However, things recently changed. It all started when I decided I didn't want to give my shih tzus treats from China! Well, some of the transformation started before that, but I won't go into all of that. Once I started looking into making dog treats, I started reading about a bunch of cool kitchen gadgets: dehydrators, food vacuum systems, vegetable choppers. And once I started bringing home gadgets to experiment with, I had to start finding recipes to have an excuse to dice, chop, etc.
So that is how I turned into someone who wanted to learn how to cook at the age of 53, and now, gulp, 54. I don't know how that could have happened. I just don't feel that old! In fact, I am feeling younger every day. My husband and I bought cruisers (the bike kind, not the motorcycle kind) two years ago, and we have been biking regularly. We also started a low-carb diet two months ago, and I am happy to say that I have lost 16 pounds. Each pound has been a battle! This time, I have made an oath to myself not to let those pounds add up again!
I did a low-carb diet several years ago and lost, gulp again, 60 pounds that I should have never put on. To get back down there again, I have a ways to go! This time, though, things are different. I don't have a high-pressure newspaper job to keep me out of the kitchen. As I go along, I'll talk more about all the changes in my life, but for now, I want to jump right in and share a recipe. It's not an exotic meal, but it is the meal that is on the stove right now. It's plain old cabbage soup. The reason tonight is cabbage soup night is that one too many Crystal Lights and Rum last night counteracted the 20-mile bike ride we took yesterday morning. That means we are eating light tonight!
I know you can find cabbage soup recipes everywhere, but here, I want to tell you how to make preparing cabbage soup easier. Also, I have made a couple of changes to reflect a low-carb life style.
First off, here is a picture of all of the ingredients and tools I used to prepare the soup.
I found a basic cabbage soup recipe but got other info from other sites, so I have adjusted accordingly.
6 large green (spring) onions
2 green peppers
1 can of diced tomatoes (use 2 if you want more tomatoes, and you can use whole tomatoes)
3 carrots
1 cup dehydrated shiitake mushrooms (or 10 oz. container mushrooms)
1 bunch celery
half a half of cabbage
homemade onion soup mix equaling one package spice only soup mix
2 5.5 oz. cans V8 spicy hot (up to 1 48 oz. can)
I made an easy job of the dicing by using one of my new best friends, my Salad Chef Genius, which I bought at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $39.99 minus 20 percent. (I always have a Bed, Bath and Beyond coupon or two in my purse.)
I have been experimenting with a couple of vegetable dicer/choppers, but I really like a few things about this one. First off, you dislodge food from the pusher plate by pressing a button, which saves cleaning time. Also, the dicing area is bigger and the pusher plate is heavier, so it's easier to cut and dice.
I used the medium slicing blade to dice my green onions, green peppers, carrots, and celery. I used the large slicing blade to cut my cabbage into larger pieces.
Instead of buying fresh mushrooms, which the original recipe called for, I decided to save money and buy a 6 oz. container of Shiitake-Ya Gourmet Shiitake Slices from Costco for $6.99. (The recipe called for a cup, and the container holds about 11, so I spent about .63 cents on mushrooms.) You'll need to follow the recipe on the container to rehydrate the mushrooms before adding to the soup.
Our low-carb diet limits us to too much vegetable juice, so instead of using a 48 oz. can of V8 juice, according to the original recipe, I bought a six-pack of 5.5 oz. cans of V8 Spicy Hot and used two of the cans, totaling 12 grams of net carbs.
I added one 14.5 oz. can of S&W organic, ready-cut diced tomatoes. I have to also stop here and say that we have been using a dollar store can opener for years, and we fight with it constantly. I finally got on Amazon and searched for the highest rating can openers. I chose the OXO Steel Can Opener (18.99 - 20 percent at Bed, Bath and Beyond), and I am so happy I did! It was a breeze opening this can with this can opener.
The next thing I added was the spice mix. I didn't have any Lipton onion soup mix on hand, and am not sure it would fit into a low-carb diet anyway, so I found a low carb onion soup recipe. I did make some changes to it, which are reflected here.
Dottie's low carb dry onion soup mix (with a few changes)
3 Tsp Wyler's Beef Granules (Dottie recommended 3 packs of Herb Ox beef bouillon, but I didn't have any)
2 tsp dried parsley
1 T dried minced onions (Dottie's recipe called for onion flakes)
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp organic celery flakes (Dottie's recipe called for 2 tsp dried celery or 1/4 tsp celery seed)
Once I had everything ready, I prepared the soup in this order:
Slice green onions, put in a pot on medium heat, and start to saute with cooking spray. I use a Misto olive oil sprayer for this. Do this until the onions are whiter/clearer in color (about 4 to 6 minutes).
Add the diced green pepper to the pot, and then add the cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, celery, and tomatoes. Add the prepared onion soup mix. If you want the soup spicier, add a small amount of curry or cayenne pepper.
Since I used 11 oz. of V8 juice, instead of adding 12 cups of water, I added 10 cups of water, instead of 12.
Other options are seasoning to taste with pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc. Adding salt is not recommended, especially if you are preparing this as part of a diet plan. I added pepper (we love pepper) and a very small amount of kosher salt. Le the soup simmer for about two hours, or until vegetables are tender. Sorry, I haven't figured out how many carbs in this meal, but when I do, I'll post the information.
