Four days to go and it's back to Jason's Deli

I was the only one at work today and so I got all caught up with the stuff I needed to do to close out period 11 on Monday. ALL caught up. And I was way behind. November has been kinda nuts really.

So I rewarded myself with another sampling from Jason's Deli-- Southwestern Chicken Chili this time. It's not a green chili, but was heavily flavored with green chile. Also cilantro and jalapeno. And it's chock full of chicken. It's a tasty soup, but I'm afraid I prefer my chili beefy.

Those are blue corn tortillas crumbled on top. It came like that, which struck me as odd. It tasted good, but just seems like it should be a do-it-yourself topping-- particularly for carryout soup.

Their website reports that this cup of soup has 116 calories with 4 grams of fat, 12 grams of carbs and 11 grams of protein. If you do the math, that clocks in at 128 calories, but either way-- it has the best nutritional profile of any soup I've had so far. And I was full. It also comes very close to the target "zone" on the Zone Diet.

So I'm going to give it five spoons for nutrition-- because I've given lesser soups four-- it gets an A+. And two spoons for comfort and love. It's highly flavored and very filling, but it just doesn't say chili to me. I'm probably being narrow minded :) but there you have it.

I paid $3.59 for this cup of soup. It's under the premium soups with their beef chili, gumbo, beef stew, and chicken pot pie (soup?). I think it's worth it.

Back to my go-to for to-go soup

I had to take off for a bit today and go run Emma around-- from school and to the movies. I thought we were going to have to deliver some stuff to the house too, but she came up with a great solution and suddenly I had a little time to find something to eat. (Things are nuts at work since we're losing a day.)

So we stopped by my new favorite go-to for soup-- Jason's Deli-- and got their Tomato Basil. It's completely different than regular tomato soup. It has pieces of tomato in there and there's a complex cheesiness to it.

It has melted cheese on top (mozzarella? fontina? not sure-- Oh, the website says asiago) but also parmesan in the soup itself (edit: the website claims not... then the asiago permeates this soup.) So it's a sort of a rich Italian soup. It's very satisfying, but rather salty, and doesn't hold a candle to their Vegetable Soup, in my opinion. And they were sold out of the Vegetable-- if that's any indication.

I paid $2.59 for this bowl of soup-- which came with crackers and mints. I wish they didn't charge so much ($7) for delivery-- I think I could talk my co-workers into ordering there fairly often. We've found nowhere else that delivers soup.

Returning to a new favorite

Emma's at her final performance, which should be starting right about now, and then the cast party. I came in to the office to finish up a few things and play trivia with Ana on irc because Ron and I were driving each other crazy at home :).



But then as soon as *I* got out of the house, he started running around town doing errands, so I made him run into Jason's Deli and get me some Vegetarian Vegetable.

It is just as good the second time-- even though the picture isn't. I didn't even bother to look at the few pictures I took before I inhaled the soup or I would have taken a better one, but I was feeling kinda puny and now I feel a lot better.

So there you go. It's a peppery little soup and I think now that the celery flavor comes from celery salt. I remember when I first started cooking it seemed like every recipe had celery salt in it, but I don't see it so much anymore.

The earlier (and prettier) review of this soup is here .

Oats, peas, beans and barley grow... but no oats in this soup.

What can I tell you about today's soup? It was an accidental choice.

Andy was going to go pick up lunch from Jason's Deli. Did they have a soup at Jason's Deli that's not too similar to soup I've had recently?

They actually have a few. They have Broccoli Cheese, but Brenda has been ranting about Panera's Broccoli Cheddar for years, so I'm saving that for the next time I go to Panera.

They have Tomato Basil, but everyone has Tomato Basil these days and I just had tomato soup yesterday. I will get to Tomato Basil eventually.

Their soup of the day was Potato. Potato soup is evile and definitely a weekend soup. Same with French Onion. I have had their French Onion at the office before-- too messy and complicated, not to mention salty.

So I settled on Vegetarian Vegetable, hoping the base wouldn't be a repeat of Bruegger's. And it wasn't. This soup was GOOD.

It's a tomato based soup, but it has a strong flavor of celery and pepper. I love celery flavor in soup. I believe that celery is a flavor enhancer-- like MSG-- it's always a pleasant addition.

My husband hates celery in anything. I have to stop him from throwing it out-- he doesn't even like seeing it in the refrigerator. I just don't get it.

The soup was also heavily peppered-- which I also love. Pepper perks up tomato based soups like nothing else. And this pepper tasted freshly ground-- although I can't believe it actually was.

The vegetables were rustically cut-- sugar snaps, peas and celery plus carrots and lentils. And there was pearl barley in there. It reminded me of a soup from my childhood, but I'm not sure what.

All I know is that I'm sitting here craving more-- and I've been eating soup every day for almost two weeks. It's good soup.

Websites around the world report that the soup is low calorie, low fat, medium carb (it had pasta in there too) and medium sodium. Unfortunately it is also low fiber and low protein when compared to other soups I have eaten recently.

It really hit the spot, so I'm going to give it 4 out of 4 spoons for comfort and satisfaction, and 3 out of 4 for nutrition. It's nutritious soup and probably provides some nutrients other soups are missing-- in the lentils and the barley :)-- but I missed the protein. It didn't keep me full as long as the higher protein soups.

So that's 7 out of 8 spoons. I paid $2.59 for this cup of soup.