Bella Cooks: Asian Soup with Shu Mai & Chili-Lime Meatballs

I’ve been in the mood for soup lately.  So much so that I made 10-Alarm Chili on Saturday, and a low carb version of the Michigan-Rainstorm Soup on today.  I love those two favorites, but I’d been wanting to try something with a bit more of an Asian flare.  And so I came up with this soup, Asian Soup with Shu Mai & Chili-Lime Meatballs.  (The meatballs were a bit of a last-minute addition, but they will definitely become a staple to the recipe).

Ingredients:

Since MyFitnessPal has such a cool way of displaying the ingredients when you create your own recipe, I thought I would just show that list.  Scroll to the bottom for the “per serving” totals.

Start as you would any soup, with some olive oil and chopped onion sauteeing in the bottom of a large pot.  Then add the sauces – I used Veri Teriyaki Island and Newman’s Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger Salad Dressing. I also added black pepper and red pepper flakes, but I like things to have a bit of a kick, so omit that if you don’t like the heat.

It looks so rich, but is actually really great on calories.

Chop the bok choy. I used two packages (six baby choys).

Add chopped bok choy to onion and sauce mixture.

These are the shu mai before cooking. I added two boxes, plus 1 sauce packet to the soup.

Next add two 32-oz boxes of chicken broth with the shu mai and bok choy.

As I was waiting for the soup to come to a boil, I remember that I had two Trader Joe’s Chili Lime Chicken burgers in the fridge that I needed to use.  (I’m really trying not to waste food this year).

I am so glad they were uncooked, so that I could "re-form" them into mini meatballs!

Since they are only 150 calories per patty, I thought they’d be a nice addition to the soup.  Chili-lime can definitely be an Asian flavor, too.  Plus, I liked that they would be a low cal way to add more protein to the soup.  I had the idea that I could turn the burgers into meatballs.  And I knew that to get meatballs that don’t fall apart in this sort of a soup, you have to brown them first, so out came a mini frying pan.

Since the frying pan was small, I had to do them in two batches. These six mini meatballs were from 1 burger patty.

What a hearty helping - a little bok choy, a shu mai, and a meatball

So warm and so healthy! Yum!!

I absolutely loved this dinner.  The flavor was phenomenal and I surprised myself with just how inventive I can be.  I am proud to say that I am now what I consider a really good cook.  I can’t wait to see what other “stewoups” I come up with this season.

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Rocco’s Recipes from BL

Last Tuesday The Biggest Loser featured Rocco DiSpirito showing the contestants how to make healthy dinners on a budget.

The recipes looked really good, especially the mini meatball soup and the grilled chicken with warm mango salsa.  The thing I liked about them, besides the fact that they were fairly easy to make, was that each of the 7 dinners featured could be made for $7 or less, per dinner.  How great is that?

One of the recipes could last me at least 4 meals, which makes it even more economical.

Here’s the link to Rocco’s Recipes, in case you’re interested.  I’m going to try some out and I’ll let you know how they turn out.

(Cooking healthy meals that include carbs is one of the things I’m really looking forward to about joining WW).

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