This post was last published in November, 2015. It is still one of my favorite soups that can be made with lean ground beef and all the veggies in your fridge (specifically zucchini, green beans and carrots). Although we are still experiencing 90+ degree weather in Florida, I crave this light, yet hearty, soup all the time. It’s perfect for light lunches and dinners – it’s nice to make ahead so that you have something to quickly reheat when you are short on time.

Click here to PIN this Italian Vegetable Beef Soup recipe!

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Are you all turkey’ed out or what? I know I am. I had a few good leftover turkey recipes swirling in my head over the weekend (my daughter wanted me to make a turkey pasta salad, mmm), but honestly, I just didn’t get around to any creative leftover creations. We had a lot of turkey paninis and just straight up Thanksgiving plate reruns. It’s all good.

Moving on from turkey…I’m bringing up this Italian Vegetable Beef recipe from the archives. I originally posted this recipe back in December of 2009. Crazy how long ago that was! I remember I made this soup to take to my daughter’s preschool teacher who had just had surgery. When she got back to school, she told me her and her daughters loved the soup so much and wanted more. Yea, a compliment like that pretty much always makes my day. 🙂 Since then, I have made this soup quite a few times. It’s a great change from my typical chicken based soups, the lean beef (or bison) makes it a little extra hearty but still easy on the calories.

I’m sure most of you will agree that a bowl of good homemade soup is total comfort.  Soup has a way of warming up the body while nourishing it with so many health benefits at the same time.  I’m more of a broth base soup person, so I’m not really referring to the heavier creamy soups…not that those are bad, but they just don’t make me feel the same as a soup filled with lots of herbs and vegetables in broth.

Whenever I find that I have lots of vegetables in the veggie drawer that need to be used up, I usually make soup.  This particular day I had a nice variety of veggies….zucchini, squash, carrots and green beans. 

Add some dried herbs, lean ground beef and chicken broth and you’ve got Italian Vegetable Beef Soup.

Healthy Italian Vegetable Soup

1. In large stock pot, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat and add zucchini, squash, carrots, garlic and onions. Cook for about 8 minutes until vegetables start to soften.
2. Add seasonings, tomatoes and chicken broth to pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.
3. Add green beans and cooked ground beef.
4. Simmer soup for about 20 minutes.
5. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve with Parmesan cheese and cooked pasta if you like.

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Italian Vegetable Beef Soup

• Author: Aggies Kitchen
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings
• Category: Soup
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: Italian

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Break out the vegetables for this light and savory Italian Vegetable Beef Soup recipe. It’s loaded with great vegetables like zucchini, squash and carrots. Healthy (and easy) comfort food!

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Ingredients

• 2 tb olive oil
• 2 zucchinis, quarter chopped
• 2 squash, quarter chopped
• 2–3 carrots, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1–2 cups green beans, cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• good pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 32oz can of Italian diced tomatoes, with juices
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 – 1.25  lb lean ground beef or bison, cooked and crumbled
• Parmesan cheese, optional

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Instructions

1. In large stock pot, heat 2 tb olive oil and add zucchini, squash, carrots, garlic and onions. Cook for about 8 minutes until starting to soften. Add seasonings, tomatoes and chicken broth to pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. Add green beans and cooked ground beef. Simmer soup for about 20 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve with Parmesan cheese and cooked pasta if you like.

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Notes

Note:  amounts of vegetables can be varied.  Use what you have on hand.

Healthy Soup Recipes

Soup is one of my go to meals when I’m trying to trim some pounds or just generally feel healthier. Some soups I tend to make often are  Slow Cooker Italian Sausage and Kale Soup with Sweet Potatoes, Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup, Italian Tomato and Lentil Soup and Healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup. I’m ready to try this Beef Taco Quinoa Soup and Fall Vegetable Quinoa Soup!

Follow Aggie’s Kitchen’s board Soup, Stew and Chili Recipes on Pinterest.

