Soup-er Bowl Week

Dallas cannot handle this icy, sleety weather. There are glaciers outside of my house! We have Pittsburgh Steeler fans and Green Bay fans here for the Superbowl, and this week's weather is Dallas' way of saying "make yourself at home"....except that we don't know how to drive in this weather!! How embarrassing.

Although the snow day is nice, I am suffering from cabin fever!!!! And what am I doing to kill time? Cook, bake, snack, graze. I gained 5 pounds today, not counting dinner.

What do you cook for an icy cold day? I thought about chili, but I need to save that for later this week when the high is 21 and the low is 10.

How about a good soup? Today we're having Vietnamese Pho for lunch. Pho is a wonderful winter time soup and will cure what ails you: a cold, a cough, or even cabin fever. How do you replicate a Pho taste without beef or chicken stock? Vegetarian Times has figured it out. I've tried their recipe twice and thought the flavor was spot on.

Pho is comprised of a broth (which I thought would be as basic as vegetable stock) plus your "add-ins" such as tofu, sprouts, noodles, basil, cilantro, and lime. The broth is so underrated!!! I had no idea how much is invested in order to make the broth. It's not a lot of work, but there are several ingredients - each with it's own purpose. There are a lot of ingredients with medicinal properties such as ginger, garlic, star anise, and cinnamon. Hence, you can call it "Super" Bowl of Pho.

We like our Pho without tofu sometimes. Just the broth and noodles and the herbs. It will hit the spot.

Try it and let me know what you think!