Fall = soup weather

Since today's the autumnal equinox, I offer you a couple of soup ideas.

One was sent to me by my friend Amber. It's Pinto Bean, Tomato and Butternut Squash soup. I haven't made it yet, but I plan to this weekend. Amber says she added Swiss Chard from her garden.

While I'm at it, here's our family's favorite chicken noodle soup. I make the stock homemade, too, which means that I probably make this soup about three times a year, but we're gearing up to make a batch this weekend since we'll be smoking a beer-can bird and I will use his/her carcass to make the stock (which you can link to from the soup page). It's the best chicken noodle we've ever had. The kiddos request it sometimes. I end up freezing about half the stock to make a second batch later, too, so you don't have to do the stock every time. I've also frozen the soup, noodles and all, and it works out well.

Finally, last night I made some Tuscan Minestrone soup from a mix I'd almost forgotten I had. It was great, and no salt added (which is a biggie for me, b/c too much salt tends to give me a hangover in the morning!). The company that makes it is Bountiful Pantry. One bag of mix is about $8, which isn't bad when you consider it'll feed a family of five and there will be leftovers. I went online and ordered some more, plus a few new kinds to try. You can add vegs or whatever else you want -- last night I added a can of beans and some ground turkey I needed to use up. Next time we'll leave off the meat, though.

Happy fall!