Light Bite: Chipotle Bean soup

In this chill, who couldn’t use a few more soup recipes for their arsenal? My chipotle bean soup is a lower-fat, meatless version of my father’s recipe, which he cooks with ham hocks, butter and, I think, some beer. If this were an existence without consequence, I’d eat his soup over mine. But, it’s not and we’ve gotta watch those waistlines and my soup will do you just fine.

Light Bite: Asian Broccoli Salad

The best part about this recipe, other than it being fairly low in cals, is that you’re using the broccoli stalks, formerly known as trash. Get your money’s worth and slice them into baton-like strips, a.k.a. julienne them,  then toss them with this tangy marinade and you’ve got a simple, great snack or a side dish for any night’s dinner. For this amount of marinade I used about 4 broccoli stalks.

Marinade:

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 tbsp. sesame oil

1 cup water

1/2 tsp. ginger, ground

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes, crushed

1 tbsp. granulated garlic

1/2 orange, juiced (leave the squeezed-out orange sitting in the marinade)

1 cinnamon stick

*Let the stalks marinate overnight, then remove them from the liquid so they don’t become soggy

ENJOY!