Weekly Soup: FAIL

Happy MLK Day lovies!

In this episode of BYOD, you will see how things might not always go as planned.  Last night I planned on making a  HUGE pot of broccoli and cheese soup from this recipe in Cooking Light.  I shopped for all the ingredients, and got going with the soup.  As the soup was cooking, I was getting so excited.  My mom used to make pasta and broccoli soup when I lived at home, and the smell of the broccoli simmering in the chicken broth brought back so many memories.  It really is true – the sense of smell is the most directly tied to memory!  I kept eating all the broccoli out of the pot, and looking back, I really wished I had just added a box of pasta to the soup and called it a day.  But NOOOOO… why would I follow my instincts?!  I just really had my heart set on cheesy soup. 

The soup looked amazing.  It turned out perfectly creamy and beautiful.  But there was one thing that just wasn’t right: VELVEETA. 

Guys, I knew this was a bad idea.  When the recipe said use Velveeta, I hesitated.  But I thought “cass, what do you know?  the recipe says it will melt better.  just suck it up and use it.”  And then I almost bailed.  I couldn’t find it in the dairy section.  The staff told me to look in the packaged food section, and all I found were boxes of mac and cheese.  I should have just walked out then.  But I’m stubborn, yo.  I went back to the refrig section… and I found it alright, but it wasn’t in the refrigerator.  I was so skeeved out.  I should have walked out again just then.  But the recipe had four stars!  And it is my favorite!  And it was the “light” version!

FAIL.

My food loving fiance took a bite and said “well, this isn’t the best thing I ever had.”  He ate approximately 4 spoonfuls before he felt sick.  And you know what guys - his nose swelled up!  The velveeta is so nasty it caused an allergic reaction.  I tried to perservere.  I ate 2/3 of my bowl and said I was full.  But I wasn’t full… I had a pit in my stomach of rubbery cheese.  I couldn’t bring myself to eat this again for 3 days this week!  I had to get it out of my kitchen.  The final kicker?!  The damn soup started to clog up my sink.  It got flushed, which is probably where it belonged anyway.

Lesson learned:  follow your instinct, and don’t compromise a diet you base around whole foods just because a recipe has four stars.  And when your recipe doesn’t work out so well, take a deep breath (or as much as you can get when you have a rubber cheese ball impeding your lung capacity   )  and find something else to take for dinner that day.