So my Gma is an amazing cook. She can make soup out of anything. But one of the soups she used to routinely make was actually chili. But thinner/more broth and she would toss in some noodles.

I make a similar Chili soup- but with two real differences. I add squash or pumpkin purée and I do NOT use ground beef- sorry GmaG.

• One or two onions, chopped into large pieces.
• A little butter or oil- maybe a teaspoon or two to sauté the onions. I use garlic infused olive oil.
• One normal can- like the 10 or 11oz- of tomato soup.
• Tomatoes. You can use a can of diced when in a pinch, but I normally have some cherry or other tomatoes that got tossed in the freezer before they went bad, and I normally use those.
• Two cans of kidney beans- I use the NO SALT added – sorry my sodium queen GmaG- no extra salt is better!
• One quart bag of any type of cooked left over, shredded, meat. I like to make roasts and then we can use the meat for soups, chili, tacos, pot pies… so I always make extra when I make a roast to freeze it.
• 6 to 8 cubes of purée pumpkin or squash. I go crazy at the last fall farmers market and cook and freeze squash in ice cube trays. Then pop out the cubes into a gallon bag to be used all winter.
• Handful of spaghetti noodles. It’s probably about one serving per the package.
• Penzeys chili powder.

Sauté the onions until soft in the garlic olive oil. Add the tomato soup. And two cans of water, so basically you have very thin tomato soup with onions at this point.

Add your tomatoes, kidney beans, cubes, meat, and chili powder. Bring close to a boil and add in the noodles, turn off the pot and walk away for 30 to 60 minutes. Add chili powder to your taste, go light as you can always add more now or later.

During this time I normally squeeze in a run, or Jillian DVD, or a few of the 10 minute solution DVDs.

I come back to the stove and Dinner is served! It’s normally plenty warm, but you can turn the burner back on for a few minutes and give it a stir to be safe.