Italian Sausage Soup

My husband's leave ended and he left at the beginning of the week.  Sometimes I don't know how we survive without him here to cook us dinner.  He is an amazing cook, and I am well just so-so compared to him.  About 1815 I realize I haven't even started dinner so looking around to see what I can make kids.  Tonight we ended up having Italian Sausage Soup.  It was pretty easy to make and something even the kids could help make.  The nice thing about this is you can add other veggies that you like or keep it simple like we did. 

4 links of Italian Sausage of your choice.
garlic cloves or squeeze garlic  (2 - 4 cloves or squeeze some out of tube)
1 medium onion diced
3 cans of beef broth
1 can of diced tomatoes  (28 oz)
3-4 medium to large potatoes diced small
2 small to medium carrots sliced thin
basil
black pepper
and pastina (little stars) optional

Take the casing off the sausage and place in the pot with the diced onions, garlic and brown it.  You want to break it apart as you cook it.  Once it is brown add the cans of beef broth  diced tomatoes, diced potatoes, and sliced carrots.  You want to bring this to a boil and then lower to a simmer and cook until the potatoes and carrots soften up.  Add basil and pepper to taste.  You can add salt too but I try to leave that out and let people add it themselves if they really want it.  While this is simmering in cook pastina or orzo  as directions say.  I prefer to keep the pasta in a different container so people can add as little or as much as they prefer.  This is also be a great recipe to put in the crock pot on low and let cook for several hours too if you prefer to not use the stove at all. 

I prefer to use fresh tomatoes but when in a pinch like tonight canned ones have to do.  Hopefully as I continue this blog I will get better taking pictures.  I thought about the pictures after I started so some of the pictures don't show same measurements that I used. 

Great way to have your children get involved is to let children count out the ingredients or help pick out ingredients for the soup.  Older children can help peel and cut up the vegetables or even help brown the sausage.  My four year old also helped by adding the pastina to each bowl of soup.  If you have a picky eater a great way to include your child in the meal is just create a bowl of broth and pasta and leave out the meat and veggies.  ~A