Mediterranean Living

Ahhhhh!! I can’t believe it! I forgot to update my blog after Thanksgiving. Traditionally this holiday is centered around the inevitiable or in my case, inedible TURKEY! Since I have committed myself to this new diet and have been trying earnestly to stay away from eating meats, I knew  Thanksgiving would be an interesting holiday this year. This was the first year I did not enjoy turkey during the holiday feast! I enjoyed mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, bread, pumpkin pie, brocoli salad, and everything else, but no turkey. I thought that this might take away from the holiday, but to my surprise, my holiday was just as enjoyable as it has been in past years.

The real test will be at Christmas. Every year we always have a big, delicious holiday ham to feast on.

 I guess since I have technically labeled myself as a flexetarian, I have the ability to consume meats at my own discression — lucky for me this even exists

I am not a fan of winter, but I do enjoy soup when it is cold outside. Lucky for me, there are plenty of soup recipes that do not include meat. However, I will never give up my love for a nice, hot bowl of chili! Anyways, as I have mentioned before this new diet of mine is all about creativity — being open and trying new things. In this state of mind I began looking for different recipes of soups I could try to make. Vegetable beef stew was always one of my favorites, so I decided I would start here and exclude the beef. In my search I found a really awesome recipe for Chunky Mediterranean Vegetable Soup. I really liked this recipe, because the recipe did not call for any pre-made stock flavorings and it is also FAT FREE!! The recipe I found was very easy and it was helpful, because it included pictures as well (as you can see)

Now add all your hard vegetables – celery, carrots and green beans. Add more water to your pan, you need just enough to cover your vegetables (if you press the vegetables down with the back of a spoon you will see there is enough water).

Now after 15 minutes simmering add salt and a pinch of pepper to taste and a large pinch of dried parsley. Stir well.

then add your chopped zucchini/courgettes and egg plant/bringal. It will look like you need to add more water but you should not have too.

Your our soup is ready.

Enjoy Chunky Mediterranean Soup.

I followed this recipe and my soup turned out really great — it might not have looked as good as it does in these pictures, but it was flavorful and filling. I am excited to take this recipe home and let my family try it too!

I have been having a lot of fun trying new recipes and different entrees, but my next goal is to experiment with desserts by finding a delicious, but healthy recipe to make. Healthy eaters need sweets too!!!

 

 

The vegetables you are adding here turn into water once they start to cook. Stir well again and bring to the boil with a lid on, simmer for 10 minutes.

 

Bring to the boil and then simmer with a lid on for 15 minutes.