Meatless Meals #3: Vegetable Soup and Whole Wheat Bread

This meal has a funny story.

I had a bunch of veggie produce laying around, some of it from the garden, that needed to get used. It was a chilly, rainy day (in July?!?!? I know!!!) and I decided around noon that making up a veggie soup recipe would be a great idea! 

But I also didn't want to have to be making soup after nap time, I wanted a crock pot soup! Well after finally getting the kids down, and then Tommy not sleeping, I was able to get all the veggies in the crock pot about 2:30pm. Not ideal for a 5:30 dinner. But I thought, hey! it's ok if we eat at 6, and besides there's no meat or anything in it, so if I just put it on high for 3ish hours it will be fine!

...NOT fine! 5 rolled around, and the potatoes and carrots were still crunchy. I thought, ok, we still have an hour--I'll put the dumplings in now so they can cook for the last hour. Tommy was a champ at helping me make the dumplings, and we sent little stars, poinsettias, Christmas trees, gingerbread men, and snowman shaped dumplings into the crock pot. 

6 rolls around. The potatoes are still crunchy. I realized it would be at least another hour, more likely two before the soup was ready! Darn potatoes and carrots! And we still had to go water the gardens at the stake plot. 

So instead of eating my very vegetable, meat-free, healthy soup for dinner...I brought Wendy's dollar menu burgers to the garden which we ate on the grass. Lovely.

After we got home and put the kids to bed, we tasted the soup. The veggies were delicious! But the dumplings had turned to goo. Or, glue. Yuck. So I scooped out all of the floury, gooey dumpling blobs and put in some veggie pasta--tomato macaroni noodles--instead.

The next day for lunch, we had a very delicious soup! The pasta soaked up a lot of the chicken stock, so it's pretty chunky and thick. Maybe more like a pasta dish...but I love my soups thick, so there you have it. 

The bread is just bread-maker bread. Crock pot and bread maker--I was going for easy (too bad it backfired!)

Add some Colby Jack cheese on top and you have a winner! Not to mention, chalk full of veggies.

 

What I threw into this soup:

• 2 small yellow summer squash
• some peeled broccoli stems, chopped
• one small onion
• about four red potatoes
• a few garden carrots
• one can of basil and oregano style diced tomatoes
• about 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp Oregano
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp. Italian seasonings (I think I added a little extra here...)
• one bay leaf
• a little garlic powder
• salt and pepper, to taste

After about 6 hours in the crock pot on low, you can throw in your favorite pasta (make it veggie pasta to add to the healthy!) for about 30 minutes. Then you're done!

Or! You can add dumplings (1/2 cup butter, 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, some broth from the soup--mix till crumbly and roll out and cut out) and let them cook for an hour. Just don't let them cook too long, or they turn into goo....

What an adventure! Enjoy your left-over veggies!