"Timesaver" Tuesday: Soup, Sandwich AND Salad in under 30 minutes

Timesaver tip 1: Use canned foods on occasion. I'm not usually a big proponent of canned food. I much prefer to eat and serve fresh or frozen foods. But there are a few canned items I like to keep around to help whip up a quick meal or snack:

• Trader Joe's Black Bean Soup (it's really hard to find vegan gf/soy-free soup!)
• Coconut milk (light or regular)
• A few cans of beans for when I'm out of dried/cooked
  
• Diced tomatoes
• Tomato sauce
  
• Tomato Puree

The tomato puree is a main ingredient in tonight's quick meal of soup, sandwich and salad. This meal (with the colby cheez from yesterday's post being pre-made) was completed in less than 30 minutes. That included the time it took me to pick the basil from out back.



Tomato-Basil Soup:

	1 Tbsp Agave Nectar**
	1 serving(s) garlic, crushed 1 tsp
	29 oz canned tomato puree
	1/4 tsp table salt
	1/4 cup(s) fresh basil, chopped
	3 serving(s) rice milk, unsweetened*

Put all ingredients in a small sauce pan and heat over medium high heat until just boiling. Serve.
Makes 4 servings, 2 points each

*I use Whole Foods Market's 365 brand of unsweetened rice milk. It is certified gluten-free. Not all rice milks are. Many of them contain barley. Be sure to read the label

**If you use sweetened rice milk, omit the agave nectar. Be sure to adjust points of you're counting.

Timesaver tip #2: Plan what you do in the kitchen so you can multitask. This may seem pretty basic to some of you, but other people just don't think this way. . This meal would take a lot longer if I made the salad before I began the soup and sandwich. Think about what takes the longest and what can be left alone while you do other things. For this quick meal, I started the soup and let it heat while I started the sandwich. Then while both the soup and the sandwich were cooking, I made the salad.

Timesaver tip #3: Make extra and use leftovers. This also saves money. It's generally less expensive and less time consuming to make 2 servings of something than to make 1 serving of two different things. If you're single, you still might want to half a recipe so you don't get tired of it, but whatever you make, be sure to plan it in to the rest of the week. If you're feeding a family, you might want to double a recipe to pack lunches or have another dinner a couple days later.

For this meal, I used a serving of colby cheez from yesterday. Plus I made 4 servings of soup. I only ate 1. I'm left with the basis of 3 more meals.

The half sandwich was your basic grilled cheez made with one slice of Food for Life Brown Rice Bread, 2/3 serving of colby cheez, sliced and 1/2 tsp of soy-free Earth balance on the outside of your bread. If anybody really needs me to tell you how to make a grilled cheez sandwich, just comment in the post and I'll give you a tutorial. (BTW, as further review of the colby - it didn't melt, but it was warm and creamy. Even though it didn't look like a regular grilled cheese, it tasted pretty darn close).

Timesaver tip #4: Salads don't have to be complicated! So what if you go to a restaurant and you have 10 different things on your salad. It doesn't have to be that way at home. They can be simple and still be delicious.

The one I made tonight was made of just torn spinach, chopped red onion and the remaining third of the serving of colby cheez shredded on top. (Yes! It shreds!). A quick squeeze of lemon and a little fresh ground black pepper and dinner is ready!

We can have quick, easy meals that are also filling, healthy and delicious! If only I would remind myself of that more often.

Point count for the whole meal: 5.5

(If you don't have the colby premade, but like the general idea of this meal, try substituting 1/4 avocado for the colby. Slices of it would be yummy warm inside the grilled bread. The amount for the salad wont shred, but you can put little cubes on the salad)