Minestrone, Olive Garden Copy-cat

I really enjoyed this one and like Tiana, I love Italian food! I think I'll try to remember to plan on making this the same week as Lasagna (Tiana's spinach recipe : ) or Ratatouille because it uses a lot of the same vegetables and herbs.

A couple of improvisations I made to this recipe: I used chicken broth that I had boiled off of a couple of chicken breasts and added two cubes of chicken boullion. I thought about broiling the chicken with Italian salad dressing, because it's easy and spent all my energy making soup. But just ended up drizzling the chicken with salad dressing! : ) I added yellow squash, because I like it and had it on hand. It tastes a lot like zucchini to me. I didn't have green beans, which would have been yummy!

How does everyone measure their veggies? I'll just add on my eye-ball equivalant.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup white onions, minced or one small yellow onion
1/2 cup zucchini, or one small zucchini
1/2 cup frozen green beans, Italian-cut (a handful)
1/4 cup celery, minced (two small celery sticks)
4 teaspoons garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable broth
30 ounces canned red kidney beans, drained
30 ounces canned white beans, drained
14 ounces diced tomatoes, canned
1/2 cup carrots, julienned or shredded (one carrot stick)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
3 cups hot water
4 cups fresh spinach, small leaves (or four handfuls)
1/2 cup shell pasta

Directions:1. Heat three tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot.
2. Sauté onion, celery, garlic, green beans, and zucchini in the oil for 5 minutes or until onions begin to turn translucent.
3. Add vegetable broth to pot, plus drained tomatoes, beans, carrot, hot water, and spices.
4. Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. 5. Add spinach leaves and pasta and cook for an additional 20 minutes or until desired consistency. Makes about eight 1 1/2 cup servings.

Enjoy!