I Never Knew It Could Be This Delicious To Shed A Few Pounds!

I enjoy spending time at church events; especially if it’s a potluck-type of thing, haha! Not that I wouldn’t enjoy going to church events, anyway, but every time there is food involved, I’m definitely there. The holiday cookie exchange is always a massive success, but I’m looking forward to our annual winter soup potluck. You wouldn’t believe how many great recipes I’ve gathered from there, over the years.

This cabbage soup is one of them, and it fits my post-Christmas mood perfectly. Sometimes I wonder why it is so hard for me to try and resist all the incredible desserts (and chocolate!) over the holidays. It’s virtually impossible – but at least I have this recipe to turn to, when the chocolate season is over!

I have worked my way back to my old jeans with the help of this soup, more often than I would like to admit. But it’s not just for those of us who like to watch our figure – by adding some chicken or ham I’ve served this as a hearty dinner for my family, and they all love it!

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Quick Tip: Omit the tomato paste, if you’d like.

My friends are a crazy bunch. For one, all of them have these silly little quirks that would sometimes infuriate you but most of the time will make you love them more. I too have my silly quirks and in their eyes, I might look the same way. Nico, one of the older ones in the group, has this habit of “flying out of conversations”. He always zones out after the first few minutes of listening to our conversations. When you ask him about a certain point a little while later, he wouldn’t be able to answer because he wasn’t listening.

Every time he zones out, we would poke each other and one of us, the closest one, would be the one to poke him out of his thoughts. Usually, people say “penny for your thoughts”, but since Nico is part of my group and our group loves food a lot, we mostly say, “food for your thoughts”? These zucchini tots recipe reminds me of that simply because it rhymes with thoughts and these are Nico’s favorite things. He’s in love with anything that has zucchini in it. It’s probably one of his quirks. Most of us are not that much fond of zucchini. But then again, this recipe is so good anyone will forget there’s zucchini in it!

Photo and recipe courtesy of Confessions of a Confectionista.

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Quick Tip: These zucchini tots are perfect to bring to potlucks.

The Only Chicken Soup Recipe You’ll Ever Need!

Many people feel that soups are perfect for the colder months of the year. In fact, so do I – nothing will keep you warm better than a hot bowl of your favorite, spicy soup! There are times, though, when I would rather be somewhere where it’s actually warm, so I wouldn’t have to eat soup just because I can’t feel my fingers… But since I still haven’t won the lottery, I can’t go on a vacation all the time. Instead, I came up with an idea! Why don’t I make a soup that is common some place warm, a place where I would like to travel some day?

Now, there are hundreds of places on this planet I would like to visit! It was a bit difficult to try and narrow the recipes down at first, so I decided to focus on Asia, since I’ve never been there. I’ve had plenty of Chinese and Japanese food so I ruled those out this time. That’s when I came across this soup recipe!

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Quick Tip: You could add some red pepper flakes for more heat!

Your Family Will Never Believe What This Lasagna Is Made Of

I started my year promising myself I would try to find leaner and lighter recipes. I’m not going on a diet, no way – but I thought choosing my meals and ingredients with a little more thought I could possibly shed a few pounds that mysteriously appeared around my waist during the holidays. I have no idea how that happened… But I’m pretty sure it had something to do with chocolate. Whatever the case, I’m determined to find my waistline again, without giving up any of my favorite dishes!

We all know how delicious lasagna is – unfortunately we also know that it’s not the leanest possible choice for a dinner. However, there is a way to make it a lot lighter by turning it into a vegetable lasagna. You don’t need to worry about the taste! The moment I had my first bite of this, I thought I might never go back to my old, meaty lasagna recipe again. This is sooo tasty!

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Quick Tip: Use different vegetables each time you make this, to adjust the flavors to your taste!

My Grandma Used To Make These All The Time, Yummy!

I love all kinds of vegetables, but I know quite a few people who are not as fond of them as I am.

I have no idea why – at first I thought maybe they didn’t have that many vegetable dishes when they were growing up. Then again, I’m not sure I did, either. Growing up on a farm we obviously ate them, but vegetable were never emphasized in our diet, in any way. Even when we had veggies, there was always some kind of meat mixed into the dish.

So I never had vegetable patties at home. The first time I ever tried them was in school and I immediately fell in love! And you can imagine they weren’t the fresh type of veggie patties one makes at home – no, they were those industrially made, frozen patties and yet, I loved them. So, this recipe right here? This one totally blew my mind.

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Quick Tip: You can make these with any type of veggies – use a different mixture each time!

My mom had to lose weight three years ago following a health scare.  After success with Weight Watchers years ago, she tried to find a recipe for soup she remembered loving.  This updated version made with fresh veggies was exactly what she needed.

It took a lot of dedication, but my mom still credits what she calls “The Soup” with helping her lose those extra pounds.

Recipe courtesy of Weight Watchers.

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Quick Tip: Frozen veggies can be substituted to save you chopping time.

Thinking about heading out to your local pizza joint tonight? Forget about it! You can easily knock together a few ingredients for the best pizza that’s ever touched your tongue. Not only is this pizza packed with flavorful spices, cheese, and veggies, it’s neatly compacted into a loaf, making it the best creation since sliced bread…er…pizza rolls. Sprinkle a little parmesan cheese or, “Farmer John cheese,” as my kids used to call it when they were little, and perfection is made.

This pizza is definitely not your ordinary, every-day slice of pie but what fun is ordinary anyway? You literally have the option to combine any type of vegetables that you please to this wondrous creation of fresh dough, zippy sauce, and stringy cheese. Another great thing about eating your pizza in roll-form is the lack of mess. All the good stuff is hidden within the walls of the pizza dough. Genius!

Recipe and photo courtesy of I Love Italian Food.

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