Everything But the Kitchen Sink

It’s all about having a great recipe. Unfortunately, I don’t have one for you.

During an ideal week, I like to plan out my menus. On a typical Sunday before we go to the grocery store, I make a list of dinners we’ll have, the groceries that we’ll need, and then we hit the store to do our shopping. This is a great help for those days when you stagger in from work with eyes crossed and can’t making another decision – just consult the list! When that typical Sunday doesn’t happen, I enter into a world of improvisation and who knows what you might end up eating. That brings us to this delightful soup that I whipped up for myself the other night. A more apt title for this blog post would be “Everything But the Kitchen Sink (Or Whatever You Have On Hand),” but that felt a bit long-winded.

There was no menu planning or trip to the store this week, and I was proud of myself for digging through the pantry for supplies instead of calling for pizza. Here’s what I threw in the pot:

1 box of vegetable stock
Some frozen chard
Some frozen peas
Diced (sort of) fresh celery
Diced fresh carrots
One sliced up shallot
Minced garlic
The rest of a box of curly pasta

I seasoned with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and dried oregano; when the pasta was cooked, I added a can of drained and rinsed cannellini beans.

VOILA, almost instant dinner – faster than pizza delivery anyway!

I encourage you all to fearlessly tackle your pantry and see what you come up with. Who knows, you might like it! Worst case scenario? You throw it out and call for pizza.