Veggie Soup

So with the cold weather and the holidays, I figured it was time to experiment with some soup. I decided that I liked the veggie soup that Campbell's makes, but wanted to make my own. After browsing online for awhile I finally settled on a variation of this!

Ingredients:

• Fat-free cooking spray
• 1 small onion, grated or diced
• 1 cup celery, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 3 14 oz cans of fat-free vegetable broth
• 1 lb red potatoes, peeled and diced (Equals about 3 medium potatoes or about 3 cups diced potatoes)
• 1 cup carrots, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup green beans (fresh, frozen, or canned is fine)
• 1 cup corn (fresh, frozen, or canned is fine)
• 3 cups tomato juice
  
• 1-2 level tsp of "Bells Seasoning" or to taste (This is found in a small box in the spice aisle. If you can't find it, you can substitute with a blend of rosemary, oregano, sage, ginger, marjoram, thyme, and black pepper)
• Salt and pepper, or to taste
• Bay leaf (optional)
  

Directions:

Spray large soup kettle with cooking spray. Saute onion and celery for 5 minutes. Add vegetable broth, tomato juice, potatoes, and carrots; bring to a boil. Lower heat; Add green beans, corn, and bay leaf; Simmer for 40 minutes or until vegetables are nice and soft. Season with Bells Seasoning, salt, and pepper to taste.

*Remove bay leaf*

Serve hot.

Yields: Approx 8 (1-cup) servings (1.25 points per serving)

Everything is a guide line though, and I'm sure I had more than a cup of everything, since I just put in a can of green beans and whatever carrots we had left. I don't have any Bell's Seasoning either, so I just shook half of my spice rack into the pot and it turned out yummy! Since Campbell's soup uses alphabet letters, I added some Finding Nemo noodles I bought, 2 cups, and it added some plumpness to the pot. Also put in some extra water since the noodles were going in. Yay for experiments! It had husband approval :)

jamie