I seriously needed to share this because I'm in love with my latest creation. I've been sick and soup always feels good when you are sick but I can't rely on my pre-veggie days cans of campbell's chicken noodle soup.

So I was staring into the fridge thinking of what I should eat.

In the fridge I have:
Beans I made the day before
Various greens
Better than bouillon concentrated veggie broth
(and other things)

In the pantry I have various things but I have a couple soup bases including:
Vogue onion soup base

So I decided to cut up some greens, grab some beans, add a little of the BTB broth and some of the onion soup base. I added the ingredients along with some water in a bowl and put the bowl in the microwave for about 6 minutes (I wanted the water to boil as the onion soup base has dried onions that need a little warmth to soften them)

So in less than 10 minutes work, I have soup. I had to wait a few moments for it to cool. In the future, I could even grab a can of beans and use that. I was also thinking I could add other veggies or even some tomato paste.

This sounds good. Have you ever tried the Better N Boullion No Chicken Base? It surprisengly tastes like chicken! I made homeade cornbread stuffing for Thanksgiving this past yr with it and it tasted sooooooooo much like the regular you make with turkey broth. Yummy, but salty!

It's the MSG

There is no MSG in either the vegetable base or the No chicken.

I have had the no chicken and it is really good. I like the vegetable base slightly more.

The Vogue soup base is sodium free so I use a little of the vegetable base and more of the vogue soup base for sodium free flavor.

I just love "leftovers" soup! I usually do mine on the stovetop and use up odds & ends of leftover veggies. Sometimes I add some soba noodles or red lentils (they cook quickly) if I want some protein & don't have any beans handy.

Isn't the BTB the best? I just love it.

Ingredients
Vegetables (carrot, celery, onion) salt, hydrolyzed soy protein, maltodextrin, sugar, canola oil, natural flavors, autolyzed yeast extract, corn syrup solids, turmeric.

I always understood that these were MSG under different names.

msg has a worse reputation than is warranted for most people. There are people who are sensitive or allergic to it (and often they react to any soy product).

Recently on the show Food Detectives on the food channel, they did an experiment with msg including many people who claimed to have msg sensitivity. Half of the volunteers were given food (I believe it was all oriental style foods) containing msg and half were not. Ironically as many or more people in the no msg group experienced "msg reactions." Even some of the people who said they were sensitive to msg, "reacted" when there was no msg in the food. So, for many people the msg effect may be actually be a reaction to something else, or might even be psychological because they expect the effect.

Julie, from what I looked up, not quite. I think it means that hydrolyzed soy protein can contain MSG or at least share an amino acid with MSG.

This site lists all the possible sources of MSG including things like gelatin, calcium caseinate, pectin, whey protein, etc.
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html

When I went to China, MSG was a shaker on the table which was amusing I don't have an issue with using BTB or other good veggie broths once in a while.

I like to do what I call "dump" soup. I take a can of v8, dump it in the pot, dump whatever leftover veggies/beans or canned/frozen stuff I have and simmer it for about 10 min. Sometimes I add extra veggie stock, depending on how many I am serving, but usually it is just me or me and DH. Very quick and yummy!

Was at the asian market today and picked up some shiitake mushrooms. I love shiitake mushrooms in soup and I added them to my dinner soup. They were so good! I even made a soup for lunch tomorrow.

I have a similar method to Hello Nurse's. I made it today for a sick Hubby.

Cook frozen green peppers and onion in the bottom of soup pot, add a box of chicken stock {or can} and a can of tomato sauce. Add whatever frozen veggies/leftovers I have on hand. Add a little Worchestershire sauce. Let simmer until veggies are tender. Add minced garlic and rosemary. {or another herb of choice}

I call it the 'clean out the fridge' soup. Makes a lot so its good to make of Friday because we have leftovers all weekend!

Oh I call mine kitchen sink minestrone! Well actually I got most of the recipe online you can google it but I added a lot more veggies to mine. It's caled kitchen sink cuz you can put anything but the kitchen sink into it lol! It's so so yummy, I can't get enough!