Balanced Life = Balanced Eating: Soup Sundays

I posted on social media this week about Soup Sundays at the Warren house. It is a near sacred practice here, and very much a part of living a balanced life.

I am a no restrictions eater. There is nothing on my “never” list, except jello. Man, I just can’t wrap my brain around jello. I feel like it’s not a food. 🙂

Seriously though, as I’ve written about before, a big piece of building my balanced life was starting to look at my eating and diet as a bank account. If I enjoy a meal that doesn’t nourish me as much or make me feel great, I try to balance that out with one that does. It’s a version of the 80/20 rule you could say.

If I have cake for breakfast one day, I’ll try to have veggies and protein for lunch. If I have a bowl of cereal, I’ll try to eat more protein and fewer carbohydrates in my next meal. If I have a glass of wine while I cook dinner, I try to have a few pieces of chocolate for dessert instead of a big bowl of ice cream.

But if dinner isn’t overly filling and didn’t include wine, you bet there will be a bowl of Kemp’s frozen yogurt on the couch with me later that night. (My new favorite topping is raw honey and a few sprinkles, try it and thank me later. :)) I back off the salt if I’m starting to feel dehydrated (or enjoyed one of my all-time favorite foods for dinner, fried chicken – while we’re on that topic, please try this fried chicken recipe). I’ll eat more food on a week where I’m feeling depleted mentally or physically, etc., etc.



I can not stress enough how much this approach skyrocketed my journey toward more balance in my physical wellness.

Sure I lost weight, a lot of it in fact, but my blood tests say a lot else changed too. My annual wellness checks usually come back pretty great, and I credit that 110% to this way of eating and thinking about food.

The midwestern me wants to downplay this fact or hide it to not make others feel bad or discouraged. But damn it, I work super hard to maintain this balance, and one of my new goals is to not shy away from this fact or dim my light. Instead, I HOPE this light inspires others to balance in whatever way works best for them.

Friendly reminder, I’m not here to tell you to do this or that, I’m here to teach you how to find what works best for you, to  listen to the whispers, the internal cues in your body to find out. How do you do that? Mindfulness. Boom, full circle.

Back to Soup Sundays already Katherine…

Soup Sundays are a big part of my balanced eating. Weekends are typically larger portions and richer foods; meals outside of the house that are as much about warming the heart and enjoying time with my people as they are about the food.

Eating out is truly my husband and I’s most preferred form of entertainment. And let’s be honest, sometimes you just want to go out and have the biggest, boldest most wonderful plate of whatever you’re craving. I love those meals too. (A sheet pan full of nachos from Tank’s instantly came to mind for me.)

But Soup Sundays are a sacred part of my achieving a balanced life. Why?

• I LOVE soup, I could eat it almost every day. For me, it’s as much about my craving as it is about balance. Trust me when I say the more you eat soup, the more you crave it. Try it for a few weeks and see if you agree.
  
  
• No matter how you make it, soup tends to be on the lighter side and has some veggies, that helps create balance after a big weekend of eating. (Not to mention, I’ll eat a creamy soup, but it’s not my preference, so that makes most of our soup Sunday selections even healthier and lighter.)
  
  
• Soup, even when paired with something else, is an excellent way to front-load veggies into your meal. For us, we typically pair soup with an Ezekiel English muffin with a little olive oil and cheese on top – our version of cheese bread – plus pickles and crackers on the side. I don’t know why pickles are the perfect side for soup, but they just are. Again, try it (with the caveat that I’m a runner, crave salt, and don’t drink sports drinks, so part of me thinks that might be why I enjoy them so much).
  
  
• Soup doesn’t take long to make. Cooking is a stress reliever for me, an act of mindfulness. On Sundays I don’t need that relief as much as I do on other days of the week, so I find myself not really wanting to cook big on Sundays. The opposite of most everyone else in the world I recognize, but here we are.

Want to try your own version of Soup Sunday? I make standard veggie soup about 70% of our Sundays without a recipe. Here’s what it has:

• Whatever veggies are about to go bad in the fridge. I’m not kidding, throw whatever you have in the fridge in a pot and as long as you cook them well, it will be delicious.
  
  
• I sautee the veggies almost to fully cooked before I add broth and brown them aggressively. Because as Anne Burell puts it, “brown food tastes good.”
  
  
• Protein. For us that’s usually beans of some kind, for you that might be leftover chicken or ground meat. Sausage or tofu are also lovely choices.
  
  
• GOOD BROTH. This is key, especially if you don’t use a lot of other ingredients. This is my go-to store-bought brand, yes it costs more but it is worth it. And I always get low sodium so I can control the salt and use delicious kosher salt instead. We have recently started the adventure of making our own broth, it’s a little more work, and I’m not sure it tastes any better. But I’ll tell you I got 12 cups of broth from leftover veggie scraps and water, so if you’re looking for a money saver, that’s a big one.
  
  
• Seasonings, I usually use garlic powder and paprika, sometimes I add cumin and chili powder for a little Mexican flare or an Italian seasoning for more, well, Italian flavor, or sage or marjoram with a little soy sauce for more savory notes. Just make sure you add something with a good amount of savory, something with some acid in it, and maybe a touch of spice and it will turn out great. Then add a ton of kosher salt and it will be even better (kosher salt is BEST salt, hands down, I will not be taking any comments on that at this time).
  
  
• Taste it and adjust, do you taste savory, acid, spice, and do you taste all the flavors of the soup? If not add more spice, something acidic (sometimes I throw a little bottled citrus or vinegar in for fun) or try a bit of Frank’s Red Hot sauce for a bonus bit of acid AND spice all in one!
  
  
• Add the broth, bring to a boil, then simmer.

Then sit down and make your belly warm and happy, so much so it might even warm up your heart. And then before you know it, you might be rejecting all other Sunday dinner options like me and going all in on soup.

Here are a few of my other favorite go-to recipes for inspiration:

Crockpot lentil soup
Fresh tomato soup
Minestrone
Immunity boosting soup
Hot and Sour soup (I add way more veggies to this one, try it with daikon radish, celery, peppers and carrots!)

Wishing you a soul-satisfying Sunday this week and every week, and thanks for keeping up with me on this journey towards a balanced life. 💗

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