Two soups recipes

17 Bean Soup

One bag Trader Joe's 17 Beans and Barley (or just about any 16 oz bag of mixed beans will do. Heck, if you're violently opposed to bean miscegenation, just about any bag of dry beans is fine. I think navy beans would work particularly well. But mixed beans are more interesting, in the great tradition of the American melting pot)
4 leeks, roots and greens chopped off, split lengthwise and chopped into half inch pieces (I used this many leeks because that's how many I had. You could also use two leeks and then something like a bell pepper and a cup of chopped celery or onion)
6 cups beef or vegetable broth (I used beef. I need to find an East Coast source for the vegatable broth I used to use. Using vegetable broth can be a dicey proposition depending on the ingredients, but this brand is yummy, and it even uses leeks so it would match this soup well)
One cup carrot, chopped
4 oz pancetta, diced (if your grocery store's deli isn't fancy-pants enough to carry pancetta, regular plain-jane bacon would work)
One can diced tomatoes
1 T oregano
1 1/2 tsp basil

Soak the beans overnight in cold water. Drain and rinse the beans, then put in a pot and cover with broth.

Sautee the pancetta in a frying pan until a fair amount of fat is rendered out (I wound up adding some olive oil to the pan as well), then add the leeks and carrots. Sautee until the vegetables are soft, then add to the soup, along with tomatoes. Simmer on the stove for an hour (or until the beans are cooked), or cook in a slow cooker for 6-8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. Serve with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top

Calories: 280 Fat: 5 g Carbohydrates: 40 g Fiber: 12 g Protein: 17 g

Hamburger soup (adapted from the Sunset Crockpot Cookbook, circa roughly 1968)

16 oz cooked pasta (the original recipe calls for macaroni, but I say throw aside the shackles of conventional bourgeois pasta shapes and go for the gusto! Use a penne or get really saucy with a three color rotini. Also: as a diet tip, Barilla Plus pasta has a ton of extra fiber and protein, yet by some dark and unholy magic still tastes like normal pasta. And they did it without adding tons of soy, which made me a little too excited when I found that out. Hey, you spend a year religiously avoiding soy while breastfeeding and you too will know that pathetic joy)
1 pound ground beef or turkey
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup onions, chopped
4 cups beef broth (and here we get to where I made the main changes. The original recipe called for a packet of onion soup mix, which is how you can tell this is a cookbook from the 60s, when it was apparently just too hard to chop an onion and pour in some broth. Also, without the soup mix, you might miss getting your year's allowance of sodium)
1 can tomato soup
1 tsp oregano (I tend to be quite profligate with oregano, so I'm sure I use more than this)
1/4 tsp season salt
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Brown the ground meat, although that's not strictly necessary and you can just crumble it into the pot. Add everything except cheese and pasta to the pot, simmer for half an hour (until meat is cooked and vegetables are soft) or put in slow cooker for 6 hours on low or 3 on high. Add pasta and cheese and cook for another 15 minutes.