2 diet friendly soups

First off- Weight Watchers week 2 is over and im down 6.5lbs. Not too shabby. The best part of this is that I am not feeling deprived and Im not having my usual psycho grease and chocolate freak outs. Go me! I am losing at a perfect pace, and I have eaten Tiny Tom Donuts and a froster from Macs milk- I just learned how to moderate my treats.

Secondly- Miles is over 5 months old now and started cereal this week. He made some truly disgusted faces on day one but now he is into it, can eat from the spoon, opens wide and swallows well. We're just a couple weeks away from first veggies. Baby food blogs are not too far away now.

This was soup week at home. Its been pretty dank and chilly, and I havent had alot of time to cook because the little man is at that 'hold me love me play with me' stage of infancy. I find soups quick (mostly) and alot easier to walk away from when someone else needs attention. I made 2 soups. One just for us and one for company on saturday night. Both were cheap, easy and cost minimal amounts of points.

APPLE AND ACORN SQUASH SOUP

All organic or farmers market ingredients. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the final puree

2 apples, unpeeled, cored, cut in half
1 medium acorn squash, cut in half
2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic
4 cups (1 L) chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley, optional

Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C). Place apples and squash upside down in a shallow pan with 1/4 inch of water. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove apples and set aside. Flip squash over. Drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Broil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In saucepan, heat remaining olive oil. Add onions and sautee for 5 minutes. Add garlic and sautee for 1 minute. Add chicken stock, apple and peeled squash. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Puree in blender to desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve topped with freshly chopped parsley.

I added milk and flour to thicken the soup- gave it that teeny little bit more richness and creamyness.

BROCCOLI CHEDDAR CONFETTI SOUP

This one I made up a while ago, and used to have alot of butter and whole fat cream in it. This version is butterless and uses lower fat cream- its not as rich but its really delicious and chock full of daily vegetable servings.

1 large onion diced garlic clove, minced or thin sliced
2 carrots diced
1 celery stalk diced
1 potato peeled and diced small or shredded
2 reg or 1 large head broccoli- Stems peeled and diced, florets in a separate bowl
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp flour
6 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup half and half cream
1 cup shredded old cheddar

In your fave soup pot saute the broccoli stems and carrots in half olive oil for 5-10 minutes. Add onions and saute another 5 minutes- adding the rest of the olive oil with it. Add the potatoes and saute for a few minutes then add flour and cook off another couple minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil- add florets. Continue boil while it thickens then add cream. Use an immersion blender and blend to desired consistency- stir in cheese until incorporated. Simmer until ready to eat. The longer you leave it the thicker it will get and the more intense the cheese flavour will be. Season with salt and pepper to taste. There you have it. 2 delicious, nutritious soups.