kale & parmesan egg drop soup

I love soup.  It's like a hug in a bowl. Lots of soups are easy to make, and if you can imagine it, you can probably turn it into a soup. And since apparently winter is NEVER leaving, I decided it was a soup kind of day.

Always the helper...

I had some kale in the fridge that I needed to use, and I found this recipe - I made a few changes, including adding some garlic powder (I was afraid fresh garlic would burn, which why I used garlic powder), and pesto (it just felt...right).

The only carbs in this come from the kale, which is about as good as it gets...kale is sooo wonderful for you!


Kale & Parmesan Egg Drop Soup
(Serves 6-8)

1 bunch kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
4 large eggs
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon pesto (optional)

Wash and dry the kale, then trim the leaves from the stem. You can save the stems to use in another recipe - chop it up as you would celery. Chop the kale into bite sized pieces; set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the kale, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted (about 3 minutes).

Increase the heat to high and add the broth and the measured amounts of salt, pepper and garlic powder, bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until kale has softened, but isn't mushy, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place the eggs and cheese in a medium bowl, season with salt and pepper, and whisk until combined; set aside.

Increase the heat to medium and slowly pour the egg mixture into the saucepan, stirring to combine. Return to a simmer, stirring occasionally to break up any large pieces of egg. Add pesto, stir. Remove from heat, taste, and season with salt and pepper if desired. Serve immediately.

The facts: Calories: 136, fat: 9.6g, net carbs: 4g, protein: 10.1g

i'm alive!

So my surgery was a week ago today! As I mentioned before, I had surgery on my spine to hopefully decrease the amount of pain I'm having due to scoliosis and a generally pretty messed up back. I was able to find two amazing doctors who were confident that they could help me by doing a spinal fusion.

I was presented with two options: an XLIF procedure, and a normal spinal fusion.

There was a pretty significant chance that for a few reasons, my doctors would be unable to perform the XLIF. They wouldn't know if they could do it until they started surgery...luckily, they were able to!

A more minimally invasive procedure is obviously preferred, so I was really happy that they could do the surgery this way. I'm in a lot of pain, though, and can't even imagine what my recovery would be like if I had a regular surgery - so I'm counting my blessings!

I'm not able to lift anything heavier than five pounds, or bend, or twist. Which means I'm pretty useless. I'm also super bored. Hopefully as I feel better, I'll find more stuff to keep me busy that doesn't involve a lot of moving around...I'm going to go crazy!

Mike has been working from home to take care of me, and so since I was feeling a little better today, I made us breakfast this morning. Last week, my mom brought us approximately 300 pounds of food from an amazing Italian deli - we had some yummy leftover ham and a lot of arugula, so I made a frittata. It was tasty! Easy, too...I wasn't exactly up for anything super intense :)

Arugula & Ham Frittata (you could put pretty much anything in this, though)

6 eggs (I used 5 egg whites and 1 whole egg)

2 tablespoons milk

1 garlic clove

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cups arugula (or spinach, or anything else you have on hand)

1/2 cup chopped ham (I think prosciutto would be amazing in this, or smoked salmon!)

1/2 teaspoon herbes de provence

salt & pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a pie plate with non-stick spray.

2. Chop the garlic and saute in olive oil over medium heat for about a minute, then add arugula and saute until wilted. Set aside.

3. Combine the eggs, milk, ham, salt, pepper, herbes de provence, and the arugula. Pour into pie plate.

4. Bake for 25-30 minutes.