April 23, 2009

Taco Soup

Guess who walked to work today?? ME! It’s beautiful and sunny and I listened to my I-pod the whole way. It’s 1.6 miles to my office, but I thought on nice days, why not walk to and from work!! I feel great now!!

If anyone has ever been on Weight Watchers, you’ve probably made one version or another of this soup! There are a bajillion different varieties out there, this is the one that I make and I LOVE it! I haven’t made it in about 6 months, but once I make a big pot of it, I never get tired of it! It keeps getting better and better.

1 green pepper
1 small white onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 pouches of Boca crumbles*
1 can 99% fat free chicken broth
64 oz. V-8 juice (regular or spicy)
1 can corn
1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies
2 cans black beans, rinsed
1 packet taco seasoning

*For those of you who don’t know what Boca crumbles are…they are from the same company that makes Boca Burgers (soy meats). I’ve made this for lots of people and they would never know that it was vegetarian meat! Here’s the link.

Optional 4 oz. uncooked rotini pasta, or elbow macaroni

Spray a big pot with Pam. I puree the green pepper and onion and garlic with my Magic Bullet, otherwise you can just dice it.

Sauté in the pot for a few minutes. Add the Boca Crumbles and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the can of chicken broth, the V-8 juice the corn, the tomatoes (which I also pureed) the black beans and taco seasoning and cook for 30 minutes of so.

I added the pasta and cooked for another 15 minutes or so, until the pasta was cooked through.

I added up all the calories for the ingredients, and it made 15 cups of soup.

For each cup is 142 calories, .5 fat and 5 fiber. *You can also use ¾ lb. of ground turkey or ground sirloin instead of the boca crumbles. I’ve given this recipe to dozens of people, and those people ask for the recipe, so my sister and I always call it “The soup that’s sweeping the nation!

This makes ALOT of soup, so feel free to half the recipe!