Soup Night

I don't know about you, but I had a major case of the Mondays this morning.  It was tough getting out of bed.  My husband and I started our day with a Vitamix smoothie and we headed off to work.  One of the highlights (and I'm not just trying to justify the purchase) was drinking out of my $32 dollar water bottle (so worth it).  I drank a lot more water today than I have in a long time.  

When we got home we hit the gym together and then had dinner.  I said this dinner really doesn't go together too well, but thankfully neither of us are picky.  

I threw together a dish with mixed frozen veggies and vegan buffalo chicken since I was craving spicy food, though my husband corrected me that you can't crave something you eat all the time.  I don't agree!  I also have a new obsession (pictured above).  It's one of my summer favorites before my vegan days, the classic combo of tomato, basil and mozzarella.  As wonderful as many vegan alternatives are cheese is hard to replace, I'll admit it.  I decided to substitute mozzarella with extra firm tofu.  I pressed it first to get the water out and then sliced it up.  I tossed it in with tomatoes and fresh basil from our "garden" and topped it off with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar.  I think I'm going to be making this a lot come summer time and hopefully we will have our own tomatoes to add!

We did have some leftovers as well (and obviously bread).  We had a quick visit with my parents yesterday and my mom had soup waiting for us.  I think I ate two and a half bowls in one sitting.  My mom has made a non vegetarian version of this before and she was kind enough to make a veggie version especially for us.  Even my dad was eating it!

Ingredients

• 1 onion (chopped)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 32 ounces of vegetable broth
• 2 cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 2 cans of chopped green chills 
• 1 pound of veggie sausage (my mom used LifeLight)

First sauté your onion and garlic.  Once this is cooked add it to the crockpot with the veggie broth.  Then add your canned tomatoes, chills, and vegan sausage.  My mom said she cooked this for awhile in the crock pot, I would give it at least a couple of hours.  The great thing about this soup is you can really play around with it.  You can add vegan cheese, tortilla chips, more broth and additional veggies!  I definitely see this soup in our future!  Happy Monday!