New Year's and Soup

I know I haven't officially posted my new year goals yet (probably because I haven't made them yet - I have a desire to be sitting in my living room with a glass of wine while doing it, is that so wrong?) but one thing I want to do is fine something I like doing. One might consider this finding a focus for my blog. :) I run a lot but I don't know that I can count it as a hobby and I don't think it's really interesting to anyone else. We shall see....

I like cooking a lot but I'm kind of intimidated by all the good food blogs out there already. Where are these people taking these photos??? They look so professional.

So, no photo to go along with it, but I made this delicious soup the other night and had it for lunch today. Highly recommend - it's easy, pretty healthy, and tasty. It's from Cooking Light.

North Woods Bean Soup
Yield: 5 servings (serving size: about 1 1/2 cups)

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
1 cup baby carrots, halved
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
7 ounces turkey kielbasa, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 (15.8-ounce) cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 (6-ounce) bag fresh baby spinach leaves

Preparation:
Heat a large saucepan coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add carrots, onion, garlic, and kielbasa; sauté 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes.

Add the broth, Italian seasoning, pepper, and beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

Place 2 cups of the soup in a food processor or blender, and process until smooth. Return the pureed mixture to pan. Simmer an additional 5 minutes.

Remove soup from heat. Add the spinach, stirring until spinach wilts.

Nutritional Information
Calories:227 (15% from fat)
Fat:3.9g (sat 1.2g,mono 1.3g,poly 1.2g) Protein:18.1g
Carbohydrate:30.8g
Fiber:6.7g
Cholesterol:26mg
Iron:3.5mg
Sodium:750mg
Calcium:112mg

Cooking Light, JANUARY 2002


They provided the calorie breakdown. I think it's kind of low though. Todd got me an iPod Touch for Christmas (so cool!!!) and I downloaded this awesome app called "Lose It" where you enter what you eat and do for exercise and it tracks your calories for you. My favorite feature is where you can enter a recipe and it automatically caluclates the nutrition info per serving. When I put this bad boy in, it was a bit over 300 cal per serving (although I do up the kielbasa by a smidge). Still not bad, but not what they got.