Last week we announced changes to Live Lighter and its posting schedule. While Wednesday’s are now health-related reviews and recipes or videos are supposed to be on Friday, I need a little more time to write Part II of my review on the Grail Springs Holistic Health Resort. Please expect this post on Friday.

But I don’t want to leave you all with nothing, so here’s Friday’s planned post, a fabulous soup recipe I created a couple of weeks ago. Normally I find cabbage soup pretty blah, but this one I’m truly impressed with. I made it the night of my return from Grail Springs and I swear it made my culinary talents explode!

It’s delicious and nutritious, and will help you lose weight and cleanse your system. I made mine extra spicy (this is not reflected in the following ingredients), so much so that Honey won’t eat it. But hey, I love it and so do the spice-loving guys at work! Tell me what you think if you should be so bold and try this unique cabbage soup recipe out.

Steph’s Spicy, Savoury Cabbage Soup

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Ready in: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Serves: 15

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Smoothies are one of the best ways to get a huge amount of nutrients into you in one sitting, especially where it counts the most: at breakfast. Another good reason to love smoothies is the variety you can inject into the recipes. But our bodies are intelligent machines. Although we need routine to maintain a healthy lifestyle, we get bored.

So here’s a healthy breakfast idea that’s very close to the caliber of smoothies in terms of nutrition, yummy factor and ease of preparation. But it is very different in both texture and taste. Let us know what you think!

And if anyone else has a super healthy breakfast recipe to share - the comment section is the place to do it!

Kick-Ass Cottage Cheese Fruit Bowl

Ingredients

Cottage cheese, 2%, 1 cup
Honey, 1 tbsp
Apricot, 1 medium-sized
Cherries, pitted, 1 handful
Mango, sliced, ½ cup
Granola, ¼ cup

Preparation

1. In a blender, blend the cottage cheese and honey.
2. Pour in bowl.
3. Sprinkle granola on cottage cheese mixture.
4. Pit fruit and slice into bite sizes.
5. Use fruit as top layer of fruit bowl.

Nutritional Info

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A few people were wondering if I rinsed my canned beans when I made the Hearty Four Bean Stew. Since I truly believe living healthy should be a pleasure, and considering my past experience in cooking without rinsing beans, I decided to rinse them.

It turned out alright. Instead of cooking it over the stove, I put it all in the crock-pot to cook over night. My opinion: it needs more flavour - so I add Frank’s Red Hot Sauce with lime and it ain’t half bad. I hope you try out the recipe, either not rinsing the beans or adding your own flair, and let me know how it turns out.

I don’t want to simply trash this recipe (but I still want to rinse my beans) because beans are super nutritious as they are high in protein, fiber and anti-oxidant properties. And let’s not forget that because beans have a low glycemic index, they sate your hunger long after most foods.

For all you nutritional numbers health nuts, here they are for the Hearty Four Bean Strew recipe:

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I just tried out this Eggplant Chili Recipe and got RAVE reviews from my boyfriend, friends and co-workers.

The only adjustments I made were to the spices: I increased the chili powder to 3 tbsp (I like spicy so I’d like to use 5 tbsp next time) and both the cumin and oregano to 2 tbsp each.

And thanks again to my friend Denise, the nutritional numbers health nut, for the following nutritional value information:

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