January 2022 - Journey With Healthy Me

Six Winter Soup Recipes

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January is National Soup Month, which is perfect, isn’t it? A bowl of steaming hot soup is the perfect antidote for those chilly, overcast days of winter.

Celebrate all month with your favorite soups. Start a meal with a cup of soup or make a hearty stew the main course. Volunteer at your local soup kitchen. Or create your own soup recipe to share with others.

Need some soup inspiration? Try one of these six winter soup recipes!

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Six Winter Soup Recipes

Is there any food more nurturing and nourishing than a bowl of homemade soup? Truly, I feel I can live solely on soup! It’s such a versatile meal as well. Use the following recipes to inspire your next pot of soup.

Click underlined title links for recipes.

Easy Vegan Tortilla Soup

Before embracing a plant based lifestyle, I loved chicken tortilla soup. However, I discovered this yummy vegan tortilla soup and I don’t miss the chicken one bit!

The richly flavored soup comes together in minutes and uses items commonly found in the pantry. Canned goods speed up the cooking process, lentils add protein and heartiness and canned coconut milk makes the soup creamy. And no worries, the coconut milk does not add coconut flavor to the soup.

In less than 30 minutes, this soup is ready to eat. Add non GMO corn tortilla chips and top with shredded vegan cheese if desired.

Six Winter Soup Recipes tortilla — Six Winter Soup Recipes – vegan tortilla soup

Vegan Pot Pie Soup

Although I no longer eat traditional pot pie, this crustless version provides the same comfort! Rich with veggies, a creamy, thick broth and a DIY seasoning blend, this soup makes a great Sunday brunch meal or a special treat for guests.

Plus pot pie soup is a great way to use up leftover veggies, fresh or cooked. Simply chop or dice and add them to the broth.

Six Winter Soup Recipes pot pie — Six Winter Soup Recipes – vegan pot pie

Aloo Matar Soup

If you enjoy the Indian dish aloo matar, you’ll love this soup version. I made up this recipe, as one of my birthday activities when I turned 62. (What’s that all about? Check out the most recent birthday activities HERE.)

This soup makes a delicious meal, robust with potatoes, peas, tomatoes, garam masala and curry. I love it!

Six Winter Soup Recipes aloo matar — Six Winter Soup Recipes – aloo matar

Easy Vegetable Noodle Soup

Looking for a nourishing, health boosting soup to replace traditional chicken and noodle soup? This is it. When I feel a bit under the weather, this is my go to soup. It soothes stuffy heads, sore throats and body aches and pains. And thanks to using a pressure pot, it’s ready to eat in under 30 minutes.

If you are gluten sensitive, like I am, use brown rice noodles. Not sure if gluten is affecting you negatively? Read the symptoms of gluten intolerance HERE.

Six Winter Soup Recipes vegetable noodle — Six Winter Soup Recipes – vegetable noodle

Quick Bean Chili

Winter time and chili just naturally go together. Those spicy seasonings help to warm us up and they have health benefits as well.

This quick bean chili comes together in a flash. It’s perfect for those evenings when the day has been full and busy. Having recipes available that quickly provide a hot meal lessens the likelihood of grabbing fast food on the way home.

Use canned beans, instead of dried, to save time. This is a moderately spicy chili. Adjust the heat level by adding or reducing the cayenne pepper. And use a small vegetable chopper to make quick work of prepping veggies.

Six Winter Soup Recipes chili — Six Winter Soup Recipes – quick bean chili

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Stew

This colorful, hearty stew cooks up quickly using a pressure pot or it’s easily prepared on the stove top. Substitute canned black beans for dried, if cooking on the stove.

This sweet and savory soup is full of nutrients that help protect body. It’s the perfect meal for a cold winter night.

What’s Your Favorite Soup?

What’s your go to soup for frosty winter nights? I’m always looking for new vegan soup recipes, to enjoy in January…and the rest of the year as well. Share a link to your favorite soup in the comments below!

Six Winter Soup Recipes stew — Six Winter Soup Recipes – black bean and sweet potato stew

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Splendid Spoon Review

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my Disclosure Policy for details.

I participated in a paid collaboration with Splendid Spoon. This review and my opinions are my own.

This summer I celebrate six years living a plant based lifestyle. Nothing has impacted my health and wellbeing as much as going vegan has. You can read more about the changes I experienced HERE.

Over the years, I hoped I’d find an excellent vegan meal box company that offered healthy, affordable, plant based meals. That excellent meal box company found me. And how glad I am. Working with the company, I tried the meals and created content for them.

