Knish (chances are, living in the South as a "Goy" as we Jews say, you haven't), you are in for a treat. I explain them as the Jewish Samosa. Or the Jewish Hush Puppy. But closest thing is the Jewish Pierogie.

The best thing about Knishes is that they are, for the most part, Parve, which means no dairy (although eggs and fish don't count as meat or dairy, so watch out). The best thing about Gabila's Knishes is that they have traditional fried square knishes, baked round knishes, and then little mini spinach knishes! Awww. I won't lie, it's a little pricey, but man, I'm happy to see Knishes.

2. Tabatchnik's soup. As I explained, Kosher food is nice because most of the time all you have to look for is eggs/fish in your parve food. The soups come in little frozen packets and in regular sodium and low sodium versions. I like the soups on their own, but I like them better as "soup starters" because a cup of soup is not a meal for me.

For this particular foray into soupmaking, I started with a Minestrone base, then started dumping in some of the last of my Brinkley Farms CSA veggies for the week, since I had a whole new batch coming in. I tossed some zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, fresh diced tomatoes and frozen diced collards into the pot, dropped in a "not chicken" bouillion cube, added another 2 cups of water, put a top on and took a shower.

When I came down, my Tabatchnik's was melted, my tomatoes were stewed, my bouillion was dissolved and my soup was simmering nicely. I put half in a bowl and ate it, then I brought the other half to work the next day. Deelish.

I always forget to take pictures of the stuff before I start eating it, maybe because I'm always kind of hungry for lunchtime. Soup is still my favorite lunch. And a delicious dinner. And snack.