Soup, soup, glorious soup!!

Hello there, long time no Posting, here anyway :o)
My current crochet project is a cardigan for my daughter (1.5 sleeves
complete) and i have made a few little bits out of felt (a toadstool house, a toadstool fridge magnet and a heart keyring)but lately I have mostly been making soup... Soup, soup & more soup.

You see I am "properly" dieting for the first time since I was about 16 and my research has led me to the ultimate secret in losing weight; the humble vegetable soup. Very low calorie for the volume, packed with vitamins and keeping you satisfied for longer than you'd expect it is perfect for dieters, with the added bonuses of being relatively quick, very simple and freezeable! Scientifically speaking it really is the trick behind keeping yourself satisfied without eating more calories. The water (stock) bulks out the "solid" ingredients and, particularly if it is blended thoroughly with the other ingredients, stays mixed with it until it has left your stomach and entered your gut. I've lost a whole stone in just over 5 weeks eating homemade soup
for more than half of my main meals and cutting out junk.... Mostly anyway, I'm still having chocolate, cakes & biscuits but the trick is to see them as treats not a snack; for me anyway!

I make my soups up as I go but one of my favourite and most successful methods is roasting root vegetables with onion, garlic, a tablespoon of fat to coat them (if that!) and spices until they are soft and blending this with a good vegetable stock... Yummy! You can also simmer a few red lentils ub the stock & add them for some protein & texture. Here are some good combinations;

Parsnip, celerac and bramley apple
Carrot & root Ginger
Carrot & sweet potato with a little freshly squeezed orange juice
Sweet potato, carrot and squash with cinnamon
Parsnip with curry powder

On the hob soups are often a bit quicker but roasting enhances the natural sweetness of root vegetables & they can of course be just bunged in the oven & left so you can do more interesting things! A good base for hob-soups is to fry onion, celery and grated carrot until soft, add stock and the vegetables of your choice (try asparagus and sweet potato or tomato, courgette and garlic with tomato passata or tomato juice for added richness; yummy) simmer until soft and blend until the big lumps are gone...

Enjoy!