easy ravioli minestrone soup

Jose came down with a pretty bad cold this weekend: fever, cough, sneezing, and all those other nasty symptoms associated with this common but vicious virus that strikes us all, at one point or another. I wanted to make him something that would make him feel better. We still had some chicken left-overs, but I thought a soup would be much better for someone fighting a bad cold on a fairly cool (thank God! I have been waiting for this cold front's arrival!) Autumn evening. So, after work, I stopped by the grocery store and picked up a couple of items to make a very quick minestrone soup. It was already pretty late at night, so I couldn't exactly dedicate hours to cooking, the way I could in the past. This soup was perfect because even though it quickly came together, it was still very healthy and really cheap to make. Those are two things I definitely like any meal to be, whether I make it myself or purchase it at a restaurant.

Since I keep talking about how little time it took to make this soup, I should mention the actual amount...about 20 minutes! Even if you're tired and cold (and I mean really tired from driving around far too long, lost in some obscure part of the Texas Hill Country for a good 40 minutes because you were really trying avoid traffic on the congested highways...hmm, that sounds way too familiar!), it's still no trouble to make because the soup basically makes itself, you just have to throw a few things into a pot and wait for it to cook.

Though I used primarily frozen veggies to make this soup, I did add a few extras for more color/flavor, like:

green bell pepper
corn
a few chopped carrots
green onion

The spices I added amounted to about
a pinch or two of black pepper
about 1/2 tsp garlic salt 1 tsp parsley
1-1/2 salt free garlic & herb spice
and also a few others that would match this soup, like basil

This soup is so flexible, you can pretty much add whatever you like and it'll taste good. The main components of the soup were a small can of tomato sauce and 16 oz of chicken broth (basically the amount that comes in the little carton). I also added 1/2 a bag (about 1 1/2 cups) of a Mediterranean frozen veggie blend, along with 1 10 oz bag of 4 cheese ravioli. I guess this was a vegetarian meal, but it was still very filling and hearty-the colors were very Christmasy too :).