Comfort Soup

It seems as though my kids can't stay well this year! It's one cold after another, croup, stomach bugs.. Just when everyone is snot free and we have a few days to play one of them catches something and we're back at being stuck at home.. waiting it out..
So a staple in our house this "winter" has been soups. I remember my friends talking about just throwing soups together out of whatever they had on hand! This blew my mind! I was in such awe of them! Then tried it a few times and it really is so easy!
We normally make our own broth. We made a ton from our turkey from Thanksgiving! Just froze it and then pull it out when needed. We had a huge turkey this year and had a TON of leftovers. So we have little baggies of that frozen too. But this wonderful comfort soup can be made with whatever you have on hand! That's the wonderfulness of it!! Plus there are no measurements, just some pouring and shaking!

Here is how I usually make mine (now that I am an expert and all!)

Broth- normally chicken or turkey- Probably the same amount as a box of broth from store (easy to keep those on hand too)
Meat- again normally turkey or chicken leftovers, cut up
2-3 carrots- diced very small
1/4 of an onion- diced very small
2 cloves of garlic
Pasta, I love using the mini pasta or breaking up spaghetti noodles really small too
a handful of frozen peas
a potato- peeled & diced small
a few dashes of paprika
dashes of dried basil and oregano (my little guy has texture issues with these in his soup so I leave them out now)
and that's my normal comfort soup... Again it all depends what I have on hand. I've thrown in beans, bell peppers, celery, broccoli.. the combinations are endless. We always add saltine crackers to ours and if we have it on hand some chopped cilantro too. Toppings are just as endless as what goes inside the soup! And buy making your own broth or buying the low sodium you can monitor your salt intake too!