I don’t know about you, but I tend to consider watermelon a complete food group in the summer. It’s my absolute favorite and for good reason too. There is nothing like snacking on cold, refreshing watermelon on a hot summer day, period.

I remember the summers I was pregnant with both of my boys and how much watermelon I ate, it could possibly have been record breaking.

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This post was last published in November, 2015. It is still one of my favorite soups that can be made with lean ground beef and all the veggies in your fridge (specifically zucchini, green beans and carrots). Although we are still experiencing 90+ degree weather in Florida, I crave this light, yet hearty, soup all the time. It’s perfect for light lunches and dinners – it’s nice to make ahead so that you have something to quickly reheat when you are short on time.

Click here to PIN this Italian Vegetable Beef Soup recipe!

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Are you all turkey’ed out or what? I know I am. I had a few good leftover turkey recipes swirling in my head over the weekend (my daughter wanted me to make a turkey pasta salad, mmm), but honestly, I just didn’t get around to any creative leftover creations. We had a lot of turkey paninis and just straight up Thanksgiving plate reruns. It’s all good.

Moving on from turkey…I’m bringing up this Italian Vegetable Beef recipe from the archives. I originally posted this recipe back in December of 2009. Crazy how long ago that was! I remember I made this soup to take to my daughter’s preschool teacher who had just had surgery. When she got back to school, she told me her and her daughters loved the soup so much and wanted more. Yea, a compliment like that pretty much always makes my day. 🙂 Since then, I have made this soup quite a few times. It’s a great change from my typical chicken based soups, the lean beef (or bison) makes it a little extra hearty but still easy on the calories.

I’m sure most of you will agree that a bowl of good homemade soup is total comfort.  Soup has a way of warming up the body while nourishing it with so many health benefits at the same time.  I’m more of a broth base soup person, so I’m not really referring to the heavier creamy soups…not that those are bad, but they just don’t make me feel the same as a soup filled with lots of herbs and vegetables in broth.

Whenever I find that I have lots of vegetables in the veggie drawer that need to be used up, I usually make soup.  This particular day I had a nice variety of veggies….zucchini, squash, carrots and green beans. 

Add some dried herbs, lean ground beef and chicken broth and you’ve got Italian Vegetable Beef Soup.

Healthy Italian Vegetable Soup

1. In large stock pot, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat and add zucchini, squash, carrots, garlic and onions. Cook for about 8 minutes until vegetables start to soften.
2. Add seasonings, tomatoes and chicken broth to pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.
3. Add green beans and cooked ground beef.
4. Simmer soup for about 20 minutes.
5. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve with Parmesan cheese and cooked pasta if you like.

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Italian Vegetable Beef Soup

• Author: Aggies Kitchen
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings
• Category: Soup
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: Italian

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Break out the vegetables for this light and savory Italian Vegetable Beef Soup recipe. It’s loaded with great vegetables like zucchini, squash and carrots. Healthy (and easy) comfort food!

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Ingredients

• 2 tb olive oil
• 2 zucchinis, quarter chopped
• 2 squash, quarter chopped
• 2–3 carrots, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1–2 cups green beans, cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• good pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 32oz can of Italian diced tomatoes, with juices
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 – 1.25  lb lean ground beef or bison, cooked and crumbled
• Parmesan cheese, optional

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Instructions

1. In large stock pot, heat 2 tb olive oil and add zucchini, squash, carrots, garlic and onions. Cook for about 8 minutes until starting to soften. Add seasonings, tomatoes and chicken broth to pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. Add green beans and cooked ground beef. Simmer soup for about 20 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve with Parmesan cheese and cooked pasta if you like.

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Notes

Note:  amounts of vegetables can be varied.  Use what you have on hand.

Healthy Soup Recipes

Soup is one of my go to meals when I’m trying to trim some pounds or just generally feel healthier. Some soups I tend to make often are  Slow Cooker Italian Sausage and Kale Soup with Sweet Potatoes, Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup, Italian Tomato and Lentil Soup and Healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup. I’m ready to try this Beef Taco Quinoa Soup and Fall Vegetable Quinoa Soup!

Follow Aggie’s Kitchen’s board Soup, Stew and Chili Recipes on Pinterest.

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Friends, what you are looking at has been my lunch/dinner for 3 days last week. I think it’s safe to say that I’m completely hooked on these Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms and the best part? They literally take like 15 minutes to make.

This recipe for Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms was created by Katie of Mom to Mom Nutrition and can be found in the Healthy Family Classics cookbook from my dear friends Produce For Kids. The cookbook is filled with healthy, simple recipes that you’ll enjoy making for and with your family. Not only is it a great cookbook to have in your collection, but you can feel good knowing that 100% of the proceeds from this cookbook go towards helping end child hunger in our nation through Feeding America‘s children’s programs. Produce for Kids is generously providing 3 copies of the cookbook for me to give away today to 3 lucky readers – see below the recipe for details.
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Before I talk about today’s recipe, I first want to thank every single one of you who took the time to fill out my recent Reader Survey. I read through every response and appreciate all of your comments and feedback. It was a treat to learn more about those of you who come here for my recipes!! Thank you thank you. If you have yet to fill one out and would like to, you can do that right here.

