Souper Sunday's

Not the most original title, but I am introducing a regular feature to my blog called Souper Sundays. This will run through the cold months of winter to motivate me to test the waters with some new recipes, or create my own from the pantry, fridge, and freezer.  Today, we have plans with extended family, but a cup of soup in a mug later tonight when we get home, and having some leftovers ready for the week will serve us well for a light and quick meal. 

Today's soup...Tomato Vegetable with Rice

This will be a crock-pot soup, and a semi homemeade, use up ingredients on hand soup.  In no particualr order, throw into you crock pot the following ingredients:
1 can condensed tomato soup
6 cups of water
5 chicken, beef, or vegetarian bouillon cubes
1 large chopped onion (or two small is what I had)
3 large but small cut carrots-about 1+ cups worth
3 large but small cut celery stalks about 1+cups worth
1/2 cup
2 tsp. of pepper
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp. garlic powder
extra salt if you think to taste but with the cubes and condensed soup, probably more than anyone needs in a serving.

These were my ratios based on what I had on hand and wanted to use up.  Roughly I do a 1-1 vegetable to water ratio, 1-2 rice to water ratio, and then 1 can soup-1 cup water ratio, so a little less than equal the can. I like to have 1 cube of bouillon per cup of water, but  reserved one less since the canned soup already has so much flavor. That's how I decide on  5 cubes and 6 cups water.  Tweak as it works better for your taste, and thickness of soup preference.

Turn on high if you will be eating in 4-6 hours, or low if you want to just let it cook all day.  That is it, and while somewhat experimental, I can't see why it won't be delicious. You could add meat if you wanted as well, but we often have a grilled cheese or a deli sandwich along with soup, so I don't worry about meat with most soups.  DD#1 is vegetarian so I got accustomed to versioning things, or making one and supplementing meat sides for some meals.  This was simple and cheap, and uses some of the stocked up at dirt cheap prices  tomato soup we have on hand, but never seem to eat as soup. Some day I might put pencil to paper and do a better cost summary than the estimating in my head, but I'll say roughly $3.25 for 6 hearty portions. Some of you like the pureed soup and I think this would lend well to that if you so choose, particularly if you left the rice out.  I wanted a little more sustenance to it. Enjoy!

If some things work out for me in the time department, I'd love to do a post at the end of December, early January compiling links to some of the best  tried and true or experimental soup recipes.  Leave a comment if you think that would be a post that would interest you.  Even better, if you like the idea, and have one to include, leave me the link to the blog post that contains your recipe.  All will be duly credited.