MommaCooks

This is supposed to be a meatless dish, but to make everyone in the family happy I added some extra protein.

Ingredients:
Olive oil
One medium onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 celery ribs, chopped
6 cups chicken broth
2 cans white beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 cup macaroni, dry
2 bay leaves
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp salt
Ground black pepper
Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)
3 Italian sausage links, sliced and cooked thoroughly (optional) or 8 meatballs (optional)

Instructions:
In a large stock pot, sauté onion, garlic, celery and carrots in olive oil until onions are tender. Add the broth, beans, crushed tomatoes, bay leaves, herbs, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Let simmer about 20 minutes, until vegetables have softened. Add macaroni and cook for 10 more minutes. If you are going to have this with Italian sausage, once the sausages have been sliced and cooked in a separate skillet, put them in the pot of soup. You can put the already cooked meatballs in the soup as well.

Serve with Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top.

We had this with grapes, salad and french bread.

Did I change anything? I just added the Italian sausage. I just sliced it up and cooked it in some olive oil in a skillet and then added it to the soup once it was done.

What did the family think? Everyone ate it! This worked out great, too because I made it this afternoon because I knew we would be getting home late from soccer practice. I just put it back on the stove to warm up after soccer while I was getting the salad ready and although it was a late dinner we were able to eat together as a family.

from Half Assed Kitchen