I Lost 16 Pounds in 11 Days - Turkey Vegetable Soup

Eleven Miserable Days...

You know the story by now, Jackie and I are trying to quick fix a lifestyle by jumping on the "17 Day Diet".  Whatever you want to say about fad diets, this one does have a few advantages.  First, you should never go hungry.  The Cliff Notes version of the diet is the list of foods that you can eat unlimited amounts.  Most vegetables (but not all, corn for example),  few fruits (no bananas, but apples and oranges), all the fish, chicken and turkey (white meat only (sigh)) are a few of the things you can enjoy as much as you like.  Yogurt (even flavored ones, as long as they are low fat), low fat cottage cheese and green tea are allowed and encouraged as snacks.

Now, something that is missing is a detailed index (actually any index).  The list of foods you can eat is detailed, but their are a few oddities, open to interpretation.  And, there are a few things listed that I am just plain morally opposed to.  This is a NO SUGAR diet.  But the Dr. recommends a natural sugar substitute, Truvia.  Just on principle, Truvia was developed by Coca-Cola, the great fattener of young adults.  It's only a few years old and I have decided to avoid these types of additives in my diet.  So, I actually have no sugar substitute that I use.  Fruit has natural sugars, so I add quite a bit of fruit when needed.  BUT, I have never seen or gotten a good answer to honey.  Is honey allowed???  I don't know, but since the Dr. in his book allows "condiments in moderation" (wow, is that open to interpretation), I have interpreted that phrase to mean a TBS or two of honey a day is a condiment.  It's my own personal bugAboo, but the sugar substitute controversy should be addressed clearer, as well as a sentence about honey (again, without an index, it could just be something I missed).

The reason I am bringing that up, Greek Yogurt with a little honey mixed in is terrific as a flavoring.  Low fat Greek Yogurt is allowed, and I use it often ( See yesterdays post on Marx Foods Morel Mushrooms Creamed Spinach).  With just a little dollop of honey, it is even better!  That's my honey/Greek yogurt dollop in the center of the bowl of soup.  Allowed or not... It was wonderful.

OK, On to the soup...

Yesterday was a great soup day... Rainy, overcast, a chill in the air... Perfect for soup.

Again in yesterday's post, you saw I roasted a turkey breast (why not... As Scrooge said at the end of the book, "Keep Christmas in your Heart all year long").  Slices of turkey served over a bed of creamed spinach and mushrooms was fine, but I try not to repeat.  So just a few slices of turkey as a main course was out.

Let's make soup!

And besides, low sodium chicken broth is allowed, so I assume low sodium turkey broth is as well.  the turkey breast I made was bone in, so I had most of a turkey carcass left to make my own broth. I carefully removed any skin that might have seasonings (salt from the brine I did).  Overnight, I filled my big stock pot with water, submerged the bones, added some carrots, celery and peppers and covered the pot.  I set the burner on a very low simmer so when the lid was on, there was just a gentle simmer.  In the morning, I had lovely stock!

So, once you have the stock and the turkey leftovers, the soup is easy...

A couple of hours before I wanted to serve, here's what I did...

6 cups of Turkey Stock

12 ounces V-8 Vegetable Juice

1 whole bunch of Broccoli (Cut to just the Florete)

6 Carrots, pealed and sliced to bite size

4 stalks of Celery, sliced to bite size

4 Roma Tomatoes, each cut into 8 bite size pieces

1 whole Vidalia Onion, cut into 8 large chunks

8 small sweet Red Peppers, cut into bite size pieces

Get all this to a rolling simmer for at least an hour or two, until the carrots are soft.

Add about 2 cups diced Turkey

Allow that to simmer for just a few minutes, until the turkey is hot

Pick a cold, blustery day and enjoy!

Try it with a dollop of honey sweetened Greek Yogurt!

One more terrific meal down towards my goal of 17 miserable days!

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