Simple Soup Recipe

Simple soup and bowl recipes in this post make a flipping 50 lunch easy, effortless, and make exercise more likely to happen when your energy is high. “Getting in protein at lunch is hard,” is a statement I hear all too frequently! Since protein is the key to lean muscles, more energy, strength and stamina to exercise in a way that will get and keep you young, I’ve made it easy to choose something here that will power up your flip. Protein is also going to keep you sated longer and more alert to get things done with fewer mistakes. Whether you’re at work, out and about, or just at home in the middle of something, having a few go-to’s on hand makes it easy to do the right thing, deliciously.

So Simple Soup

Ingredients:

• 3-4 cloves garlic,minced
• 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
• 5-6  chicken thighs, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 medium sweet potato, cubed
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 3-4 cups chicken bone broth
• 1 cup quinoa
• sea salt and ground pepper to taste
• Italian seasoning mix: rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, basil
• Bunch kale, torn in bite-sized pieces

Instructions: Saute garlic and onion until translucent. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Add all the ingredients all to an Instant Pot or cook it on the stovetop. Season to taste at the end. *add torn kale in final 10 minutes of cooking Stovetop: bring to a boil and then reduce and simmer for an hour while you work out or do yoga! Soup recipe credit: my goddess niece who’s recipes have to pass the 3-boy test.

Vegan Bowl

Even if you’re not vegan, sometimes you just want to go plant-based. Make some roasted veggies and cook quinoa and beans on the weekend and you can pull that all into a bowl in seconds. Check your protein content! You need almost every item to pack protein (black beans, quinoa, yeast, pumpkin seeds, and hemp here) in order to meet at 20-30 gram range of protein that will carry you leanly through the afternoon! You could toss some shrimp on top to substitute for the beans if you’re a pescatarian. Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup black beans
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• roasted cauliflower, carrots, broccoli
• 1 T nutritional yeast to sprinkle on top
• 1-2 T pumpkin seeds (I like roasted, salted)
• Hemp dressing

Hemp Dressing ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup filtered water
• 1/2 cup hemp hearts
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 T fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 – 1 T chopped fresh dill
• 2 T fresh chives

Blend all dressing ingredients in your NutriBullet.  [save $20 and up to $15 in shipping on your NutriBullet] Keeps for a few days in the refrigerator. Hemp is packed with protein! You can also sprinkle hemp seeds on your bowl to top. The nutritional yeast adds protein and a great way to add B vitamins. For the bowl: Arrange your bowl anyway you life for eye-appeal! This powerhouse beats a simple boring salad and pumps up your nutrient intake. You can add leafy greens on the bottom if you prefer. Or assemble all the ingredients and just warm it at lunch time. Top with the dressing and enjoy! Make the simple soup recipe and the easy bowl ingredients ahead in minutes and you’ll be set for lunches all week. Reader Hint: Play close attention to how you feel after lunch. Many of our program participants at first tell me they’ve got cravings in the afternoon, still want sugar, or don’t have energy to exercise after work when they finally have time. I always ask about breakfast and lunch. Enough protein? fat? fiber? and the right kind of carbs in the right amount? and no ingredients that you might unknowingly be sensitive to that make you crash? Some times a simple soup can feel lighter and easier to digest so your energy is higher. Test yourself. Here’s the truth about the “same boring lunch” – your body likes routine. So if you’re a soup girl or a salad and sandwich girl, don’t ditch it, just get diversity into your choices. Make two soups or two bowls to rotate (don’t eat the same thing every day for a week), change the greens and toppings in a salad, and vary up the protein. Especially if you’re vegan… you’re more likely to become food sensitive when you eat the same thing over and over daily. A small bit of menu planning will insure you’ve got variety every day. More variety and easier digestion mean more energy and more quality exercise more often. That’s flipping 50! Last chance to get my signature course PLUS the Bone Health mini course at this rate (save $50 on the bundle right now!) *If you’re seeing this after February 1, 2018 it’s not too late to get both together, it’s just a little more – but worth it!