"Fat-Burning" Veggie Soup

I hope you're all having a good week so far- it's almost done! I think my sweetie is going to take me to see Dark Knight this weekend, so that's something to look forward to. I love having get-away days! And I would LOVE to squeeze in a trip to Hob Lob too, but I know I can hang in there just one more weekend. This No-Spend July is killing me, and I've even been more lenient on myself this year compared to last year, "allowing" myself to buy clothes...

but, it's still killing me.

So, this is one of those "so-called fat-burning" recipes. And I can tell you how it burns fat- I think I burned 10,000 calories just by chopping up all the veggies for this recipe!

 I got the recipe here, from All Recipes. It is just a basic veggie soup, with virtually no fat. It is comprised of all veggies (I have read you can pick & choose other veggies to include/exclude, just not potatoes or beans.) I am definitely a soup girl & I love almost all veggies, so this was right up my alley. It makes SO much- I gave a batch to my mom, stocked some in my freezer, and still have plenty left. I hope to keep it stocked up, especially

for Fall & Winter coming up.

Here's what you'll need for the soup (this makes 15 servings):

- 5 carrots, chopped

- 3 large onions, chopped (it's a lot!)

- 2 16 oz. cans whole peeled tomatoes with liquid 

(I just used one big can)

- 1 large head cabbage, chopped or shredded

- 2 green bell peppers, diced

- 10 stalks of celery, chopped

- 1 15 oz. can of green beans (the only bean you can use)

- 1 1 oz. envelope of onion soup mix

- 2 qts. tomato juice (I used V8 for even more veggies)

- 1 14 oz. can beef broth

After you gather all of your ingredients, you then waste your life away chopping them all. :)

Once chopped, I added them all into one big pot.

First, the carrots...

Then, the onion...fun!...It really wasn't that bad with my little chopper...

Then, pour in the tomatoes with the liquid...

Then the cabbage, which I just shredded instead of chopped...

Next, the bell peppers...

And the chopped celery...

Add the can of green beans next (I forgot and included the juice anyway, but I love a lot of broth, so it worked out)...

 After all veggies are simmering in the pot, add the envelope of onion soup mix...

Then, add the 2 qts. of tomato juice, or in my case, V8.

Finally, add the can of beef broth...

And, since I love a lot of broth, I added about 3 beef bouillon cubes along with the 3 cups of water to the mix. The recipe also says to add enough water to cover the veggies, which is not much.

You just cook the soup until all veggies are tender. The recipe actually stated it took 25 minutes to fully cook, but that was not the case with mine. I let mine simmer about 45 minutes.

And here's my finished product simmering away...