Cheese Pepper Soup

Soup is for summer, too. 

Soup is good. And if it's multi-colored - it's better.

To make this rainbow appear in your stockpot, do this: 
Ghee/clarified butter (a nice little pat) (or olive, grapeseed - whatever oil you've got that can be heated.)
1 red onion (diced)
1 sm. can jalapenos (drained and rinsed - ahem, this is super important unless you are wanting to seriously clear your sinuses and make your family cry.)
1 sm. can mushrooms
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 pkg. frozen mixed pepper strips
1 pkg. frozen broccoli & cauliflower mix florets
1 can diced tomatoes
1 and a half boxes chicken stock
1 pkg cream cheese
3 garlic cloves pressed or tblsp. garlic powder
quarter cup agave nectar or use another type of sweetener to taste
salt and pepper to taste

(If you have miracle noodles and feel like adding a pasta adventure to the pot. Toss them in - I did (linguine)

These are Miracle Noodles. Kinda creepy looking, but OH-SO-FABULOUS!

Place stock pot on stove and put on medium heat. Toss a pat of ghee or about a Tblsp. preferred oil. Saute the onion and add the jalapenos and mushrooms to the pan.

Add canned soup, tomatoes and stir. Add stock and frozen veggies as well as spices.

When the veggies are heated to your softness preference, add the cream cheese one cube at a time. Stir well.
If you have Miracle Noodles (Konjac Shiratake) on hand and have prepped them (*prep instructions below), feel free to stir them in if you're wanting to add a carb/calorie free pasta.
If you're wondering what the mess 'o soup looks like now....

Here's those Miracle Noodles. We all like 'em. Even Kevin (who HATES weird food!) They don't really have flavor (if you prep 'em properly) but they have perfect pasta texture and when your sauce is right, you're not looking for a noodle flavor 'cuz you're relishing your sauce.

The soup was a massive hit, especially with Julianne (the almost thirteen year old!)

Best part - it bought me another day of NOT hitting the grocery store!

Love,

Jessica


*Prepping your Miracle Noodles is important. You don't want them to taste like the liquid they're packed in, so you're going to want to pull out the colander and rinse them well - like 4-5 minutes kinda well. If you've got a non-stick fry pan, put it on the stove medium heat and cook the liquid off the drained/rinsed noodles and allow the noodles to become opaque and dry of the water you rinsed them in (they'll still be pliable.) Toss those babies in your soup and chow. (You can also oven roast if you'd rather, but I'm not big on heating my house in the summa-time.)