Low Carb Zuppa Toscana Soup

In my last post I mentioned that I had eaten leftover a low carb version of Zuppa Toscana soup. I wouldn't not give you the recipe after mentioning a new favorite of mine. 

So here it goes, but it does come with a story I have to share with you...

My husband and I enjoy having people over, which we don't do nearly as often as we'd like. Babies. They ruin things sometimes. But that's a bad excuse. 

Anyway, since we are moving I wanted to have my parents over for dinner at our current house one last time. 

My parents are usually the ones to host all of the family dinners. They have the equipment and serveware to do it all. Plus, all of us kids get a free meal out of the deal.

So having them over isn't really a big deal, but it is kind of ... if you get what I'm trying to say. Since they are always serving us food, I like to return the favor every now and again. 

With that said, I was excited to try out this low carb Zuppa Toscana soup for them. I planned out a very Olive Garden-y meal, not that I really love Olive Garden all that much to begin with, but I figured if I had their soup I may as well do it up. 

I made their dressing from scratch, had their croutons and pepprochini peppers, and I even had buttery garlic breadsticks, which never happens. And, of course, I made the soup to go along with everything. 

After the meal was cooked, ready to go, I realized that my parents are Scandinavian. 

Not that they wouldn't eat Italian food. But this soup has a bit of a punch of spice. And my Norwegian and Swedish parents haven't even quite gotten down the use of salt and pepper yet [love you Mom!]. 

I was just hoping that they'd roll with it and end up enjoying it. 

We all sat down for dinner and dove into the meal. I started with the salad and hadn't quite had a big scoop of the soup at this point. 

My mom seems to be handling it ok. She says she likes it. Cool.  

Then I look over at my dear ol' dad.

He starts sniffling. 

Drinks a sip of water. 

Takes a bite of salad, a bite of a breadstick, all in an effort to tame this spicy soup. 

He's struggling. Definitely not enjoying this soup like I had hoped. 

He didn't admit to being overwhelmed by the spice initially, but on his way out he did say that he was sorry he couldn't finish the soup - that there was something that packed a punch in there! 

 Fail. 

At least his sinuses are all cleared out now. 

[And he would absolutely hate that I just told you this. So it's our little secret!]  

I felt pretty bad, to be honest. I should have offered him a peanut butter sandwich or something. 

With that, here's my warning: If you're not used to spicy foods, please beware! 

Or you can always swap out the spicy Italian sausage for mild sausage. I'll probably do that the next time I serve this for company. 


Now for the recipe: 

{Adapted from Low Carb Yum} 

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pound bulk hot sausage (or mild)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 74 fluid ounces chicken broth
• 1 head of cauliflower, chopped in bite-size pieces
• 10 ounce package chopped frozen spinach, thawed and the water squeezed out a bit
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 6 slices cooked bacon, chopped
• 1-2 teaspoons salt (adjust to taste)
• ground black pepper

Directions

1. Brown sausage with onion and garlic in butter or oil in large pot (6-8 quart).
2. Add broth and bring to a boil.
3. Stir in chopped cauliflower and spinach. Simmer until cauliflower is tender.
4. Mix in cream and bacon. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

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Enjoy! 

Low Carb - what I ate today

My goodness, life has been busy. Out of the blue my husband and I decided to move! We have only been in our current house for 4 years, but the right house at the right time just showed up and we jumped. Let the chaos of moving ensue. 

Well, Easter is over and hopefully you're working on ridding your house of all of that candy. It's a new day and let's face it, summer is on its way and we have shorts we have to wear. 

Despite the holiday and this packing nonesense, we are still going strong with Alt Shift. If you haven't read any previous posts where I mention Alt Shift, it is a way of eating designed specifically for fat loss while preserving muscle. We started this protocol back in September with just a few bumps along the way in the form of Christmas and birthdays.. 

But the great part about Alt Shift is that there's no 'failing' or starting over. If you have a bad day or a bad meal, you just keep on keeping on as if nothing ever happened. Because that's just how life goes. 

We just finished up our 3 days of eating low fat and have started our 5 day stretch of low carb. It doesn't matter how long I have been 'shifting', every morning on day one of our 5 shift I want to throw a party because I get to slather my eggs with butter and cheese, fry up some bacon, and fill my coffee cup with heavy cream. It's glorious! 

But eating low carb doesn't come naturally for most of us. It can be quite a change of eating as you first give it a go. We are eating under 30 grams of carbs on these days, which is just about the amount of carbs in a banana.

Our low carb days usually surround eggs, full fat dairy, meat, and green veggies. There just isn't room for much else. 

So what I wanted to show you is what I've eaten today to meet my desired calories while still staying below 30 grams of carbs. 

[I did not take photos of my dinner because I was getting hangry and there was no time to stop and snap a pic.] 

•Breakfast was a cheese and bacon omelet (shared with my toddler), coffee with cream and some Kerry Gold - that's the gold halo on top of my coffee you see. It's from the gods, for sure. 

•Munched on some pepperonis (I know, I'm gonna get cancer 😜) and cheese that Leslie didn't want. 

•Lunch is a cheeseburger patty with mayo, organic ketchup and cucumber slices

•Snacks of peanut butter and celery, and La Croix with a splash of heavy cream. 

+ Plus my dinner, which was 2 scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and a bowl of leftover low carb Zuppa Toscana soup for the win. -Random combo, but I tell you I was HUNGRY! 

Here is how my day broke down: 

My calories are just over 2000 and honestly I will probably have a snack of some kind before bed. A girl can eat!

This is very typical for me and very doable. I love my 5 shift, low carb, days so much 💜

If you have a fat loss goal, or if you're like me and want to gain some good healthy muscle weight, I'd recommend Alt Shift over and over again. I hope to share more about my progress with this way of life, especially with my fitness. But that will have to wait for another day. 

I share this just to give as an example. To give you a real life scenario of what this looks like. I don't always do this perfectly, but I do my best which is what I can expect of myself. 

Next up I'll share with you what my low fat 'shift' looks like, but that won't be for a few days. 

For now I will enjoy all of the bacon, red meat, butter and cream that has filled my fridge. O.M.Yum.