Hey, great minds think alike. Last night I made penne, and decided that I wanted meatballs, instead of just meat in the marinara sauce, and boy it tasted good. A friend shared with me the directions for cheeseburger soup many years ago and I haven't made it in years. I think I still remember how, but it has to be fifty gazillion million calories a bowl.

I can also relate to no oven. Mine went out years ago, and my husband didn't seem at all interested in doing anything to repair or replace it. It was a built-in and I went 18 months without one until I took the matter into my own hands, bought one and put it in myself. It never occured to me that one could bake anything in the nuker. I should've known! I still can't believe I went a year and a half without baking anything. LOL. I was much skinnier then.

Cheeseburger soup sounds right up my alley!

As for the oven, ugh... I hope we get a new one, but I don't want to spend the money. BUT, I'd love to have enough money to get one of those Electrlux ones.

I discovered an easy quick way to make Navy Bean soup for one is saute a small diced onion, add diced ham or leftover porkchop, or bacon, add one can small navy beans, one cup water. (more water if soupier soup wanted). Mash up about half the beans with fork. Let simmer half hour or so and serve with dollop of milk stirred in.

I don't want it often enough to take up time and freezer space with made-from-dried-beans, so this was a compromise. With a grilled cheese sandwich I just want half the soup, but it's just as good one-two days later or I guess could be frozen. josh

My grandma'a quick bean soup was saute onion in a little butter, dump in an undrained can of great northern beans, add a little milk, heat until wram and enjoy.

Had the best grilled cheese the other day. Local bakery makes a bread with lots of kick - Italian seasonings and peppers, execlent toasting and grilling texture. Made it with Moz. cheese. mmmm.

You know that scene in the movie Michael where Dorothy (Andie McDowell) has to sing her song about pie? Well, mine would be about soup. I love soup. Autumn is my favorite time of year, but honestly, I think it's because that's the "official" beginning of soup season. I never tire of it though, truthfully, and have it year round. Mmm, the perfect food. Satisfying, full of nutrition, delicious... I have never made meatballs (or dumplings) because they look so labor intensive. Mind you, I love them, but I don't want to make them. That makes your soup a true labor of love. Nicely done Tisha!

There was a thread on the cooking forum where Joe said he'd send his soup booklet to all who wanted it and the thread was a mile long. He had over 180 recipes in his book! I'm still trying to narrow down which I'll try.

I made some more soup last night. Chicken Noodle, this time. It turned out pretty good (much better than the hamburger soup, IMO).

Perfect with a grilled cheese sandwich.

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I wish I could make good noodles in my chicken soup. I make great chicken soup, but the noodles are never right. Yours look good. Did you go ask Joe for his soup recipes?

Tisha,

My former Aunt-in-Law, an excellent cook, made stovetop cornbread. She prepared as usual and poured in a preheated, greased iron skillet. Turned burner to medium, put a lid on it and cooked 'til done. She then browned under the broiler set to low. This step is not necessary if your oven is out, the cornbread is fully cooked and the bottom is browned. She said you could also turn it out onto a plate bottom side up and slip it back into the pan to brown the top. I've never tried this but I have eaten hers and it was delish.

This soup was easy.

I boiled the chicken first.

Then, tore it apart, cut up my baby carrots and some celery. Poured 2 cans of chicken broth in a pot, 2 cans of water, veggies, chicken, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, onion powder, and a dash of garlic powder. Boiled all of that together for 10 minutes.

Then, I added my egg noodles in (4 handfulls) and brought it all back to a boil, then simmered it for 10 more minutes.

It came out perfect. I don't use celery much, because I don't particularly care for it, so I was afraid it would stay too crunchy, but it didn't... the carrots and the celery were both just right.

Oh, and pris, I never thought to do cornbread on a stovetop. Sounds good.

I don't even have an iron skillet anymore though. :-(

Tisha, your soup and sandwich look delicious!

You bet that soup looks good! I have company in for supper, and we aren't eating until 7:30 and I haven't eaten today and just back from a dental visit, and don't think I could eat anything solid right now if I wanted to, so that soup looks even better and my stomach is growling.

I've had a soup 'thing' all this winter and am making it much more than I used to. I don't know why I hadn't made it more often. I am using coconut's bread directions and it's so good, and such a no-brainer, I keep a batch going almost perpetually. It takes very little effort to throw it in the oven to go with soups, and with a little salad on the side, it's heavenly.

Now, thank's Tish...........I have homemade chicken noodles soup on my brain.

Throw away a cast iron skillet? OMGosh. I love cooking in cast iron, and baking on or in stone. Cast iron is a healthy way to cook (no worries about coatings or aluminum) and it was the original no-stick cookware. It also builds biceps just hoisting it around. LOL.

Cornbread can be dolloped in separate piles into a hot skillet on top of stove then it's easier to turn over to brown well both sides. Sort of like big flattened hushpuppies? I like to add diced onion and/or whole-grain corn to the batter. Or crisp bacon...lol Easier to freeze too and just remove 1 or 2. josh

I have a recipe for a wonderful veggie soup from Weight Watchers - practically no calories and delicious. I'll look for a link and post it. It might even be googlable.

Sheila, I know how the UK is very particular about grammar, so I am quite surprised you'd say "googlable". I know language is fluid, but adding "ing" doesn't make a verb, e.g. bike=biking, so how does "able" make it a word? That's something I fight with LF about. Googlable. It isn't a word. Yet, I LOVE it. That's the fluidity of American's language. Yay! Sorry to hihjack, but I had to note. And. You're an American. Like it or not.

Here's the great thing about making soup - it really clears out the refrigerator. It's turned cold here again, so last night DH thought that a good stockpot soup would be just the thing for supper. He started to use leftovers in the fridge and one little plastic container after another started emerging from it dim recesses. Pretty soon the pot was bubbling away, the sink was full of containers needing to be washed & there was all sorts of room now in the fridge.

Thanks for this post for making us think of soup last night.

andie, I'm glad you enjoyed your soup! :-D

I didn't make more soup last night, but I did whip up some of my cheap and easy chili. It was yummy. Keith will have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. It reheats amazingly well. If it were up to me, I'd have a frito chili pie for supper tonight, but since it's my mother's birthday, we are having either spaghetti or fried chicken (she hasn't decided yet LOL). :-)

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I've been in a soup mood, too. Soup has been on the stove almost every weekend for the last few weeks..curried butternut squash, bean and ham, beef barley, chili, multi-bean..all made in huge batches to put lots in the freezer for later. Funny..I've never really been a soup person, but for some reason it sounds good, feels right, and tastes delicious!

DH was making soup again last night. He scored a ham for $0.99/lb at the grocery store over the weekend - a Smithfield no less with the bone in. So it went into the oven on a very low temperature on Sunday night & last night he removed the bone & into the pot it went.

We'll be having a dramatic warm-up in our weather over the next couple of days. I'm thinking that will mean the end of bubbling pots of soup for a while, but it's been great the past week.

Our weather is going to be in the 60s, 70s, and 80s over the next week or so. So, tonight we are having Chinese buffet and that's fine with me! lol