Recipe time!

I love tomato soup! It is one of my all time favorite comfort foods. I remember my grandmother making us all grilled cheese sandwiches and a piping hot bowl of the MM-MM-good soup! I turned 40 years old in 2008 and needed to begin to watch what I eat more. A lifetime's worth of bad eating habits caught up with me and I developed type II Diabetes. My blod sugar is well controlled with medication, but I am learning to read labels and finding out what is really in the food I eat. I think what surprised me the most was that are 12 grams of sugar in a 1/2 cup serving of Campbell's tomato soup! And I tend to eat the whole can not just 1/3 of it, mixed with water of course. So I set out trying to find a healthy and tasty alternative. I tried the lower sodium version, but it STILL has 10 grams of sugar per serving. Not exactly healthy for someone in my shoes. I decided the best thing to do was make it myself. So I tinkered around and came up with a delicous and healthy version of tomato soup!

Tomato Soup

Ingredients:
4 carrots roughly chopped
4 stalks of celery roughly chopped
2 medium or one large onion roughly chopped
1 can of low sodium chicken broth (32 oz.)
1 tbs of prepared garlic (granualted or canned)
1 tbs vegetable oil or olive oil

choose one option:
2 29 oz. cans tomato sauce (you can use low sodium)
1 29 oz. can crushed tomatos

OR
3 29 oz. cans of sauce

1 tbs salt (optional)
1 tbs white pepper
2 bay leaves

In a large stock pot, saute the vegetables, and garlic until the onions are transluscent. Add the chicken stock and cook for thirty minutes over medium high heat, until the veggies are tender. Using a stick blender, or regular blender in batches, puree the mixture. Make sure to get all the lumps out. Add in the remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 more minutes, remove the bay leaves before serving. If you like soup with texture the crushed tomatoes are great, and if you like it just plain and silky smooth, omit them.

I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I do.