Well, another week has gone by and so has another two pounds via Paleo.  I guess losing two pounds in a week is good, but it is still hard to be patient.  I know didn’t get where I am today in a month, so I shouldn’t be surprised if it takes a little time to get where I need to be.

I did manage to avoid the turkey stuffing and mashed potatoes at the bazaar I helped with.  I even was able to avoid the dessert table. Fortunately, I was in charge of making green beans.  So, I tucked myself away with 10 pounds of bacon, a pound and a half of butter and 17 gallons of green beans and was able to stay far away from those temptations.  But, after this stint of cold weather, I discovered another problem.

One of my favorite foods is soup. I could eat soup every day and not tire of it. We all know that soup is typically good for you and is especially wonderful on a cold day or when you are feeling a little ill. I’m not usually too picky with the variety of soup as it is normally a savory dish and not a sweet dish.  But, I realized a slight problem.

Allowing no grains in my diet eliminates noodles, dumplings, rice and the like; allowing no legumes eliminates chili, taco soup and ham and beans; limiting dairy eliminates cream soups and most chowders. What kind of soup is left!? Only vegetable beef, one of my favorites, and French onion soup (minus the toasted bread on top smothered with provolone cheese). Maybe Brunswick stew, but can you legitimately make it without cream corn? But that’s kind of it. Even egg drop soup has corn starch in it.

So I am going to put out my first request. Send me any good soup recipe you have that I can add to my collection. If it can be made in a slow cooker, that would be even better. No cold soups, though. I’m not a big gazpacho fan and it’s nearly winter. Email them to me at mhoisington@gbtribune.com or drop them off at our office at 2012 Forest Ave.

In the meantime, I discovered that adding dark chocolate to walnuts and pecans makes a great snack. Just grate a square of dark chocolate over one cup of walnuts and pecans with a microplane or other fine grater, melt the chocolate in the microwave (about 30-60 seconds) and let cool.

Delicious! And "eating an ounce and a half of nuts each day as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease" plus dark chocolate is full of flavanoids which act as antioxidants—at least according to scientists…which is good enough for me.

Mary Hoisington