Healthy Zuppa Toscana Recipe

If you are like me, Italian restaurants are one of your weaknesses...even the restaurant chains...No, I am not ashamed of it...I LOVE ITALIAN FOOD!
Now comes the problem of calories...Italian food is notorious for giving you your calories for your money, and as a college student I skipped the whole "Freshman 15" phase, but I am not looking into a Sophomore 15 either, so as painful as it is, I am attempting to avoid the fat-filled deliciousness that is Italian food. Today, I was craving my favorite soup from Olive Garden, Zuppa Toscana. In a deperate attempt to motivate myself not to eat it, I looked up the calories in their soup...Sparkpeople.com said 170 calories and 4 grams of fat! SAWEEET! I can eat my soup after all..then I saw all of the other entries...819 calories...370 calories...nobody knows! I gave up and looked up a recipe with similar ingredients I found one with 269 calories and 16 grams of fat...and I put my own twist on it!
Here it is!
The original:
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

Recipe Ingredients for Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

1	tablespoon olive oil
1	pound Italian sausage
1	cup chopped onion
2	cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2	teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 1/2	cups water
28 2/5	ounces chicken broth
2	russet potatoes, chopped
1	teaspoon salt
1/2	teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2	cups kale or spinach, washed, stemmed and chopped
1/2	cup whipping cream

Recipe Directions for Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

1. Place oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add sausage and cook until uniformly gray, about 7 minutes, breaking up any large chunks with the back of a spoon.
2. Remove sausage from pot and reserve. Add onions, garlic and red pepper flakes to the pot and cook for 6 minutes. Add water, broth, potatoes, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the kale and the reserved sausage and continue to simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20-30 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in cream. Serve immediately.

Read more: Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Recipe | Healthy Recipe Ideas http://caloriecount.about.com/olive-garden-zuppa-toscana-recipe-r9422#ixzz2U4YnNrkK

My Healthier Twist:

Recipe Ingredients for Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

1	tablespoon olive oil
1	pound turkey bacon ( can use sausage)
1	cup chopped onion
2	cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2	teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 1/2	cups water
28 2/5	ounces low fat chicken broth
2	russet potatoes, chopped
1	teaspoon salt
1/2	teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2	cups kale or spinach, washed, stemmed and chopped
	1/2 cup of 2% milk 2 teaspoons of corn starch Revision of Directions Remove from heat and stir in milk and corn starch until thickened. Serve immediately.

I know it is not a big change...but heck it'll save ya fat! 

Do Not Condemn Yourself.

 I was baptized two Sunday's ago and it was the most wonderful experience. As I stepped out of the water I felt clean, and safe. I have grown up in church, but never have I ever felt the way I did two weeks ago. I felt reassurance. That is such an important word, of course growing up in the church, I was always taught God is there, and singing in the choir was how I felt the Holy Spirit, but I never felt reassured. I needed reassurance that my future was secure and I was loved in God's eyes.
I had been going to the same church since I was born until the day I left for college. Then, while I was gone, my parents decided to make some changes...they gave my bed to my brother, painted my room, and turned it into the study. They also switched to a new church. When I came back to visit on my spring break, I realized that my parents were also moving in a forward direction, no matter what I had wanted. My dad asked me to go to his new church with my family, feeling guilty that I had not gone to church once while I was away in college, I cautiously agreed. That day changed me. The pastor was not anything like I had expected, he was a skinny, bald man who had come to God at age 28 after living some less than Godly life. He had real life experiences and had come from far below where I was. He said something that Sunday that changed the way I thought about my relationship with God, " Do not condemn yourself for past sins you have committed because God has already forgiven you". I was in awe. I never thought about that, I had been condemning myself for such silly things like hiding my beliefs or getting mad with God, when he had already forgiven me. It occurred to me that God still loved me even when I made myself look so pathetic in front of him. A month later, I got baptized knowing that God loved me and I was still going to Heaven. Reassurance. It is important to understand that when the Bible and those cheesy, but true church songs say unconditional love, mercy, and grace...IT IS TRUE! Try not to condemn yourself for the sins you have committed in your life. That is not to say that you are free and clear to repeat it, you should still be sorry, but holding onto it and convincing yourself you are not loved is hurtful to yourself! Only God can condemn, and he made you a promise with his son's life: you are forgiven! So tell me, why should you not forgive yourself, if the man you so hurt with your sin can forgive you?

No Turning Back.

So whenever I imagine a blogger I imagine Jenna Hamilton from MTV's Awkward. typing away all of her problems and life in one sweet thought. Ha! Heck if I could get out my thoughts that simply and easily, I would be set with a writing career. My thoughts will come out eventually, but I have to slowly unravel them as I speak. I am a psychology major and of course analyzing EVERYTHING comes with that territory, even my own thoughts. Maybe that is why I am a psych major, I love to thoroughly think things through. My favorite thing thinking of ulterior situations to classical stories. What if Elizabeth Bennett in Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice actually said yes to the incredibly icky Mister Collins? Well although Jane Bennett and Mister Bingley would be happy, poor Charlotte Lucas would be an old maid. Lizzy would be so bored and miserable with her life, and who knows what would have happened to Lydia! Mister Wickham would not have any means for revenge through the Bennett family and probably would have preyed on some other innocent flirt. The romance would not longer be a romance, but rather the tragedy of how a desperate woman could not wait to get away from her parents, and married her repulsive and ill-mannered cousin. Imagine their children! Ewwww. 

It is a wonder how things would change if one thing went different in a story, or even a life. I wonder if I had not gotten that F in my second semester of Honors Geometry in high school, if I would be at some wonderful college in some far off state on a full ride scholarship missing my family and wondering how long it will take me to drive home.Who knows, maybe I would have a boyfriend and a billion friends like I did in high school. Of course, if that had come to pass, I would not have made the few wonderful friends I have and I would not have had as much motivation as I had this first year of college. The way my life has gone is creating me and who I will become. It is important because I want to become a child psychologist and work in a children's hospital.

 It is hard to imagine me being this motivated if I had gotten free college. I am working my way through college, and it was hard last year, but in the end many children and families will benefit from all the money I am paying. As a freshman, I worked an average of 40 hours a week at a job that was half an hour away from my campus. I realized that balancing that much work with the actual work of academia was too much to handle and I am adapting to that for my sophomore year. As I have learned from my first year of college, if I can handle college on my own, I can handle anything coming my way. 

Of course I know I am never on my own completely...and I am not talking about friends who stick together. I have God, and with him and my crazy imagination I have a pretty good kick start on my own life I would say!