Check out my Splendid Spoon review and see why I now purchase the boxes myself.

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Splendid Spoon Story

Founder Nicole has always possessed a keen interest in healthy, delicious meals. She studied diet therapies in college, trained as a restaurant chef at the International Culinary Center and taught nutrition classes for children.

When she became a mother, she recognized the challenge of preparing healthy, nutritious meals for her family while building a career. Pressed for time, she knew that nutrition could easily become less of a priority.

That’s why Nicole created Splendid Spoon. She wanted nutrient rich meals that didn’t sacrifice flavor and she needed the meals to be easy, to fit into her busy life.

She shares,

“I’m constantly in the kitchen testing our recipes because I love supporting busy people as they strive to get healthier. Splendid Spoon is how I stay balanced every day, and I hope it helps you as much as it has helped me.”

Splendid Spoon Review vegetable bolognese grain bowl — Splendid Spoon Review – Vegetable Bolognese Grain Bowl

What Splendid Spoon Offers

Splendid Spoon offers 100% plant based, ready made meals that arrive to your front door. Packed in insulated boxes, with dry ice, the meals pop right into your freezer, ready to go from the microwave or stovetop to your table in minutes. They also offer freshly made smoothies and health boosting shots.

Splendid Spoon partners with chefs and nutritionists to ensure every meal has the perfect blend of protein, fiber, complex carbs and healthy fats.

Meals, smoothies and shots are:

plant based, no meat or dairy products
full of whole, unprocessed ingredients
Non GMO
sugar free, using fruit, dates and coconut nectar instead
gluten free
organic where it matters, sourcing the “dirty dozen” organically

Splendid Spoon Review coconut curry brown rice grain bowl — Splendid Spoon Review – coconut curry brown rice grain bowl

The Splendid Spoon Plans

Splendid Spoon does all the meal prep for you. Their mission is to make it easy to live a healthy life.

Choose from the following plans:

Breakfast Plan
Breakfast, Lunch + Reset Plan
Lunch Plan
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner + Reset Plan
Lunch and Dinner Plan
Or build your own On Demand Box

The reset meals are light soups designed to reset the digestive system.

You control how often you receive shipments, from once a week, twice a month, once a month or the on demand box that doesn’t require a subscription. Plus choose from more than 50 meals, to customize your box.

Splendid Spoon Review meal box — Splendid Spoon Review – a meal box

My Experience with Splendid Spoon

I’ll tell you immediately, I love this meal box company! I’m in a very busy season of life and knowing that I have wholesome, already prepared plant based meals in my freezer is so helpful. When I can, I still enjoy preparing my own healthy meals. And when I’ve had a long day or just don’t feel like cooking, I appreciate that I can grab a meal out of the freezer and it’s ready to eat in five minutes or less.

I also appreciate that the meals are nutrient rich, without fillers, preservatives, chemicals and hidden ingredients. For lunch today I enjoyed Splendid Spoon’s Red Lentil Dal, served over a plain baked potato, with a side salad. The ingredients for the dal: water, organic carrots, organic celery, red lentils, onions, sea salt, extra virgin olive oil, curry powder, cumin, rosemary, thyme and black pepper. That’s it. Those are ingredients I’d use, cooking from scratch.

Additionally, the meals are so full of flavor. Some of my favorites include Vegan Meatballs and Marinara Noodles and Coconut Curry Brown Rice Grain Bowl. Truly, though, I’ve enjoyed every meal I’ve tried. And the variety of meals is exceptional. From grain and noodle bowls to soups and curries to smoothies, they are ALL delicious. I feel lighter, leaner and more energetic, eating Splendid Spoon meals.

Splendid Spoon Review spiced lentil and chickpea stew — Splendid Spoon Review – spiced lentil and chickpea stew

Get Your Splendid Spoon Box

If you appreciate healthy, flavorful, wholesome food…and enjoy someone else doing the meal prepping and cooking for you…you’ll love Splendid Spoon too! Their meals are the perfect way to take wellness to the next level or to do a health reset. Or perhaps, like me, you’ll love the convenience of having a freezer full of heat and serve plant based meals.

Try a meal plan or create your own box, which is what I do. When I use up all the meals, I order another box. It’s that simple!

Use this link to get started.

Let this be the year you make your health and well-being a priority. How would having these plant based meals in your freezer benefit your wellness practices?

Splendid Spoon Review dragon fruit berry smoothiea

Try eating your grain and noodle bowls and soups in these fun bowls from Amazon:

The Impact of Processed Foods on the Body

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my Disclosure Policy for details.

