Bowl eating has definitely become somewhat of a trend in the recent couple of years.  You can call them power bowls or  health bowls, Buddah bowls, etc. but there is something quite inspiring about eating out of a bowl.  

Bowls are not just for soup or cereal anymore!  It's like bowls have now become the hot new plates!

I created a healthy Spring Veggie Bowl for my lunch yesterday and I have to say I quite, quite enjoyed it.  

I am not sure it would have brought me quite the same enjoyment had it been served on a plate, but eating this from a bowl was incredibly tasty and left me feeling very much like I was doing something good for myself.

Filled with spring vegetables  . . .  English peas, asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli and chard . . .  each vegetable quickly cooked until crispy tender with very little use of any fat.  

I used an olive oil cooking spray and a non stick pan . . . if you are afraid that the veggies will burn or stick before they are crispy tender, you can add a splash of water, which works very well, with just a touch of seasoning.

I used whole wheat pasta . . . which is a low GI carb.  

Our bodies need healthy carbs.  That is where we get our energy from.

There is a light dressing on the pasta . . .  for a bit of extra flavour, and I topped it with some coarsely grated Parmesan cheese and chopped toasted walnuts.  

Walnuts are a superfood, and so is chard and broccoli.  Altogether this  makes for a very colourful, quite delicious and healthy bowl full of food!

 

Divide the spaghetti between two pasta bowls.  Arrange the cooked veggies on top of each.  Top each with half of the coarsely grated cheese and chopped toasted walnuts.  Serve immediately.



Here's to good health and Bon Appetit!

I pretty much love it in every way shape or form, except over cooked.  (I don't think anyone likes it that way and I can't say that I blame them!)  Unfortunately at this stage in life, Broccoli doesn't always love me.  

Broccoli and cheese are a beautiful flavor combination that works beautifully in soup.  There are ton of recipes out there for Broccoli Cheese soup, but most are filled with tons of fat and calories.  

What if I told you that you could easily create a light broccoli soup, which contains cheese and it despite it being light it could still be delicious?

 

I really, really love Broccoli Cheese Soup . . . but it can be really high in fat and calories.   With all of that cream and cheese  . . .  sigh  . . . kind of takes away from all of the positives of eating broccoli. 

I am about to change that.  Big time. With a heart healthy broccoli cheese soup.



I took our favourite broccoli cheese soup recipe, which has  bazillion calories in it, and I made a few changes in it.  I came up with a soup recipe which I think is just as creamy and delicious as the original.

 There is no cream in it whatsoever, only 1 TBS of butter (instead of the original 2 ounces plus 1 TBS) and  this delicious lighter version uses but a fraction of the cheese.



I applied a tip I learned in my Cooking for Diabetes Class. 

I used a large potato instead of cream to both thicken the soup and to help give it that creamy texture.   It works amazingly well.



I used a small amount of milk and only a fraction of the cheese. I opted  to use a low fat sharp cheddar (lots of flavor) and finely grated Parmesan.  

Parmesan cheese has so much flavor that a little bit goes a very long way. Using a low fat cheese which contains tons of flavor is a trick to getting more cheese flavor into things without all the fat calories.

 

I also made some really tasty whole wheat crackers to go along with it.  I used some Warburtons whole wheat wrap breads, that I spritzed with some water and sprinkled with some herbs and seasoning.

I cut into squares using a pizza cutter (easy to do coz the wraps are square) and then baked them in the oven until they were crisp!  I had my soup with some of these and my husband had his with a whole wheat roll. ( I have never quite gotten over my love of having crackers with soup.)  

All in all this was very delicious, and made  nice light supper.  Plus it gave me another way of getting broccoli with is so good for you into my husband, who declared it to be very tasty and went back for seconds.




Melt the butter in a large saucepan.  Add the onion, carrot and broccoli stalks.  Sweat over low heat for about 10 minutes, without browning and stirring frequently.  Add the chicken broth and chopped potato.  Bring to the boil.  Reduce to a slow simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes.  Uncover and add the broccoli florets.  Bring back to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for an additional five minutes.  Stir in the milk and nutmeg.  Blitz smooth using an immersion blender to your desired consistency.  I like it a bit chunky, but Todd prefers it smooth.  I try to get it somewhere in beween.   Stir in both cheeses to melt.  Gently reheat without boiling.  Adjust seasoning with some salt and black pepper.  Serve hot.



Broccoli is one of those super foods that is very good for you.  A member of the cruciferous vegetable family,  it is loaded with vitamins and anti-oxidents and has been shown in recent studies to actually slow down the destruction of cartilage associated with Osteo-arthritis!  

I have osteo-arthritis, which is a very painful and somewhat debilitating disease and so I need to be eating my broccoli, and lots of it.  This delicious soup can make that process very painless. ;-)

Bon Appetit!! 

 

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