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Click here to pin this Linguine with Spring Vegetables recipe!

Hello March! It’s so hard to believe we are already in March, Lent officially started yesterday and Spring is around the corner. Here in Florida we have been consistently in the low to mid 80s so we are moving right along into the next season…I’m not ready to be hot again honestly. I’m hoping it chills out around here for a while longer. I love being outside and Spring is my absolute favorite time of the year.

If you observe Lent, then you know that Fridays are set aside for meatless meals, or meals with fish (this post has some great Fish for Fridays recipe ideas). Today, I am sharing an oldie but goodie simple pasta recipe I make often but posted many years ago alongside this Salmon with Sweet & Spicy Rub from Ellie Krieger. That salmon dish was one of the first salmon recipes I started making for my family and they all love it.

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Click here to Pin this recipe!

I find it hard to believe that this is the first zoodle recipe I’m posting here on the blog considering I’ve been enjoying spiralized zucchini (along with the rest of the internet) for quite a while now. If you ever want to really clean up your eating and bulk up on vegetables, start experimenting with your spiralizer – there are a ton of ways to enjoy veggies this way, the ideas are seriously endless.

Today’s recipe is from my friend Gina’s new cookbook, Skinnytaste Fast and Slow. You may already be familiar with her blog, Skinnytaste, and first cookbook The Skinnytaste Cookbook. We are big fans of Gina’s recipes in my house – my kids are constantly asking me to make this Loaded Baked Potato Soup and my husband absolutely loves this Slow Cooker Turkey Picadillo. Her recipes really are exactly how I like to cook – simple, flavorful and filled with real ingredients.

PURCHASE: Skinnytaste Fast and Slow

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Click here to pin this delicious one-pot meal!

We are into the second of week of school in these parts and are finally starting to settle in our new routine that entails 3 kids in 3 different schools. That is, until next week when I start my fall classes at our local community college (for those that don’t know, I’m back in school working towards my second Bachelors degree, this one is in Nutrition and Dietetics). I’m so excited about getting back to class, but next week will be the true test of my sanity!

Like every year during the back to school season, I’m feeling refreshed, excited and determined to send my kids off to start a successful and fun new school year.

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The post Cheesy Southwest Beef and Potato Skillet appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

This Whole Wheat Pasta with Ricotta, Zucchini and Walnuts was made in partnership with Fisher Nuts in honor of my mom for Mother’s Day. This dish is a twist on a classic recipe my mom made me all the time growing up!

One dinner I always remember eating when I was younger was pasta with ricotta. It may seem a little different to you, but to me it was basically my family’s Italian version of your everyday blue box mac and cheese. Total comfort food in my book.

My mom has always been the Queen of pulling together fast dinners with whatever is on hand. I like to think I inherited this quality from her – dinner on the fly is something that I can pull of when I need to, it’s something I take pride in being good at (thanks Mom!). It seems that ricotta was one ingredient my mom always had in the fridge because we ate it constantly growing up, stirred into pasta like this for dinner or just scooped into a bowl with a little sugar sprinkled on top as a snack (or in cannolis for dessert!). In fact, I was inspired by my childhood consumption of ricotta when I created this recipe for Honey Almond Ricotta Spread just last year.

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The post Whole Wheat Pasta with Ricotta, Zucchini and Walnuts appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

Remember how I mentioned I got a second dinner out of the pork I cooked for Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Pork Tostadas that included brown rice and vegetables? Well, these Sautéed Cilantro Lime Vegetables are the veggies that landed onto that dinner plate.

This vegetable medley of zucchini, yellow squash and red onion is the perfect side dish for so many meals from simple oven baked black bean and cheese quesadillas to Mexican baked pasta (both go-to dinners in my house). One of my favorite ways to cook veggies is by sautéing them over medium high heat with a tiny bit of oil and finishing them off with a squeeze of lemon or lime and fresh herbs.

