mid-january minestrone

my my. i've been really bad at keeping up with my blog, among other things, this past month. it's already mid-january! where has the time gone?

what have i been up to?

i'll spare you a long, boring story about my life.
here's the point form:
- glamour shotz
- all things christmassy
- short holiday & new years eve with my boyfriend in sunny-but-not-so-warm california
- photoshoots
- photo-editing dates with lightroom


i have many food-things to blog about. we had some tasty food in california - mexican, lebanese, vietnamese... but i'll save those for another night.

i've been trying to grocery shop better (instead of buying whatever i feel like with absolutely no plans in mind), so i've been flipping through my cook-books and trying to pick (easy) meals to cook, then shopping for that. tonight i made minestrone soup from my donna hay cookbook: seasons - the best of donna hay magazine.


here's the recipe with a few of my own modifications:

2-4 T olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed & chopped
2 carrots, (peeled) & chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 bulb baby fennel, chopped (or half a bulb regular fennel)
2 x 397 ml cans chopped tomatoes
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
100g or a couple handfuls of green beans, trimmed & chopped
1 x 397 ml can white cannellini beans, drained
sea salt & cracked black pepper

directions:

- heat a large saucepan/pot over medium to high heat. add oil, onion, garlic, celery, fennel & cook for 5 minutes or until tender.
- add the tomatoes, chicken stock & water. reduce heat, cover & simmer for 25 minutes.
- stir in the green beans and season with salt & pepper. simmer for another 10 minutes.
- stir in white beans & cook for another 5 minutes until beans are tender.
- taste & serve

i served the soup with bread & butter. whole wheat and honey bread from a bread affair (which my grocery store is finally selling! yay!). i warmed it up by wrapping a chunk of it in aluminum foil and tossing it in a 400F oven for about 8 minutes.