A new year provides the opportunity to consider changes we might want to make from the previous year. At the top of the list for many is the desire to eat healthier. Whether for weight management, improved wellness or to create better habits, making changes in diet is a great way to take responsibility for health.

Consider this change. The impact of processed foods on the body is profound. When it comes to creating healthier habits that improve health and longevity, reducing the amount of processed foods in the diet is a key one.

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What is Processed Food?

Processed foods are typically packaged food products that contain unrecognizable ingredients, have a long shelf life and don’t fuel the body with high nutrition.

Processed foods are altered primarily for convenience or for more flavor. Some foods are more processed than others. A bag of cut up veggies, sold packaged in the store, is minimally processed. The basic nature of the food has not changed. Canned and frozen veggies and fruits are not heavily processed either. They are processed to lock in freshness and nutrients.

A bag of chips or a box of sugary treats or that package of mac and cheese represent ultra processed foods. These are chemically altered with artificial flavors, additives, preservatives and other unrecognizable ingredients.

The typical American diet is full of ultra processed foods. Dieticians estimate half of our calories come from processed foods.

These processed foods have a detrimental impact on the body.

The Impact of Processed Foods on the Body donuts — The Impact of Processed Foods on the Body – donuts

List of Processed Foods

All foods purchased at the grocery store have some level of processing. This simple guide breaks processing into categories:

Unprocessed foods – fruits and veggies

Minimally processed – bagged lettuce and veggies, cut veggies, packaged nuts

Processed for freshness – canned fruits and veggies, frozen fruits and veggies

Heavily processed – ingredients added for flavor and texture – sweeteners, sugar, spices, oils, fats, salt, colors, chemicals and preservatives – jarred pasta sauces, salad dressings, yogurt, cake, cookies, crackers, granola bars, deli meat, boxed meals, chips, cookies, donuts, cheese, cured meats

Ultra processed foods – pre-made meals such as microwaveable dinners, frozen pizza and frozen dinners and those with added ingredients such as anti-caking products, fillers and emulsifiers

The longer the list of ingredients on the box or package, the more processed the food is. Look for unrecognizable ingredients as well.

The Impact of Processed Foods on the Body

Studies show that eating highly processed foods impact the body in negative ways. Of great concern is more rapid aging and a shortened life span due to processed foods affecting cells in the body.

Other ways that highly and ultra processed foods affect the body:

create inflammation
cause hormonal irregularities
increase digestive disorders
cause allergic reactions, hives, rashes
alter brain function
increase the risk of cancer
contribute to poor circulation
increase the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome and diabetes
contribute to depression
cause weight gain
create cravings for more processed foods

The Impact of Processed Foods on the Body cook at home — The Impact of Processed Foods on the Body – prepare foods at home

Ways to Make Healthier Choices

Everyone eats processed foods. I occasionally eat processed foods. It’s a diet high in processed foods that leads to health problems.

Make these easy choices and swaps.

check labels…the more ingredients and unrecognizable ingredients on the list, the higher the processing. Look for organic alternatives. And look for natural ingredients.
buy fresh fruits and veggies
shop at farmer’s markets and co-ops
eat fruit for dessert rather than packaged sweets
shop at health conscious grocery stores such as Sprouts and Natural Grocers
save processed foods for occasional treats, rather than the usual snack or meal
grow your own veggies and fruits
swap out sugary cereals for oats with fresh fruits or chia pudding (more healthy breakfast ideas HERE)
don’t keep heavily and ultra processed foods in the house
be aware of eating for comfort rather than for hunger
prepare meals at home most of the time. You know what the ingredients are when you cook at home.
meal prep and batch cook to make cooking at home easier

The Impact of Processed Foods on the Body veggie soup — The Impact of Processed Foods on the Body – homemade veggie soup

Convenience VS Health

The primary reason we turn to processed foods is for convenience. And I get that. After a long and busy day, the last thing I want to do is prepare a meal from scratch. I know the consequence though of eating too much processed food. My body warns me with rashes, indigestion, aches and pains.

So, I pull up music to cook by, on my Echo Dot, create a fun experience, make a game out of it or shift my mood with positive self talk.

For the difference in the way I feel, it is worth cutting back on and eliminating processed foods.

How about you? Are you aware of how much processed food you eat? And more importantly, are you aware of the impact on your body and health?

The Impact of Processed Foods on the Body berries — A simple dessert…mixed fresh berries

I am not a medical practitioner. I study health and wellness related topics and share experiences from my own personal healing journey.