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Nutrition News Soup's On As temperatures begin to fall, our appetite for hot comfort foods begins to warm up. But after a long, hard day that can leave you feeling exhausted and with another job waiting for you – cooking dinner - what’s a parent to do? Well how about whipping up some flavorful soups? You can quickly throw together some ingredients and serve your family a hot soup that’s low in fat and highly nutritious. Take out your soup pot or dust off that old slow cooker because I have great tips for quick-to-fix soup recipes. Slow cookers One of my favorite appliances in the kitchen is my slow cooker. Slow cookers are inexpensive and easy to use. Wonderfully convenient, most recipes can be prepare the night before, then refrigerated, and cooked the following day. You just turn it on and forget about it until the food is ready. Also the best part for using a slow cooking is that they’re a snap to clean up – saving you time for other actives. Keep the flavor but lose the fat. We know that as important it is for healthy dishes, they have to be delicious, or your family will not eat them. Since the food in a slow cooker is cooked slower and at a low temperature, spices and ingredients have a longer time to blend and meld together. Also you don’t need to use high amounts of fat in a slow cooker, making your meals highly nutritious and low fat. Another benefit with a slow cooker is that once your soup is ready, you can keep the food available for a longer period of time (kept at 200˚ F), giving your busy family members more opportunity to enjoy your scrumptious soup. Soup shortcuts When most of us think of preparing soup, time is the first thought that come to mind. We might conjure images of spending an entire day in the kitchen, standing over a hot stove, watching the slowly simmering pot. Well, preparing and cooking soup don’t have to take very long and they still can taste sensational. There are many soups that can be cook in under an hour when you use fast-cooking ingredients. Here are some simple shortcuts that you can use: * Purchase bagged salad mixes, precut and prewashed vegetables, frozen vegetables, and shredded cheeses. * In a pinch you can use canned ingredients like tomato sauce, canned beans, jarred garlic, or chicken broth. * Use grains such as quick cooking barley. * A favorite time-saver of mine is Lipton Onion Soup Mix™ to help add flavor. Children involvement A sure way for kids enjoy the soup is to have them involved with preparing the meal. First, take some time and review cookbooks (or these recipes) together. Let them decide which soup they would like to try. Then go to the store together and shop for the ingredients. This gives you an excellent opportunity to teach your youngsters about nutrition. Ask them to find the foods on your shopping list. Teach them how to pick the freshest ingredients. And of course, if you’ve always wondered how to choose your fruits and vegetables, ask the Henry's produce experts for advice. You may not realize it, but the grocery store is a perfect learning environment for children. Once home, let your children them help you in the kitchen. Depending on their ages, they can help with the preparation of the soup by chopping the vegetables, peeling the potatoes, or measuring out the ingredients. If you have very young ones, they can always add the ingredients into the cooking pot. Here are some of my favorite soup recipes: Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup Squash Soup Lentil and Barley Stew Beef or Lamb Stew |
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