Fit and Frugal Soup!

I found this recipe for Hearty Vegetable Soup in the October 2007 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. It was part of an article called the "Amazing Soup Diet". The promise of losing weight by eating large amounts of soup did not interest me much at all. But I could see that the soup recipe was very healthy. And very low in WW points. What REALLY intrigued me was that the recipe comes with 7 variations. So you make the basic veggie soup recipe which makes 28 cups of soup. Then you can take 2 cups of that and add a few more ingredients to make it completely different.
Roger takes soup to work for lunch every day. I make what we call "refigerator soup" at the end of each week to clear out all the leftovers and prepare to go grocery shopping on Saturdays. And we also buy cans of soup when we can get a good deal on them.
But this vegetable soup only cost us about $15 to make the whole huge pot. So we froze it in 2 cup portions which he can take to work or we can change it up with one of the recipe variations to have for dinner sometime. We had some for our lunch when I made the soup yesterday and it was pretty good. We stirred in a little chili oil to spice it up a bit.
Here's the best part for me...2 full cups of this basic soup is only ONE WW POINT. Nice!
Even the lowest point canned soup at the store has 2 points for a whole can which isn't quite 2 cups.
I'll post the basic soup recipe here. If you want to check out the article and the variations (I am planning to try the Thai Shrimp variation ASAP) just click here.

Hearty Vegetable Soup
Makes 28 cups

1 lb carrots, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
1 1/2 lbs onions, chopped
4 large stalks celery, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 lb green cabbage, thinly sliced
3/4 lb green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 1/4 lb zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and then sliced into half moons
2 cans (28oz. each) whole tomatoes, in juice
6 cups chicken broth
6 cups water
salt and pepper
2 bags (8 or 9 oz. each) baby spinach leaves

Coat a 12 quart stockpot with non stick spray and place on medium high heat.
Add carrots, onions, celery and garlic.
Cook 8 minutes or until vegetables begin to soften, stirring occasionally.
When carrots are tender-crisp, add tomatoes with their liquid to pot. Break tomatoes up with spoon. Add cabbage, green beans, chicken broth, water, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Heat to boiling over high heat, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 10 minutes; stirring occasionally.
Increase heat to high; stir in zucchini and spinach and heat to boiling.
Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 10 minutes or until all vegetables are tender.
Cool soup slightly. Pack in 2 cup portions to freeze.
Each cup has 45 calories, 1 g. fat and 4 g. fiber