Clean Eating Minestrone Soup with Quinoa

http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/meals/smc1228/minestrone-soup-with-quinoa-clean-eating/

I found this recipe in the last issue of Clean Eating Magazine. I don't follow it exactly, but here are my modifications and quick instructions. The recipe takes about 20-30 minutes to prepare and another 20-30 minutes of solo cook time.

Spray a stock pot with olive oil spray. Cook the following until tender (8 mins or so):

• 2 bay leaves
• 1 C chopped carrots
  
• 1 C chopped fennel
• 1 C chopped red onion
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves, minced (I put the carrots, fennel, onions and garlic in the food processor until they are chopped - mine get to a pretty fine consistency)
• Sometimes based on what is in my fridge, I might add a chopped red pepper or chop a few stalks of celery

When veggies are done cooking, add:

• 2 t chopped thyme (I just pull the little leaves right from the 'twig' and don't bother chopping)
• 1/4 t fennel seeds (not terribly important if you don't have them)
• 6 C water
• 2 cans Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes, no salt added variety (I get these at Meijer, Kroger, etc, in the organic food section)
• Beans - the recipe calls for white kidney (cannelloni) beans. I usually get a 15 oz can, drain and rinse. However, rinsing doesn't get rid of a ton of the sodium, so the last time I made this soup I bought dry beans and made my own. I couldn't find dry cannelloni beans, so I used great northern beans. They have a similar size, shape, consistency and flavor. Making the beans added a little more time to the recipe as I needed about 2 hrs to quick soak and cook. When using my own cooked beans, I added about a cup and a half cooked to the mixture.
  
• 1/3 C quinoa (pronounced KEEN–wah; quinoa is often called a superfood - it's grain like, high in protein, and easy to digest. Read here for a nice article on its awesomeness: http://www.menshealth.com/men/nutrition/food-for-fitness/quinoa/article/b19f96cf917d1110vgnvcm20000012281eac. You can find quinoa in any grocery store, but I buy mine at costo in a 3lb bag for 10 bucks. Cheap!!)

Let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes until the quinoa has a chance to cook. Remove bay leaves before eating. The recipe calls for some chopped fresh basil and chopped fresh spinach thrown into each bowl as you prepare to eat. I will cut the basil and spinach (a handful of each) into thin slices and throw it into the pot while it's cooking. Top each cup of soup with 1 T grated romano cheese and salt/pepper to taste.

This particular recipe gets me anywhere from 11 to 13 cups of soup. One cup of the soup (with 1T romano cheese) has approximately:
100 calories
3 g fat
13 g carb
7 g protein
5 g fiber
172 mg sodium

To up my protein and calorie intake (and make this enough for a meal), I add 3 oz cubed chicken breast (you could very well use a rotissere chicken for this purpose) or a cooked tilapia filet (individually frozen bulk bag from costco - 10 minutes in the oven).

A batch of this soup made on Sunday gives me lunch and dinner options for the entire week!