Italian Vegetable Bean Soup by Carole Jakucs, RN

Fall is here and with it our craving for warm, healthy soups. I created this recipe to have a hearty yet healthy soup for my family and I to eat when the cold weather hits.

This soup is dense with a variety of vegetables so packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Two examples are zucchini and spinach: They both contain Vitamin A and carotenoids which help maintain eye health.

The beans provide fiber and protein too. If you want more protein, you can use chicken "bone" broth. 

If you’re a vegan, just replace the bone broth or chicken broth with vegetable broth for your liquid. It will still taste great.

Italian Vegetable Bean Soup by Carole Jakucs, RN. 
October, 202. Image subject to copyright. 

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (16-oz) bag of frozen spinach
• 5 large celery stalks, rinsed and chopped
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped 
• 1 medium to large sized green Italian zucchini
• 1 small to medium yellow squash (summer)
• 1 (32-ounce) container chicken bone broth, chicken broth or 
         vegetable broth
• 2 (15.5-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed well. 
        (You can substitute with great northern beans)
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice (or 2, 15-ounce cans)
• 3 - 4 tablespoons Italian seasoning to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Garlic powder to taste

Italian Vegetable Bean Soup by Carole Jakucs, RN. 
October, 2021. Image subject to copyright.

Instructions

• Heat olive oil for one minute over low heat in a 5 or 6-quart pot. 

• Add onions, celery, zucchini, and squash. Cook for 4 - 6 minutes, stirring frequently.

• Add spinach and cook for an additional 4 minutes, stirring frequently.

• Add broth, cannellini beans, diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and  garlic powder to taste.

• Bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and cover keeping at a gentle simmer. Cook  with the lid on for 20 – 25 minutes. 

Enjoy and stay healthy!

4 Tips to Prevent Summer Snacks from Sabotaging Your Diet

Whether it’s a party in the park or a day at the beach, many people use chips and soda (pop) as a staple for parties and barbecues. But, high fat, high sugar and low fiber junk foods add extra calories quickly and don’t provide any of the good stuff for us such as fiber, vitamins, minerals and various nutrients. Try these tips to stay slim and healthy.

·        Whole wheat organic crackers for snacking (made without hydrogenated oil) and air popped popcorn (drizzled with olive oil or canola oil) – all better options instead of potato and tortilla chips.

·        Whole wheat pasta salad (a great side dish or main dish) dressed with olive oil and wine vinegar and filled with fresh veggies such as chopped olives, onions, celery, cherry or plum tomatoes with chopped mozzarella cheese as your protein – a healthier alternative to a heavy mayonnaise based macaroni salad that has no veggies or protein.

·         Hummus dip made with olive oil, fresh salsa and non fat Greek yogurt based dips for dipping whole wheat crackers and fresh cut up vegetables – all good choices instead of prepared dips that are high in fat, chemicals and preservatives.

·        Sparkling mineral water (without sugar, artificial sweeteners or colors), or plain water with a twist of lemon or lime, a great way to stay hydrated  - instead of soda pop which is high in sugar (or artificial sweeteners), artificial coloring/flavoring, and phosphoric acid, all of which are not healthy.

   

5 Tips to Help Prevent Constipation

Most people experience constipation at least once during their lifetime and many times more.  Though embarrassing for some folks to discuss; you can take a few steps using the following tips to help prevent it.

1. Eat whole grains each day such as barley (home-made barley soup is great), whole wheat breads and rolls (with whole wheat flour appearing first in the list of ingredients), whole wheat breakfast cereals such as wheat biscuits/shredded wheat each day for breakfast. Whole wheat pastas and brown rice work well for dinner, coupled with a lean protein and a vegetable.
2. Eat fresh vegetables every day such as broccoli (steamed or raw), baby or regular size carrot sticks (raw) and fresh romaine based salads with various raw veggies such as cucumbers and radishes.
3. Eat fresh fruits every day such as apples with the skin, pears, grapes, cherries, blueberries, peaches and nectarines (depending on the season).
4. Stay hydrated with plenty of water each day. Consider high water content fruits such as watermelon and other melons as part of your daily fruit intake (above). Fresh fruits and vegetables contain water; some have a higher content than others.
5. Stay active. Leading an active lifestyle can help prevent constipation by helping to keep the bowels moving.  A sedentary lifestyle can exacerbate constipation. Keep moving to allow your body to function at its optimum level.

Purchase organic produce whenever possible to reduce your exposure to pesticides. All produce must be washed well before consumption. Be creative and change it up; try a variety of whole wheat foods and fresh produce to make your diet interesting and tasty.

