All About The Vegetables Baby

Well hey there! Happy Thursday it's almost the weekend!

Just to let you know right off the bat, Miss PB&J Jenny is having a giveaway for some Kay's Natural cookies. They are gluten-free so my poor tummy can indulge. I really want to win so I have to put this notice up here. But please don't enter. Because I really really want to win!

Sooooo Thanksgiving is behind us. The wedding is behind me. Thanks for all your comments guys/girls. It was tough but it's over now- and I don't think anyone held it against me. I guess it was just the fact that I felt baited, like the person at my table was harassing me and asking me questions to get me to flip out or talk about what was going on. Even though he didn't come out and ASK me directly, the "whats new with you? whats going on? hows it going???" with the LOOK on his face, like TALK ABOUT IT! He already harassed me about it on Facebook- made his feelings perfectly clear. But hey, people in glass houses should not throw stones and I'm SURE if he were in the same situation as I was he would think differently. It's very easy to make a decision about something when you are not affected by it. Then when he ever started about the racial business, that's when I panicked and said enough was enough. It's was more than enough that he was judging me based on my life choices, now he was basically calling the people I love the most scum. I reminded him where he came from. At least my peeps didn't have to dig a tunnel or swim across a river to get to the states. ; )

And moving right along before I start offending anyone..

What did you do with your Thanksgiving leftovers? If you are like me, you bought too many veggies, thinking you might use them in SOMETHING- and then never made it. Plus I have a habit of buying with the intent of making something and forgetting to ask myself if I already have it at home. Needless to say I have a ton of canned goods, a big head of cabbage, and lots of spinach and shrooms. What the hell was I going to do with it all?

When life hands you vegetables, make minestrone! I know you guys like the way my minestrone looked on Thanksgiving... so here is the method behind the madness!

This one is vegetarian/vegan and can be made carnivorous simply by tossing some beef or sausage in it. I wouldn't recommend chicken although it might be a little healthier meat addition- it just wouldn't have the same flavor!

You need: canned goods.. Tomatoes, beans, corn, and peas
Fresh veggies: spinach, purple cabbage, mushrooms, zuchinni, onion (as much or as little as you want..)
Broth: I use Pacific Naturals- Low sodium veggie broth
Water: about a half a cup
Oil: about 1/4 cup, with all these veggies we need some fat to absorb all the nutrients!
Method:
heat oil in a big giant pot (depends on how much you are making..), add onions and cook until tender, add zuchs and shrooms cook for a few more minutes. Add broth and canned tomatoes. Add cooked beans- I like my beans soft, so I added them here rather than in the last few minutes. Next add your peas and corn.. and let that all simmer for a few! In the last five minutes or so of cooking you can add the spinach and cabbage and any spice you want. I usually use basil, parsley, garlic powder, S&P, and oregano. If you want your cabbage less purple and more cooked, add it sooner, but I like my cabbage more purple and less cooked. It looks pretty and I don't mind it a little "under cooked". At then end of cooking the broth will have kind of cooked down so that is where we add our water- just to lighten it up a bit.