Cold start, warm ending

During the fall months, many people still enjoy salads, but need a little warmth in their meal to sooth over the chill from the weather. Instead of forgoing salad until the weather breaks, try starting your meal with a small salad and ending with a warm soup. You will get the benefit of the nutrients raw veggies provide, while ending with the soothing warm soup we all crave this time of year. When a soup and salad makes your meal, it’s advantageous to have one complex and one simple. So, if your salad is one with mixed greens and dressing, pairing it with, let’s say, the Vegetable Chicken Salsa Soup makes good sense because it has tons of different ingredients as well as tastes. Another great pairing may be a cobb salad, which has boiled egg, bacon, greens, ham and other veggies, served with the Tomato Florentine soup. This soup is plain in ingredients with a tomato base and spinach. The Apple Nut salad is a great forerunner to the very simple yet delicious, Egg Drop soup. The key to any good egg drop soup is simplicity, so it fits this theme perfectly.

In choosing the soup recipes for this article, I chose those with as few calories as possible, and low in fat. Soup is one dish into which we can pack in calories, so if you are watching, be sure to review the nutritional values prior to planning your meal. Both the Egg Drop and Tomato Florentine have five or less grams of fat per serving and 70 or less calories per one-cup serving.

Salads, too, can masquerade as slim meals. Check the ingredients of the salad and contents of the dressing. To some relief, many of the salad ingredients also contain much fiber, which counteracts the calories to a point. Avocado is great example. This is a high fat vegetable, but contains a load of fiber, so use it, but don’t over do it.

Enjoy crisp, cool salads this Fall, especially when you chase them down with some delicious, warm soothing soup.

Tomato Florentine Soup

1 teaspoon olive oil 1/2 cup chopped onion 1 clove garlic crushed 1 can diced tomato (14.5 ounces) 1-1/2 cup water 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper 1 bouillon cube 1 package chopped, frozen spinach, thawed (10 ounces)

In a large sauce pan cook onion and garlic in oil over med heat until tender. Stir in tomato, basil, water, bouillon cube and pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer 10 minutes. Stir in spinach and cook seven minutes more.

Avocado Salad

1 head romaine lettuce chopped for salad 2 ripe Avocado pitted and diced 1 sweet onion minced 1 green bell pepper chopped 1 large tomato chopped 1/4 cup cilantro chopped 1 lime zested and juiced 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder Salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, set romaine, and add other ingredients on top. Use salad tong to toss well to combine and coat all ingredients. Makes 3 servings

Egg Drop Soup

4 cups chicken broth (If from scratch, strain) 1/4 teaspoon ginger, ground 2 tablespoon chopped chives 1/4 teaspoon salt 1-1/2 tablespoon cornstarch 2 eggs 1 egg yolk

Reserve 3/4 cups broth and pour the rest into large saucepan. Stir in salt, ginger and chives. Roll into a boil. In a small bowl, mix reserves broth with cornstarch.

In a small bowl whisk eggs and yolk, with a fork. Drizzle into boiling mixture a bit at a time. Once all egg has been dropped, pour in the cornstarch mixture and stir until the soup thickens a bit.