Notes from the Kitchen: Canned Soup Magic

'Tis the season for the Flu and I have had a doozy! I had one of those buggers where you have just enough energy to drag yourself to the kitchen and open a can of soup for food. I am well now but I can assure you all I was not a few days ago.

With my recent stint as an invalid fresh in my mind I wish to impart some lessons in canned soup magic.

As with everything…you can’t please all of the people all of the time. I have begun to suspect that with mass-market food the plan has been to succeed at doing the opposite…pleasing none of the people all of the time. Canned soup is bland, salty, mushy, and kind of gross when you think too long about it. So lets not dwell on it and move on to what we can do about it.

If you are very sick or just being lazy then cheap canned soup can be your friend. But it does need some help to become palatable. For this you will need to acquire (in addition to your canned soup of choice): frozen corn or peas (or both), a variety of spices or your choice (ground ginger, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, curry powder, basil, oregano, marjoram, etc), Flavored oil (toasted sesame oil, chili oil, or spice infused olive oil), frozen pot stickers, fresh spinach, fresh shredded cabbage (like for making coleslaw), eggs, and crackers.

Now…You don’t by any means need all of these things but a good combination of them will enliven even generic condensed soup.

Step 1: Open soup, dump into a medium pot, and reconstitute according to directions on the can.

Step 2: Season with a combination of spices. This is especially necessary if you bought the low sodium soup. I like to use ginger, chili, and garlic in combination with the sesame oil for an Asian influenced soup.

Step 3: Add vegetables. This is when you would add the frozen corn or peas and the cabbage. You can add the spinach at this point if you like your spinach well cooked, if you only like your spinach wilted (like I do) hold off on adding the spinach now.

Step 4: This is when you all the pot stickers or the egg if using these.

Step 5: Leave the pot alone to get to near boiling or actually to boiling temp. Since there is nothing dangerous raw (unless you added the egg) you don’t need to cook this to death.

Step 6: Prepare your bowl. I like to put my spinach in the bottom of the bowl so that the hot soup pours over it and makes it wilted but not cooked per se.

Step 7: Pour the soup, add crackers (if you desire) and eat. Try not to burn your mouth.

Diary:

I’ve been sick as a dog, so of course, I have not been into the gym! And as for eating right…I’ve been indulging myself some as I’ve been miserably sick, so give me a break.

I am back on target now that I am well. I’ve been in to the gym 2 times since Saturday and plan on going today. And yesterday I met with a personal trainer so I should see the pounds just melting off soon.

Breakfast: Leftover Vientien Palace 3 star noodles with tofu (Probably not the healthiest thing and certainly calorific) and a Red Bull

Lunch: (not yet eaten) But I plan on having some home-made lasagna (400 cals) and a Mellow Yellow.