Today’s recipe is a special one. It is from my friend Andie’s new cookbook, Eating in the Middle: A Mostly Wholesome Cookbook and I’m so excited to share it with you. Her blog is a source of healthy recipes as well as wisdom and encouragement to live a balanced life after losing weight. Andie lost 130 lbs years ago and has shared her journey in her touching memoir It Was Me All Along (my review of it here). If you’ve ever struggled with weight, her very personal story about her struggles and relationship with food is one that many can and will relate to. (more…)

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(This post is part of the #ThinkRice campaign that I am participating in as a member of the Healthy Aperture network, sponsored by USA Rice.)

Happy Spring!! I don’t know about you, but Spring is most definitely my favorite season of the year. Depending on where you live, the weather has warmed up (we hit the 90s last week – too warm!) and when the weather is nice like it has been I just crave good, light, fresh food. No offense to winter comfort food, but I am so done with all that. Bring on the crunchy veggies, fresh fruit, all things grilled and my current favorite obsession – grain salads! This Caprese Rice Salad screams fresh, warm weather food and was enjoyed along side our favorite grilled chicken.

I know tomatoes are technically a summer food, but here in Florida they are pretty much available all the time. Especially the smaller varieties like cherry tomatoes, which happen to be one of my favorites. They are sweet and bite sized and are perfect for salads like this one.

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One thing I am really trying to do lately is to have a container of “something” for me to grab for a quick lunch. Last week I was really craving a grain salad so I grabbed some wheat berries out of the pantry and cooked them up, with no real idea of what I was going to do with them. I was craving a salad like this one, but I didn’t really have the right fruit and such. So instead I turned these wheat berries into an Italian Wheat Berry Salad by adding roasted red peppers, garbanzo beans, fresh basil, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. Super simple, fresh and delicious!

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This Toasted Almond Herbed Brown Rice recipe was created in partnership with Fisher Nuts.

I don’t know about you but I have herbs growing like crazy right now. I finally found the sweet spot around my home as far as where my herbs thrive and grow well. While they need plenty of sun, a little shade really helps keep them from burning up and drying out in the summer heat. A spot where the sun is filtered through the shade of a tree and close enough to a hose for easy watering (they need lots of watering, especially if they are in pots like mine) is the perfect location for healthy happy herbs. I’ve definitely learned to move my potted herbs around over the years until I find that sweet spot.

So when you have a ton of herbs, what do you do with them? Well, it’s pretty obvious what to do with some of them (I’m looking at you, basil). Something I tend to do often take some clippings from a few different herbs and add them to recipes for a fresh boost of flavor, like in this Toasted Almond Herbed Brown Rice.

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One of my daughter’s favorite soups to order out is creamy tomato soup. It’s one of my favorites too and after sharing with her the art of dunking grilled cheese (or paninis) into a bowl she asks for it all the time. I really don’t make tomato soup often enough, but a couple of weeks ago when Florida got hit with it’s 2-day winter freeze, this Tomato and White Bean Soup was exactly what we needed to warm us up. It definitely hit the spot.

Speaking of my daughter and her favorite things…my sweet girl turned 8 last Thursday and we have been celebrating her with some of her favorite things all weekend long. She’s growing up so fast and it’s just crazy to me that she was just ONE year old when I started this blog. She wasn’t even walking yet! 7 years later she is my little foodie in the making. She has the biggest heart, loves her brothers, and is just full of spunk…she’s a very funny girl and likes to crack us up – we sometimes refer to her as a mini Kristen Wiig.

Her birthday dinner request? This manicotti (minus the butternut squash) she helped me make a few months ago and key lime pie. That’s my girl.

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All you need is a few ingredients to put together a great side dish like this Corn, Tomato and Basil Saute during the week. This past week, I had mini turkey meatloaves on the menu (inspired by my friend Liz who always has great healthy dinner ideas) and wanted to use what I had on hand as far as our side vegetable was concerned. You can pretty much always count on finding some frozen veggies in my freezer so when I saw that I had corn, I knew exactly how I was going to prepare this Corn, Tomato and Basil Saute. We had just picked a small bowl of fresh ripe cherry tomatoes from our little garden days before, and I knew my basil was starting to come in. I had half of an onion leftover from the Mini Cheddar-BBQ Turkey Meatloaf Muffins I was making so with all those ingredients, this delicious little side dish was created. The kids gobbled it up and my son declared the meal “the best ever”. Add a little side salad for some extra green and you are set.

Dig in.

More Easy Summer Side Dishes To Try

Cucumber Avocado Salad

Cherry Tomato and Blue Cheese Salad

Roasted Red Peppers with Pesto and Goat Cheese

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It’s always fun to go to a get together where everyone brings a dish. It gives you the opportunity to try out food that your friends and family enjoy cooking (always gives me ideas and inspiration!), and it also sometimes gives me the chance to branch out from the norm and make something that my family wouldn’t necessarily eat at home. This pasta salad isn’t really a good example of that since (thankfully) we all love pasta, tomatoes and cheese, but you catch my drift, right?

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