The Healing Effects of Chicken Soup - Carole's Recipe

Home-made chicken soup is a great winter meal. It has also been scientifically proven to temporarily help thin out mucus secretions and reduce inflammation in the respiratory tract. It contains an amino acid (from the chicken) as well as the oregano, thyme, garlic, all in this recipe; which are also helpful for these symptoms. It’s especially great to eat if you are battling a cold or flu.  

The leftover chicken can also be used again to make fresh chicken sandwiches on a good whole wheat bread, or , to shred over some  organic Romaine for a healthy chicken salad. Fresh home- made chicken is free of added nitrates (unlike a lunch meat), low in fat and, if prepared with little or no salt, great for anyone on a low salt (and a low fat) diet. Try to purchase chicken that is organic and raised without added hormones and antibiotics.

Chicken: One whole “cut up” chicken. If you can’t find it cut up, you can use a whole chicken. You will need to wash the inside very well which includes removing the pack of organ meat and scraping out the lung tissue and rinsing well again. Using a whole chicken is usually more economical, but also, more work to clean, and it tends to break apart while you remove it from the pot after cooking, leaving small fragments of bones in the stock that need to be removed. Any meat with bones can result in pieces of bone in the final product, but it tends to occur more often with whole chicken, so be extra careful if you go the whole chicken route regarding bone fragments.

Or, you can purchase a small package of thighs and a small separate package of breasts; the best chicken soup is made with both white and dark meat. *I remove all the skin and as much fat as possible regardless of which type of chicken I use. Skin is difficult to digest and both skin and high fat diets are not healthy for us.

Ingredients in addition to the chicken:

·         One large onion cut into quarters

·         One cup of baby or regular carrots sliced (change amount to your liking)

·         2-4 stalks of celery sliced (change amount to your liking)

·         2 -4 cloves of fresh garlic, chopped (or, 1 – 2 Tablespoons)

·         Oregano 3 Tablespoons

·         Basil, 3 Tablespoons

·         Garlic Powder, 1 Tablespoon

·          Salt and pepper to taste (*you don’t need much salt, if any, with all the herbs above. This is especially important if you are on a salt restricted diet.)

·         Parsley, 1 Teaspoon

·         Thyme, 1 Tablespoon.

·         Or, if you don’t have all the herbs separately, find a high quality Italian Seasoning Mix which can include many of the herbs above. (Look for one without MSG).

·         Filtered water; for a good sized pot of soup, you will want to use a larger stock pot/sauce pot;

A 5 quart size is what I usually use and filled about 3 /4.

·         Noodles (see below) one package

Try to purchase either fresh herbs, or organic (no pesticides) herbs in glass containers.  Plastic containers can leach out some of the nutrients from the herbs.

Place all of the chicken and water above in a large pot. Bring to a light boil, then reduce heat, loosely cover, then simmer for at least 45 minutes. Then add your vegetables and simmer for another 45 minutes. The total time the chicken should cook is approximately 1 to 1 ½ hours; you may need to simmer longer depending on the amount of heat in the stove top (size and power of the burner).  *Check that the chicken is fully cooked before shutting off the heat.  *I like to add the vegetables about half way through the total cooking time so they don’t overcook to retain more nutrients.

Once the soup is done, you can remove the chicken and any bones that broke off and may be in the broth. Add your prepared and drained noodles to the soup. (Most of these smaller noodles double in size, so you want to allow enough space in the pan for mixing at the end, or use less water).

Noodles (chef’s choice), prepare the noodles in a separate pan following the package directions.  However, the Italian style noodle called, “Acini de Pepe” works really well with this soup. You can use egg noodles too.

Variations: Some people prefer shredded pieces of chicken in their soup and some don’t, wanting their chicken on the side. I take out the meat and place it on the table so if someone wants a piece of chicken either on the side or shredded in their soup bowl, it’s handy and they can have it either way. You can also serve hard boil eggs for use in the soup at the table as a variation.

Food preparation safety tips: Make sure you that if you are setting your whole chicken in a sink for cleaning, that it is in a freshly scoured sink that has been cleaned with bleach based product and rinsed extremely well.  *After cleaning raw chicken, clean all surfaces it touched with a bleach based product to remove any possible contaminants from the raw chicken and to prevent any illness causing bacteria from getting on any other foods, new utensils etc. Any utensils or boards used with the raw chicken should be washed well with soap and hot to warm water (better yet, rinsed and washed in the high heat of a dishwasher if you have one) before using on anything else.

Enjoy your soup and continue any medications you may have already been prescribed if you are ill.