Skinny Lasagna Soup

It's so hearty, delicious and makes a wonderfully satisfying, main course soup. It has all the fabulous flavors of a meat lasagna and loaded with vegetables. The broth is divinely rich and thick. Each large, 2 cup serving, including Parmesan cheese on top, has 262 calories, 6 grams of fat and 6 Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients for Soup:

1 pound (96%) extra lean ground beef, see shopping tips

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced

3 cups zucchini, sliced

1½ cups onions, chopped

4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (14 oz) jar pasta or pizza sauce, such as Prego, Ragu or Classico

1 teaspoon dry Italian seasoning

⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Black pepper, to taste

5 dry whole grain or whole wheat lasagna noodles, broken into 1-inch pieces (about 2 cups dry noodle pieces)

2 cups fresh spinach leaves

Ingredients for Topping:

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. In a large nonstick pot or pan, brown the beef with garlic. Cook and stir often, until beef is browned and crumbled. Pour into a colander and drain fat.

2. Add beef back to pot. Stir in mushrooms, zucchini, onions, chicken broth, diced tomatoes, pasta sauce, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes and black pepper. Increase heat to high and bring soup to a boil, stirring frequently. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

3. Uncover and increase heat to medium-high to return the mixture to a boil. Stir in the noodle pieces. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, until the noodles are tender, stirring occasionally.

4. Remove from heat and stir in spinach. Let sit for 5 minutes for spinach to cook.

5. I like this soup thick. If it becomes too thick during cooking or too thick to suit your taste, add about ½ to 1 cup water. This soup does thicken when refrigerated. Once heated it does get thinner.

6. To serve: Ladle 2 cups of soup into each bowl. Top each serving with 2 teaspoons Parmesan cheese.

7. This soup freezes great!

Makes 12 cups total. Each main course servings, 2 cups soup and 2 teaspoon Parmesan cheese.

Shopping Tips
Happily most supermarkets sell lean ground beef. I used the 96% lean ground beef from Trader Joe's.

There are several brands of whole wheat or whole grain lasagna noodles that will work great for this recipe. I used a brand called Eating Right and bought it at Vons/Safeway.

Weight Watchers (old points) 5
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 6

SKINNY FACTS: for a 2 cup serving with 2 teaspoons Parmesan cheese
262 calories, 6g fat, 3mg chol, 22g protein, 32g carbs, 7g fiber, 942mg sod, 10g sugar

Note:
1. The nutrition facts were calculated on Spark People.com.
2. The Weight Watchers POINTS were calculated on CalculatorCat.com.

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