Asparagus Soup and Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Canapes

Tonight's dinner was a success. Asparagus soup and goat cheese-prosciutto canapes made a nice meal. Below are the recipes and the nutritional information, which I've calculated from both WeightWatchers* and RecipeNutrition. The asparagus soup recipe was cobbled together from various sources.

RecipeNutrition is quite a site. You have to register (it's free) to use the calculators, but it's well worth it. Plus, you can view and post shared recipes. RecipeNutrition's recipe builder can be hard to use at first. Finding the specific ingredient you are looking for by searching, sorting, and scrolling through each category and subcategory can be difficult. For the canape recipe below, I couldn't find prosciutto and selected "Pork, cured, shoulder, arm picnic, separable" as the most nutritionally equivalent ingredient, though the figures, especially the sodium and protein are off (the sodium is way off). I will likely e-mail them and ask them to add prosciutto to the the list of ingredients.

Asparagus Soup
10 servings, 1 cup each serving

4 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 stalks of celery
3 pounds of fresh asparagus
1/2 tablespoon salt (preferably Kosher salt)
1/4 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 large onions
10 teaspoons light cream (optional)
10 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (optional)

Directions
1. Chop onions and celery and set aside. Save (i.e. freeze) the leafy celery tops for stock.
2. Bring the 4 cups of chicken stock to a boil in a medium-sized sauce pan (about 8 minutes).
3. While the stock comes to a boil, wash the asparagus then chop the woody bottoms off.
4. When the stock comes to a boil, add the woody stalks of asparagus and let simmer for 20 minutes. Place the other asparagus (tops) aside.
5. In a large stock pot, add 2 tablespooons of olive oil and sauté the celery and onions until they are translucent (about 10 to 12 minutes).
6. When the onion and celery mixture is done, strain the stock into this mixture (and discard the woody asparagus bottoms), add the asparagus tops, and cook for 20 minutes or until asparagus tops are soft.
7. Once the asparagus tops are soft, place the entire mixture into blender/food processer and blend until smooth.
8. Ladle soup into bowls and add a splash (1 teaspoon) of light cream and 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. Both of these splashes are optional ingredients. For a tangy taste, use 1 teaspoon of nonfat plain yogurt in place of cream.
9. The remainder can be freezed (we froze some of ours in 2-cup glass Pyrex containers).

Nutrition Information per Serving
Calories: 119; Carbohydrates: 4 g; Protein: 6 g; Fat: 5 g; Cals./g: 0
*Points: 2 (with balsamic and light cream); 1 (without balsamic and light cream)

Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Canapes
4 Servings, 2 canapes each

8 slices of fresh Italian or French bread (1/2-inch thick)
4 slices (2 oz.) of thinly-sliced prosciutto
1-1.5 oz. herbed or plain goat cheese

Directions
1. Slice the Italian or French bread into 8 thin slices (1/2-inch or even thinner).
2. Spread goat cheese thinly on each slice.
3. Divide the prosciutto evenly among the tops of all 8 slices.

Nutrition Information per Serving
Calories: 132; Carbohydrates: 10 g; Protein: 6 g; Fat: 6 g; Cals./g: 3
*Points: 2

* The calculation of WeightWatchers points are based on our own inputs. The points we are including here are estimates and are not guaranteed to be accurate nor are they endorsed by WeightWatchers.