Beef Orzo Soup

My husband was at hunt camp but I decided with the weather cooling I wanted a pot of homemade soup but what I didn't want was to get soup burnout.  This happens when you eat the same soup over and over for the entire week.  I came up with a way to have five nights of different soups simply by mixing and matching pre-cooked ingredients and adding in a fresh ingredient or two.   The first dish I made using the ingredients was the beef noodle bowl recently posted.

An upcoming Frugal Kitchens 101 (Nov. 29, 2010) will go into greater detail of the method I used for the five different soups.  Honestly it is such an easy method it falls under the duh moment as to why I didn't do this sooner!

Pictured is one of the soups I made that week featuring orzo.  This soup ended up being very different from the beef noodle bowl.  I used some of the same key ingredients but used orzo instead of chow mein noodles and I added in black beans.  I sprinkled in cherry tomato halves and chopped onion but omitted a garnish. 

This was a very tasty soup that was much appreciated on a chilly fall evening.  The interesting thing is by having the ingredients in the refrigerator individually it took me only the length of time to cook the orzo to put the soup together.  The only other prep I did was cut 3 cherry tomatoes and dice a slice of onion to toss on top.  Quite frankly this meal came in at under the 15 minute mark and did I tell you how yummy it was? 

A few things I should point out with respect to any of my homemade soups.  First my soups never have an actual recipe.  They are always toss this in, toss that in and see what happens.  There are always my tried and true basic ingredients but I'm not afraid to experiment when it comes to soups.  Second, the number one requirement for any of my soups is nutrition.  That means I pack soups full of good, hearty ingredients.  Third my soups must look and taste good.  That means I'm looking for good, full bodied soups that get their flavours from with lots of bright colours.