Food Swing

I LOVE soup.  I don't think I can accurately put into words how much I love soup, just know I LOVE it a lot!!!  I would make it at least once a week for dinner (even in the summer) but the kids don't really care for it and although the hubs is coming around to the idea of soup, he isn't really a fan either.  More for me, I say!!!    So when I make soup, I usually make a large batch and freeze most of it for future lunches (fyi: soup freezes beautifully).

A few weekends ago my girl, Jessica, was eating a very yummy looking & yummy smelling soup...  I asked her for the recipe and she said that it was in the South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook.  Sweet!  Healthy/tasty soup is a double bonus.  So I immediately logged into the library website and reserved my copy for each South Beach Diet cookbook they had.  A few days later I picked the books up from the library on my way to the grocery store, where I sat in the parking lot thumbing through to get the ingredients to make the Mexican Soup that Jessica was eating.  Upon my quest, I found the recipe for this Thai Shrimp Soup and wrote down the ingredients for that as well.  And boy, I am glad that I did!!!!!

The official title for this bad boy is Thai Shrimp Soup with Lime and Cilantro and you can find the recipe here.  And true to the book title, it was very quick and easy and can I also mention, FREAKING amazing!!!!   Seriously, I have had dreams about this soup since I made it!  I followed the recipe to a T, omitting the scallions as a garnish...  mostly because I was in too big of a hurry to eat it :-).  SOOOO good!!!  There is a hint of heat from the red pepper flakes and the lime/cilantro/ginger combo is just divine!!!  I definitely DEFINITELY recommend making this!!!!

The "Jessica" soup is the Mexican Chicken Soup from the same cookbook and you can find the recipe here.  I must also mention that I am eating this soup as I type this blog post :-)  I like this one too, though not as much as I like the Thai soup above.  Depending on ingredients, this soup has a variety of outcomes.  First, let me show you my version:

Now I took a few liberties with this one.  1st - the recipes calls for 2 c. of prepared salsa.  In case the hubs does want some, I used green salsa since red salsa give him heart burn.  Also, I used cooked chicken instead of raw.  I am also making a chicken casserole today, so I baked a chicken and split the meat between the 2 recipes.  I make chicken noodle soup most often and I always used leftover cooked chicken, so not problems there.  I did use 1 whole jalapeno BUT jalapenos grow best in cooler weather so this time of the year you can find HUGE jalapenos and mine was.  So this guy is a bit on the spicy side....  which is fine.  With a smaller jalapeno, it would have less heat, or with the large jalapeno you could use just half or omit it completely if desired. I garnished with cilantro, not called for in the recipe and last but not least, I always use Stock and not Broth.  I usually make my own chicken broth, but didn't have the foresight to do that with this one so I used store bought.  This might be a South Beach no-no, but you could also add a dollop of sour cream to help cut the spice (although I did not).

I have been so blind-sighted by these 2 recipes, that I haven't even looked though the rest of the cook books :-)  Luckily I have been able to find both of these recipes listed online, so I hope that stays true throughout the book... since I am now storing all of my recipe in Pinterest (with my own reviews in the comments sections).  Enjoy and happy soup making!!!