Spaghetti Soup and Cheesy Garlic Bread

I love making soup!  You've probably noticed soup is on our fall/winter menu quite a bit.  I love making soup because I become like a magician in the kitchen.  I can take nothing and turn it into something.  Spaghetti Soup is one of my family's favorite recipes that I created from a bunch of nothin' and turned it into something great!

Do you ever have just a little bit of spaghetti sauce leftover at the end of dinner?  I'll make a pound of pasta and a batch of sauce, but it always seems we have one scoop of sauce leftover at the end of the meal.  I used to just toss that away because it seemed like it was not enough to bother with.   Then one day, I needed something for dinner that needed to be made from the ingredients on hand because the littlest one was down for a nap and there was no time to go to the store before dinner.  I had a small bowl of spaghetti sauce in the fridge and just started adding some things to it into make a soup.  The end result was fantastic!  Now, instead of throwing away those small bits of sauce, I freeze them and when I have about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of sauce collected, I make a batch of this Spaghetti Soup. 

The kids love this dish!  The littlest one scraped her bowl clean before I had a chance to even finish my salad!   The soup comes together in under 30 minutes which is perfect for our busy afterschool schedule.  The soup cooked while I made a loaf of garlic cheese bread and helped supervise some music practice.  If you choose to make the soup ahead, it will thicken up so you'll have to add a little water before serving it.  Because I made this soup from all our leftover bits and pieces, it was very economical.  It's a good end-of-pay-period kind of meal or great for a night when you might want to spend your grocery budget on a fancy dessert or a family ice cream date.

Here's the recipe:

Spaghetti Soup
1 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 Tbsp chopped onion and celery
1 tsp minced garlic
1 1/2 - 2 cups of leftover spaghetti sauce
1 can of diced tomatoes (I use home canned tomatoes from my mother in law)
1 can of tomato sauce (small or large can; whatever you have)
2 cups beef broth (or 2 cups water and 2 beef bouillon cubes)
1/2 - 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 pound of spaghetti noodles broken in 1 inch pieces
Parmesan cheese for garnish

1.  Drizzle olive oil in a large stock pot.
2.  Saute onions and celery until opaque.
3.  Add garlic, spaghetti sauce, tomatoes, and tomato sauce.  Rinse out the cans/containers with a little water (no more than 3/4 cup total)
4.  Add beef broth, salt, and Italian seasonings and stir.
5.  Bring to a boil.
6.  Add spaghetti noodles and stir.
7.  Cook at a low boil until noodles are tender and soup thickens. (about 15 -20 minutes)

Serve with pamesan cheese on top.  (You'll have to imagine some parmesan on the top of this bowl in the picture.  I forgot to take a picture BEFORE we ate, and this was all that was left!  Our original bowls were filled a bit more towards the top!)

Spaghetti Soup and Cheesy Garlic Bread

My kids love to order cheesy garlic bread whenever we get pizza!  I picked up a loaf of fresh Italian Bread on the way home from school and thought it would make a great addition to our soup.  We LOVED this bread!  They all said I could give Donatos a run for their cheesy garlic bread money!  Try some today!

Cheesy Garlic Bread
1 loaf of Italian Bread (often $1 or less at Kroger)
4-5 Tbsp Spreadable Butter (I used Country Crock)
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp of dried parsley
few shakes of salt
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese (or Ital blend with provolone)

1.  Slice bread horizontally.
2.  In a small bowl, mix together the butter, garlic powder, parsley, and salt.
3.  Spread the butter mixture on the bread evenly.
4.  Sprinkle cheese on top of the buttered bread.
5.  Place cheese topped bread on a baking sheet and bake at 375 for 15 minutes.
6.  Slice cheesy garlic bread into wedges.

Cheesy Garlic Bread
Your house will smell like a pizzeria with this fresh baked bread topped
with ooey, gooey cheese and a hint of garlic.  I'll take you on, Donatos!