Veggie soup

I love the winter.  I love the snow.  I love having four seasons. 

I do not love being cold. 

And for the past week I have been cold all the time.  At school, at work, in my car, at home.  Today I decided to warm up with some yummy veggie soup.

Veggie soup is great to make because you can pretty much use any left over veggies in your fridge or freezer.  And you don't need stock.  I used a veggie bouillon seasoning, but there have been plenty of pots without it.

I had leftover spaghetti sauce from pizza I made the other week and threw that in for more flavoring.

A big bowl with some crunchy toast makes a perfect winter warm-up!

Veggie soup
1/2 onion $0.17
2 carrots. $0.34
1 c. Frozen corn. $0.25
1 c. Frozen okra. $0.30
1 c. Frozen broccoli $0.25
1 c. Frozen cauliflower $0.30
1/2 c. Barley
1/2 jar spaghetti sauce $0.60
2Tbsp veggie bouillon
6 c. Water
salt & pepper to taste

Total cost $2.20

I can get about 3 bowls from this pot. 
Noms noms!

what veggies do you put in your soup?

Yummy soup on a cold day

During the winter months I love cooking up a large pot of chili, soup, or a stew.  Something about the cold weather makes me want to eat soup, do you get like that?  Today I made a pot of spicy pumpkin soup. There are several ways you can make this depending on what you have in your pantry, I am low on groceries so I made it the super quick way! This is a great soup for people on the go to make and it's really healthy, loaded with lots of vitamins.  I've included the basic recipe below, I have to warn you when I make soup, I really don't measure, I just eyeball everything to taste. 

Heat your pot up and after it's hot, pour in a little olive or canola oil. Once the oil is hot, put in some onions to sweat.  I didn't have fresh onions (like I said, low on the groceries), so I used frozen.  I keep frozen onions on hand and they work out perfect, plus your eyes don't water up like when you cut fresh onions.  Once the onions sweat out, throw in some corn and your seasonings.  

Like I said I season to taste and for this recipe I used 1 clove of garlic, salt, pepper, ground cumin and chili powder.  I wouldn't use more than about 1 teaspoon of the chili powder and cumin, unless you are making a really big pot. Now your pot should start smelling really yummy.  

 

Next you are going to add 1 can of pumpkin puree, 1 can of black beans, about a cup of salsa, and about a cup of sour cream.  I normally cook dry beans and would use fresh pumpkin, but if you are short on time or don't have the patience to cook dry beans, canned works  great! I like to use garden salsa, but any kind you have would also work great.  Mango salsa would give the soup a  bit of a sweet taste.  

At this point your soup is almost done, just bring everything to a boil, then dish into your favorite bowl and top it off with some cherry tomatoes, sour cream, croutons, or all three!  Let me know if you come up with other things to add to your version.