Even though my son has decided he will eat meat on occasionally. I am still trying to keep us all eating vegetarian about 90% of the time. I am still buying fish, shrimp and tofu and not buying chicken, pork or beef. If we have any of those it either has to come from the bottom of the freezer, which I am trying to clean out before the holidays, or I have to make a special trip to the grocery store to purchase it. That is usually enough to make me look for something else to make.

I haven’t been using my slow cooker enough and in Rachael Ray’s magazine she said 2015 is the year of the soup so I decided to make a simple vegetarian vegetable soup with the vegetables I had on hand in my freezer and refrigerator.

Verdict:

This was delicious! Both kids said it was like eating vegetables that tasted like pizza. It was super simple to make and I loved that there was plenty leftover for 4 lunch servings. The best part is you can make this dish with whatever vegetables you have in your freezer or refrigerator. Use all those veggies before they go bad in your vegetable drawer.

I served this with a side of foccacia bread for dipping.

This soup was completely gluten-free so my mostly gluten-free son was excited.

Ingredients:

• 1 (22 oz) can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 (22 oz) can pureed tomatoes
• 2 cups of vegetable stock
• 8 oz. frozen corn
• 8 oz. frozen carrot and pea mixture
• 1 medium-large zucchini, cut into 1/2″ slice and quartered
• 3 celery stalks, sliced
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. oregano
• salt and pepper, to taste
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving if desired

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients in the bowl of a 6 qt. slow cooker.
2. Cook on low 6-8 hours or on high 3-4.
3. Taste and adjust spices as needed.
4. Serve hot with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired.