Dev's Cold Weather Soup

I don't have a picture - but here's the soup that I made last week and ended up eating all  week long....and I STILL have leftovers.  They are currently in the freezer awaiting the next time I think I'm in the mood for soup. Essentially, this came about because I had bags of veggies in my fridge that were on the verge of going bad.

Dev's Cold Weather Soup:
1 onion, chopped
1/2 bag of baby carrots
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 bag of chopped cabbage (coleslaw mix)
1 bag of broccoli slaw
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch mix
1 cup of lentils
enough water to fill the pot
chicken bouillon to taste

Cook the onion until translucent.  Add the remainder of the ingredients and simmer.  (PS - How easy is that??)

I calculated the WW Pts based on 8 servings - but like I said......I ate on this all week and still had leftovers, so I know there's more than 8 servings there.

I like to eat this w/ 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese & a few spots of sriracha sauce.

Food F(Ph)oto Friday (2) ~ Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

J got to carve her very first pumpkin tonight - so we made roasted pumpkin seeds when we were done.  Again, I'm a dumper, but pumpkin seeds are pretty hard to mess up...even without measurements.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Put your cleaned pumpkin seeds in generously salted water.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for approximately 10 minutes.

Drain the seeds and then spread them out on a nonstick baking sheet (if your sheet isn't non-stick, be sure to coat it generously with oil or Pam)

Bake on the top rack for approximately 15 minutes (shorter for less browned; longer for more browned).

Let cool and then enjoy!

Food F(Ph)oto Friday ~ Taco Soup

Taco Soup

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 14.5 oz can black beans
1 14.5 oz can kidney beans
1 8 oz can green chiles
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 packet taco seasoning mix
water (to preference)
1 lb. turkey sausage, ground turkey, rf pork sausage, or lean ground beef (I sometimes will use 2 pounds of meat - depending on my mood)

I really wish I could give you step-by-step instructions, but I'm a dumper.  I rarely measure...although I tend to be better at it when I'm trying to "be good".  Essentially, you brown off the meat and then add the rest of the ingredients (I rinse the beans) - I'll add 2-3 cans of water and then let it simmer for awhile so that the flavors can marry (usually an hour, but it really doesn't take that long). I suppose you could serve this with the sides that you would use for chili, but I don't.  It tastes great right out of the pot.