30 Days of Soup Challenge

I’m getting fat, and it’s getting cold.

I mean, the fat isn’t exactly news. I’ve been steadily gaining weight since before the pandemic. The sedentary yet mentally-exhausting job, combined with the odd sleep schedule, isn’t exactly doing my metabolism any favors either.

In the past, my diet regiment is usually aggressive calorie counting/making my own food for meal prep that involves high-volume, low-calorie foods and prepped with little oil and lots of umami. Most of the time it’s some sort of salad, and a broken Asian-style “dressing.” I can eat like that for a while. Not forever, but maybe a few months. And I would love to, except all I want in the winter is soup. Salad makes me shrivel and freeze from the inside and I just can’t do it.

So I was thinking… soup. Soup is mostly water, and highly flexible and variable. I always want soup in the winter.

SOUP IDEAS: a running tally of soups I’d want to make and eat for 30 days of dinner (lunch doesn’t count bc free lunch for work)

• Tomato obv

• French onion

• Chicken noodle

• Barley + veg in broth type deal

• Sinigang w/ taro/starches

• Kalbi tang w/ leftover short ribs + side dishes

• Kale and garbanzo

• THE STEW

• Avoglemono

• Pasta e fagioli

• Gumbo!!!

• Italian wedding lmao

• Pho? 

• Posole

• Shrimp/lobster bisque?? Too heavy

• Kimchi jjigae 

• Mushroom/cauli/broccoli etc puree w/ veg on top

• Curried squash soup

• Hot & sour soup

• Westlake beef soup

• Saukraut & cabbage + sausage type deal

• Potato & corn chowder

Since coming up with this idea a week ago, we’ve eaten zero batches of soup. But it just means we haven’t started! We can start this any time. Maybe in 4 years. But the idea is there!

We’ll see how this goes.