Vegetable Soup

I have been lazy about posting on my blog lately.  I partly blame this on the fact that I have not been doing much in the kitchen besides making sandwiches or throwing together something that is super quick and not worthy of a blog post.  Does anyone really want to learn how I go about making a piece of toast or a box of macaroni and cheese? Highly doubtful.

I am trying to lay off of cooking comfort foods since my cravings for comfort foods have diminished lately. I was going to make a minestrone soup but decided to forgo the pasta, since I've been eating pasta by the truckload in the preceding months, and go with a strictly vegetable soup.  You cannot get much healthier or tastier than this soup. Plus, like all of the rest of my dishes, this dish is easy to make with a minimal prep time.  You can be the judge of what the ratio of each vegetable is in this soup based on your likes and dislikes. The good thing about preparing vegetable soup is that you can mix and match with pretty much any vegetables that you like. If you don't like squash then don't use it. I think  mushrooms would be a wonderful addition to this soup as would the addition of a starch like potatoes, rice, or pasta.

Ingredients
32 ozs chicken stock (if you want to go all vegan or vegetarian you can use vegetable stock, or if you plan on using a slow cooker you can use water)
1 large can of whole tomatoes in juice
1 large zucchini sliced in rounds (I used 3 little guys)
1 large yellow squash sliced in rounds (I used 3 little guys)
2 to 3 cups of spinach, swiss chard or kale
1 red onion chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
2 carrots chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 can of cannelloni beans (white beans) rinsed and drained
green beans (canned or fresh)  used canned and just drained, rinsed and threw in
olive oil
Italian seasoning

Instructions
In large pot, saute the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic in olive oil until the onion is translucent. If you are using slow cooker, saute the vegetables in a separate pan and move over to slow cooker once onion is translucent. Add chicken stock and remaining ingredients.  I added an additional can of water. Do remember that the vegetables will shrink so don't add too much as far as liquids go. I cooked the soup on med heat for 4 hours in the slow cooker and added grated Parmesan reggiano to finish this off. If you are preparing this dish on the stove top simmer the soup until the vegetables are tender between 35 and 45 minutes.

I served this with garlic bread.  This is a good dish because it is easy to freeze.  I made a huge batch of this soup and froze the rest.  The next time I don't feel like making dinner the soup is ready to go.