Rustic Chickpea Vegetable Soup

After a weekend of many sinfully wonderful indulgences all over Atlanta, GA (post to follow eventually), sampling desserts and famed greasy drive-in food; I felt the need for vegetables in heaping abundance.

I've been trying to incorporate some of my normal healthful habits into my cooking rather than just eating the stand-bys; The easily prepared grilled chicken and steamed vegetables. Although delicious, these are just not satisfying me; cooking is satisfying. I came up with this recipe because I did not have my computer on hand to look one up and no recipe fit exactly what I wanted. The measurements are approximate, hence the word "rustic" in the title, and it is absolutely delicious.

Rustic Chickpea Vegetable Soup
from yours truly.

1 tsp. olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1, 15oz can chick peas, drained and rinsed
4 cups organic vegetable stock
4 -5 cups water
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 cups zucchini, chopped
3/4 cup yellow squash, chooped
1 can diced no-salt added tomatos
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. ground thyme, heaping
3/4 tsp. ground basil
1/4 tsp. ground sage
1/4 tsp. ground paprika

Brown rice, optional.

Heat olive oil in soup pot on medium-high heat. Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery and sautee for about 2 minutes until fragrant; Add chick peas.

Pour the 4 cups of stock and 4-5 cups of water into pot, add rest of ingredients and bring soup to a boil. When it reaches a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

If you are going to prepare rice, begin this while the soup is simmering.

Sprinkle with a pinch of fresh chopped parsley, add spoonfuls of brown rice to soup if desired and serve!

Not a great photo but as you were eating it was visually delicious as well; the vegetables were chunky and tender but not mushy. I'm not in the mood to write too much more right now but I'll back for later as I have big plans for later to go along with that leftover soup!

Fat-Free Banana Bread

Don't let the title throw you off; I promise I haven't gone off the deep end.

On any average day about 4/5 persons in the household are on some sort of diet; I prefer to call it lifestyle actually. Despite my musings on this blog, I eat very healthy and exercise about 6 days a week. However, I believe in the everything in moderation philosophy and balancing yourself when it comes to diet. A "perfect" diet is bound for failure; when you deny youself certain things pyschologically and physically your body with crave them and the end result is usually not pretty. With that said, I decided to create a baked good that everyone would feel guilt free eating (including myself) and the results were completely tasty and satisfying, not just for a fat-free baked good.

I don't think "light" baked good should contain anything too unnatural - start with a naturally healthy, fat free, sweet thing and your off to a good start - fragrantly ripe bananas!

I adapted this recipe from a recipe on allrecipes.com

Fat-Free Banana Bread

1 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 egg whites
2 large bananas, mashed
1/3 apple butter, heaping

For glaze (very approx. measures):
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2-4 tbsp fat-free half and half

Preheat oven to 350, grease 9X5 loaf pan.

In a large bowl stir together flour, brown sugar, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. In another bowl mash bananas, add vanilla, egg whites, and apple butter. Add to dry mixture and stir until just combined. Pour into pan.

Bake for about 45-47 minutes or until object inserted in center comes out clean. Turn out onto wire rack and let cool before slicing (I didn't exactly follow this part).

For glaze, while loaf if still warm, put confectioners sugar in bowl and stir in fat free half and half with wire wisk until desired consistency. Use wire whisk to drizzle over loaf.

Yield - one 9X5 loaf.

Overall - the tasty was delicious and the loaf was moist. The banana flavor was prominent but next time I would even add another banana. I would also use white whole wheat flour or other whole-grain flour in place of the all purpose to make this a more healthful treat. I didn't have these on hand. I didn't feel like I was eating a fat-free baked good and the loaf was gone the next day, so I guess I wasn't the only one!