Minestrone Soup!

Over the past year, I have completely fallen in love with cooking and baking! So far, I have been more experimental with cooking than I have been with baking, mostly because I still need a few baking necessities...but I am working on that! Which reminds me...

Dear Martha Stewart Stand Mixer in buttercup yellow-you are a GORGEOUS piece ofmachinery and I would love to give you a home in my kitchen, if you weren't so darn expensive! Please go on sale...50% off would be nice! lol!

So when I started going through cooking blogs and family recipes, I decided that I needed something that would be able to explain all the cooking "lingo" to me, with pictures preferably, so I can get the most out of these recipes. Of course, loving everything vintage, the first thing that came to mind was the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook...

This adorable book has tons of helpful tips, measuring equivalents, and the best part...vintage pictures just like the ones in the original 1950's edition! Too cute!

So, after almost picking this book up off the store shelf, I came across another book that I couldn't help but look at...

This has everything that is in the Betty Crocker book PLUS it gives you four different versions of the same recipe! There is the traditional version, a quick time saving version, a light version and a "cooking for two" version! It has pictures as well, however, they are not cute little 1950's pictures... :(

BUT...seeing as how I usually cook for just Matt and myself, I occasionally like healthy food ;), and the fact that sometimes I'm in a time crunch...this was the perfect book! So now in addition to a few small cookbooks and the endless cooking blogs that I read, I now feel like I can tackle any recipe no matter how complicated in may seem! lol.

So...on to one of our favorite recipes from this book! Everything (so far) has been super delicious!

Minestrone Soup! (I immediately thought of my sister Katie when I saw this recipe. The girl was OBSESSED with minestrone soup for the longest time!)

Here is the original recipe from the book, I added my changes in parentheses...

Minestrone Soup

Prep time: 20 min Cook time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

2 cups coarsely chopped onions
1 cup sliced celery

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley (I used 2 tsp. dried parsley)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup vegetable oil

5 cups beef broth

2 cups chopped tomatoes (I used 1 can diced tomatoes, drained)

1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce

2 cups coarsely chopped cabbage

1 cup sliced fresh carrots

2 teaspoons dried basil or Italian Seasoning (I used the basil)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1.5 lb ground beef (I only used a pound)

1.5 cups sliced zucchini

1 cup cut up green beans (I omitted these, they are not Matt's favorite lol)

1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (15 ounces) garbanzo beans or chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 cup uncooked ditalini or 4 ounces spaghetti, broken into pieces (I used leftover bowtie pasta)

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In 8 qt. soup kettle, saute onions, celery, parsley and garlic in oil until tender. Stir in the broth, tomatoes, tomato sauce, cabbage, carrots, basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour.

2. In large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain and set aside. Stir into soup along with the zucchini, beans and pasta. Cover and simmer 15-20 minutes or until the veggies and pasta are tender. Top each serving with Parmesan cheese (which I didn't get the chance to do because Matt got a hold of the soup before I could! lol)

YUM! Probably after the first 20 minutes of simmering all the ingredients from part 1, the WHOLE HOUSE smelled amazing! Also, Matt doesn't like zucchini, but he ended up eating it in the soup! Success! lol.

Result: Yummy, gorgeous soup that I will definitely make again!