With Snow Comes Soup

Our family loves soup, especially when the weather is cold. Tonight we had pasta e fagioli, made with the leftover roast beef. It's pretty easy and very healthy. Though there are quite a few ingredients, they are all things I try to keep in the house anyhow.

1 cup each carrots, celery and onion all cut small and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Saute in olive oil until tender and onion is transparent. Combine in large pot with 1 can (about 15 oz or so) each of tomatoes (diced, crushed...on sale this week @ Meijer), tomato sauce, kidney beans and great northern beans (on sale) and V8 juice. Also add 1 lb ground beef browned, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp thyme, salt & pepper. Cook until thoroughly heated and not quite as thick as desired. Add 1/2 lb of elbow noodles cooked al dente. I like Barilla Plus. It has whole grains, extra protein and Omega 3s, but doesn't have the grit of 100% whole grain pasta. Sprinkle with Italian cheese. Yum!

To save money, or if you are a vegetarian, you can skip the meat. To get ahead on another meal, cook extra of the carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Put some in the fridge to use for fried rice, meatloaf or toss with pasta. Tomorrow, we will be having Bertolli whole grain cheese tortellini (on sale) with asparagus (from the end of last week), olives (on sale) and shrimp (on sale...seeing a theme?) tossed with olive oil, garlic and herbs.