Soup for lunch question/ comments.

I have been making a huge pot of veggie soup twice a week and eating two huge bowls for lunch daily. I use a large can low sodium fat free chix broth, equal amount of water, four large onions, 6 large carrots, two cans stewed tomatoes, 8 stalks celery,  zuccini, yellow squash, califlower, broccoli, one large head of chopped up romaine lettuce, 2 cans of peas, 2 cans green beans, 3 low sodium chix boulion cubes, onion powder, pepper, parsley flakes.

 Does this sound low calorie for a lunch to all of you or am I deceiving myself in the belief that it is--I don't know what the calorie count is per serving but believe that it must be low in everything as near as I can tell and should be very healthy for you if nothing else. It really fills me up and holds me right up till dinner time which is about six hours later. Seems like a great way to get tons of fresh veggies (albeit cooked) every day.

I'm male, 52 yr old 6'0", weigh 237 lbs and started dieting (changing life style) 12-11-07 at 272 lbs--lost 35 pounds since then and target is around 200 lbs give or take

It really sounds healthy. nothing sounds high in fat or too high in sugar which is normally where the calories really come into play. it sounds full of fiber which equals filling. full of vitamins. I would say it is really good for you.  As long as you don't get tired of it I think it is great for you. just don't get into a rut with it.

and great job on trying to get healthier. It is a lot of hard work but it really is worth it.  

It looks petty healthy to me, the only potential problem I would say would be with  the canned items. Those things are usually really high in sodium.  I suggest you try to make the soup with ONLY fresh vegetables.  Otherwise it looks very good.  

 Coincidentally I do very much the same thing every day but instead of soup I make a stir fry with almost (minus the broth and canned vegs) all those same ingredients but include mushrooms, zucchini and shrimp with garlic and herbs  (sometimes salsa) for flavour. 

 I eat a big serving of it for lunch and find it hard to eat more than 200-300 calories because it is so filling.

I agree about the canned items.  Could you use frozen peas and green beans?  Also, Herb Ox makes a sodium free bouillion powder. 

I often make soup but mine is all fresh vegetables and I add some sort of beans for protein.  This one's a favorite

Action Packed Vegetable Soup

Excellent suggestion to use frozen green beans and frozen peas--I will do it on my next pot for sure. Kinda hard and expensive to get the fresh peas and beans right now not to mention the hassle of those two veggies when pressed for time--but frozen works for me perfectly--thanks

Also forgot to mention in my original post--fresh sliced mushrooms--I love those in there :-)

So do you eat this for a meal, or just when hungry? 

hah, it sounds like my mom's vegetable soup (but she uses veggie broth). She literally throws everything in the pot and we eat off of it for days.... soooo goood.

hey i loved ur idea so i went and looked  up all the ingredients to see just how low calories it would be. Totals out to 1600 for the pot. of course thats an average. I punched in medium sized carots, celery ect. The one think i found. Those canned peas were 511 of the 1600. A new lesson for me.

Isn't there a recipe builder?  Try that.  It sounds delicious.  I think I might make a pot. 

Sounds excellent to me, just would use spinach instead of romaine but that is just a personal preference.  Just a note that it is important to have some fat with this soup, the body cannot fully absorb the vitamins from the veggies without some fat.  Drink a glass of 1 or 2% milk with it or add a side item such as a salad with some almonds and some crumbled blue cheese and vinegrette.  Also could use some complex carbs too, maybe half a multi-grain english muffin with some hummus.  Yogurt with fresh fruit for dessert or snack to cover calcium.