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If you have read my food blog before, you know that I sometimes try to figure out how I can buy some prepared food and make it healthier. Today I went to Costco and bought a product called Vegetable & Barley Soup. It said it was organic, vegetarian, and dairy free. Additionally, it had only 1g of fat per serving. Reading more closely it also said that it had 490mg of sodium in a 1 C serving that was only 70 calories. What that says to me is that you will need to eat at least 2 C for even a small lunch and that would be too much salt. So I set out to make a couple healthy meals from this soup.
First, I took a 2 C bowl with a snap lid for my lunch and packed it with raw spinach. That is only 14 calories but it is a very good source of Vitamins A, C, B9, and K. Spinach has only 24mg of sodium in 2 C and no significant sugar. Then I put 1 C of the Vegetable & Barley Soup on top and sealed it up. At work, I placed the soup and spinach in the microwave for a minute and a half with the lid off. Then, I put the lid back on and walked to Pioneer Park where I took off the lid, on my much improved soup, and ate it by the marigolds. Even though the spinach only added 14 calories, my soup was much more satisfying and the additional fiber and nutrients stayed with me until dinner at 5PM.
The second thing I did with my soup, was make a dinner for 4 people. I started out with 1 C of coarsely chopped onion and 1 C of chopped celery which I sautéed in 1T of olive oil for 5 minutes then I added the remainder of the soup container (there was 2 and ½ C left) and a 14oz can of diced tomatoes. My canned tomatoes say that they have about half as much sodium per cup as the soup. I brought that to a simmer and added 1 small zucchini cut into ½ inch pieces and half of an orange bell pepper diced. Then I turned the pot off and covered it for 10 minutes. The resulting vegetable stew is now about 8 C and will make 4 very generous servings that are only about 150 calories per 2 C serving and the sodium is about 500mg in that 2 C or about half of the original product.
Prepared foods can be great time savers but it takes careful reading of the nutrition information and a willingness to modify what you started with to make a healthy meal. Usually that amounts to just doubling the vegetables and don’t add any more salt. I hope you will enjoy experimenting with prepared foods and will let us know what your favorite “food hack” is.
Ken Corliss, OD
Board Certified, ABO (253) 845-0585
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