Super quick and easy – not to mention, healthy and delicious. This is how to get your family to eat their vegetables!

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We all know school nights are busy and can be a challenge at dinner times. But sometimes I feel the same during the summer! After being out all day playing and running around, the last thing I want to do some evenings is make dinner. But we need to eat, so unless I grill up something quick, a fast skillet dinner like this Balsamic Chicken with Sweet Peppers and Zucchini is something I would likely throw together.

This chicken dinner is as easy as it gets, and is so healthy and tasty, perfect for warm weather! I don’t regularly purchase thin sliced chicken cutlets but when I see them on sale I try to snag some for meals just like this. They cook up so quick and are perfect to saute in a skillet with veggies and sauce.

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The post Skillet Balsamic Chicken with Sweet Peppers and Zucchini appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

Earlier this summer my daughter requested I make a pasta salad. She didn’t have to ask me twice! I always love a good pasta salad and tend to volunteer to make them whenever invited to a potluck, but I have to admit I avoid making them for our meals at home because honestly, I don’t have a lot of self control when it comes to eating pasta. Knowing that more of that big bowl of pasta salad will be shared with more of my family gave me more incentive to make it for dinner a few times this summer (my husband and daughter will eat it, my older son is still not on board but I have a feeling our littlest guy will be a fan soon enough).

I used quinoa pasta for this pasta salad recipe (found a great big bag at Costco recently), but your favorite whole wheat or regular pasta would work just fine. I kept things simple and summery with sliced raw zucchini, shredded carrots and grape tomatoes. The bite sized pieces of chicken sausage made it a tad heartier (for those that don’t think pasta salad could count as a meal) but the sausage could easily be replaced with beans to turn this pasta salad into a vegetarian dish. And because I’m all about shortcuts these days I used a bottled vinaigrette – this one from Brianna’s was just recenly introduced to me by my friend Shari and I am absolutely in love with it (among a few of their others).

Since I know I have a hard time controlling myself around pasta, I try to bulk up my pasta dishes with as many vegetables as possible. I added a couple large handfuls of spinach and baby kale mix to a serving of this garden pasta salad with a couple extra splashes of dressing. It was perfect. My husband and daughter approved and agreed!

Hope everyone is having a GREAT summer! xo

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Has anyone else’s home been taken over by Rainbow Loom? My daughter has been “looming” since Christmas with her buddies in the neighborhood and my son has finally caught on to the craze this week (after realizing that most of the boys in his class are loomers too). I think it’s hysterical…especially when I woke up to my kids looming peacefully with each other this morning before school (at 5:45am people!!).

Loomers, looming and LoomLove … all part of our daily vocabulary these days. (I love it.)

I also love this pasta. My whole family did (win!). Well, except the kids don’t like shrimp – partial win? More for the grown ups. 😉

I originally wanted to make this shrimp pasta from Damn Delicious (next time!), however I decided that I needed to clear a few lonely veggies out of the fridge. Apparently I had some feta and wine to get rid of too, thankfully. That’s the best part of skillet shrimp pasta dishes like this…almost anything goes!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

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The post Skillet Shrimp and Vegetable Pasta with Feta appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

Let me introduce you to a few of my favorite things – feta cheese, pine nuts and anything that resembles a pizza.

Yea, that pretty much sums up all this goodness right here…meet my favorite skillet tortilla pizza.

If you haven’t noticed, my last few posts – including this one – have been super easy, whipped up concoctions that I’ve been making myself at lunchtime. My life has entered a whole new level of crazy busy recently (upcoming baby, yes, but also there’s more…will fill you in soon) and with it being my last few weeks of pregnancy, I can’t guarantee much energy leftover for cooking up anything too fussy. For the most part our family dinners have been some sort of crockpot, pasta, sandwich or breakfast for dinner type meal – or if I’m lucky it’s something my husband puts together off the grill. We have been resorting to take-out a little more frequently too, which is something I am trying to avoid.

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