Tomato and Spinach Soup

Tomato-Spinach Soup

This was a completely unexpected and impromptu soup. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m not much into soup since I have so few soup recipes. But this just came together suddenly, since I didn’t even get into to the kitchen until about 8 in the evening. What can I say, I was bored so I started cooking. 😉 I had some things I wanted to use up before they go bad and wanted something easy, light, healthy, and packed with nutrients. And since I’m fond of throwing a bunch of stuff in one pot and seeing what develops, I got a really yummy soup that is perfect for this cold and rainy weather. I hope, one of these days we’ll have spring.

Ingredients:
1 (1lb) jar of tomato sauce
2 bell peppers (red and yellow, or whatever you want)
1 large onion
1/2 lb carrots
1/2 cup of brown rice (optional)
1 lb spinach
Water (at least as much as the tomato sauce; I used two times the tomato sauce)
basil
bay leaves (optional; I used a few small ones)
Spices (salt, freshly ground black pepper, cumin, corriander, paprika, Pensey’s Chile Con Carne, Pensey’s Sweet Curry)

Steps:
1. Saute the onion and bell peppers. Season a little bit.
2. Heat the tomato sauce in a pan (I used a 3.5 QT pan). Add water (as much as you used for the tomato sauce. I just used the empty jar of sauce).
3. Add the sauted vegetables and cook a few minutes.
4. Add brown rice, if using and carrots.
5. Add spinach.
6. Add the rest of the water and bay leaves.
7. Add the spices, whichever you are using, and basil.

Tomato Soup ingredients

Tomato soup and veggies

Tomato soup and spinach

Mediterranean Orzo

This is a little odd, but I’ve never made orzo before today. I’ve eaten it plenty of times, just never made it. don’t know why I haven’t tried it sooner. I’ve been craving warm-weather dishes, and the Mediterranean always makes me think of summer and all those fresh flavors.

Here, I just threw things that I thought would work, but of course, experiment with your favorite flavors and quantities.

Some of the ingredients

Ingredients:
1 cup of orzo
1-2 tb of olive oil
Spinach (about 4 cups fresh)
Mushrooms (I used about 1.5 cups of baby bella)
2 Red bell peppers
2 Roasted bell peppers
3 cloves of garlic
3-6 small tomatoes
1 small onion
handful of pitted olives
handful of jarred artichoke hearts
3.5 – 4 cups of chicken stock (for the orzo)
chili powder, cumin, flat leaf parsley, garlic powder
Feta cheese

Steps:
1. Cook the orzo according to the directions on the box (I used stock instead of water though).
2. In a large skillet, saute diced onion and garlic.
3. Add diced bell pepper and roasted red pepper. Cook together for a few minutes.
4. Add the sliced mushrooms and spinach. Cook together for a while, till spinach wilts. This is where I usually add the spices, but you can add them a little sooner.
5. Add the diced olives, artichokes and halved tomatoes.
6. When the orzo is cooked, add it to the skillet with everything else.
7. Add the parsley and feta.

Mushrooms, Artichokes, Olives, Peppers

Added the Orzo, Spinach, and Parsley

Close-up - Added the Orzo, Spinach, and Parsley

Ta-Da!