Monday Munchies and the problem with my jeans

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Despite the forecast that claimed we would be back to the high 80's today, we are still holding on to the mid 70's and with the wind blowing it definelty feels a bit chilly. How can it not when we've been dealing with high 80-90s plus 100000% humidity all summer? I LOVE IT!
Whenever the weather starts changing, I love making soups for dinner. Although one would think that was a healthy choice, the ones I have tended to choose combined with  the way I'd prepare and flavor them, made for yummy hearty soups loaded with calories and fat. Tack on to that,the amounts of buttery bread I often paired it with...no wonder I'm a hot mess.

This will not fly this fall. I am trying to make healthier versions of our favorites so that my soups don't bust out my calorie budget and consequently my pants! Which now reminds me of my most horrible jeans story: when I was in the  8-9th grade, I was getting too big for my one pair of jeans I owned. Yes, I was made to wear mostly slacks and khakis when not in my school uniform, so my ONE pair of jeans was my treasure.
As I got bigger, because my thighs are thick, I was putting those jeans through a bit of a strain. Pulling them on, was quite the workout haha. Anyway, one day I had decided I needed to figure out a way to make my pants bigger. My aunt is a seamstress, and I remembered watching her take out the side stitching on my moms jeans one time, to take them in because they had gotten too big for her. I remembered there was this "extra fold" inside, once that stitching had been removed which she stretched out before folding it back wider to make my mom's pants smaller. 

Based on that observation, I had the "brilliant" idea that if I could just get to that fold by undoing the side stitching I could make my pants slightlghty bigger. My thought process, undo stitch then Bam! The extra food would give my thighs more room. I was a clear genius!! So I proceeded to take off that side stitching and sure enough after removing that stitch,my pants had an extra, probably 1/4 inch in give. It looked odd because that part denim was slightly darker than the rest of my pants but on that Special Jean Friday at School, I was feeling pretty darn good about my clever ways. Fast forward to PE time . We were playing kickball, in the middle of the game, as I was playing catcher I crouched to catch a ball when I heard a rip and started feeling a breeze on my legs. The whole side of my pants is slowly starting to fall apart. Making my pants look a little like this except on the outside not the inside of my legs:

I was sooo embarassed! I started worrying the whole thing would fall apart and I'd end up in the middle of the playing field in my undies!! My two BFF's at the time were quick to come to my rescue, one ran to the PE teacher to let her know about my issue while the other gave me her jacket to tie around my waist! We then walked to the counseling office , each one guarding one side, to call home so I could get picked up. No way I was going back to class after that...bless my heart! Lesson learned : Not every brilliant idea works, no matter how genius you think it is. I have never "fixed" any of my clothing after that!

Ok , so back to the original topic of this post, SOUP! I decided to remake one of faves, split pea soup. I started off by making sure I only made enough for 3 servings instead of cooking for a small army. I cook for two, but when I don't adjust the recipe to those serving we tend to overeat. I also avoided cooking the veggies with butter or EVOO and switching out the canned broth for water to reduce both sodium and calories. Instead of bacon AND ham, I used turkey kielbasa. Here's the ingredients for :

Nicer Split Pea Soup

3/4 cups of dry split peas

8 grape tomatoes (only ones I had)

4 oz baby carrots (I mixed some yellow ones I had)

1/3 cup chopped onion

6 oz potatoes

4 oz turkey kielbasa 

4 cups of water

Salt, pepper, marjoram,bay leaf and celery to taste 

                                

Chop and dump it all into your crockpot. Put your lid on and cook on low for 6-8 hours. The longer it cooks the mushier it gets which we like because it saves us from having to blend some for a smoother texture,

                                 

The house smells so good while this cooks, it drives the doggies crazy! Here's a picture of the end product:

                               

 At around 238 cals per generous serving, I'd say this "fix" was a brilliant idea. Full of fiber and with a great taste, it makes for a satisfying and healthy dinner. Keep on cooking! Until next time!