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SOUPS

Emphasize bouillons and consommés, as they are nutritious, filling, and low in calories and fats. They are ideal for relieving that hungry feeling quickly and picking you up in the process. Soups are great to warm you up instantly in cold weather and, in the jellied form, to cool you off in hot weather. Soups stimulate the digestive juices, start the stomach and intestinal muscles churning and "warmed up" for the job ahead, while "flushing out" the stomach and getting it ready to stoke the digestive furnace.

Use fat-free vegetable soups, vegetable broths, and soups prepared with skimmed milk.

It is imperative to remove all visible fat and grease from the soup. Here are some good ways to do this:

1. Refrigerate or chill the soup first: then carefully remove the fat and grease that has caked on the top with a knife, spoon, or other suitable utensil.
2. If there is not time for refrigerating or chilling the soup first, use bread slices by direct application to the top layer of the soup, in order to blot up or absorb the grease.
3. Place some lettuce leaves on top of the heated soup. When you see the fat absorbed onto the leaf or leaves, remove them. The lettuce leaf may also impart a slight flavor to the soup, helping to lend a little zest.
4. Blot up the top layer of grease by floating one or more paper towels on the surface of the soup. When it is fat-saturated, discard the towel; it is a greasy reminder of escape from unhealthy calories.