Minestrone Soup

This was, by far, the best minestrone soup I have ever eaten! It has an amazing rich flavor and a great variety of vegetables. First some alterations from the original recipe.

I always go a little over with the onions. The recipe called for two cups, I probably added about 1/4 to 1/2 cup more. I used zucchini, though the recipe says you can use eggplant instead or in addition. I do like eggplant but just didn't have any in the house. This is a great recipe to go overboard with the seasonings. Sometimes, as I found out with the cream of celery soup, it is not a good idea. In this case, it worked! A little extra of all the herbs made this soup very rich and delicious. Mine was also a little thicker and more of a stew due to the tomato puree. I used two 14 ounce cans.

The recipe also calls for parsley to be used as a garnish. Parsley is a great herb full of antioxidants and so I chose to add a couple large handfuls in the soup as it cooked so I can fully reap all the benefits parsley has to offer....and it was a perfect addition! I ate this soup all week long and never got sick of it. Towards the end of the week, I noticed some fresh mozzarella in the fridge and tried putting a couple chunks on the soup before reheating it in the microwave. This was a great idea! Not only did it taste amazing but mozzarella cheese is naturally low in fat so it added calcium without making it unhealthy. Bon Appetit!

Mushroom Moussaka

Here it is ready to be served!

The casserole comes out bubbly and fabulous!

Mark helped Wrigley see what was going on up there!

The fabulous Mushroom Sauce!

I have never had Moussaka before this so I have no basis for comparison but, WOW! It was delicious and I am happy to say that I have an entire casserole to enjoy throughout the week. This is a very low fat, vegetarian dish full of flavor, fiber, mushrooms and herbs. There four layers to this dish. A layer of eggplant, the thick and tomato-y mushroom sauce, another layer of eggplant and topped off with the wonderful Bechamel Sauce! I do have some notes on alternation as well as what I will do differently next time. First of all, I used, as always, non fat milk. I hope to eventually use my almond milk for these things but I don't know if the Bechamel Sauce would have thickened. Next time, I would probably use 4 eggplants instead of 3. The top layer wasn't completely covered. Also, although my Bechamel Sauce was AMAZING, I think it turned out a lot thicker than it was suppose to. This top layer browns in the oven if you leave it in long enough and almost has a light cheese sauce flavor to it. That layer is probably the least healthy, but again I used non fat milk and light margarine and really only 3 tablespoons of the margarine for the entire casserole. It was a delicious experience that I will enjoy for the week to come. Now, as many of you know, I severely injured my foot last weekend so, alas, no heavy duty workouts for me for a while. With that in mind, I will be moving to the salad section of the Moosewood cookbook to try to keep the weight down. So look forward to some great light salad recipes in the weeks to come!