Italian Chicken Sausage Soup

Easter was wonderful this year. I hope everyone got to spend time with the people they love. We got to stay home this year and everyone came to us! It was wonderful. Our church service was awesome in the morning. I can not tell you how blessed we are with this church and church family in our lives.

We were not having our Easter meal until closer to dinner time this year and I don't know about anyone else but when I get out of church around noon I am starving! I decided to make some soup that I had been planning to make the day before, but got way too busy to make, for our lunch on Easter day. Luckily both my husbands parent's and my parent's would be coming early to enjoy lunch. I love feeding people and it was a bonus for the kids to have their Grandparent's to play with while I got things prepared for lunch and then for dinner. I figured soup wouldn't be too terribly filling but we wouldn't be starving until dinner and it's always the easiest, one pot type of thing to whip up. I was running a little behind so I was a little more frantic than normal to get it done since I was starving and so was everyone else. I did also have munchies to put out but still! Actually some of the things I had planned to put out never even went out which means...SCORE! The hubby and I can have a little wine tonight, light the fire pit, have some good munchies, and enjoy some quiet time just the two of us once we tuck the kiddos in to bed tonight.

Just a word of warning on this soup...it makes a TON so if you don't expect to use it all up you can just pop it into freezer safe containers for the next time you want soup with out making it from scratch. Then all you have to do is pull it out of the freezer and put it in a pot on the stove to heat back up. It's that easy. Or even better yet...share some with friends or neighbors. Who doesn't like to get a nice surprise like that?! We have had neighbors stop by with warm zucchini bread right from the oven and warm whole wheat bread. Did I mention how much I love our neighbors? We have the best neighbors where we live.

Italian Chicken Sausage Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 pkgs Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage
• 2 (32 oz) containers of Chicken Broth
• 4 cups (total) of chopped Carrots, Onions, Celery
• 1 (10 oz) pkg Frozen Chopped Spinach
• 1 pkg of Gnocchi **You can substitute pasta.
• 1 large can of Stewed Tomatoes **Break tomatoes into smaller pieces
• 1 Tbsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 Tbsp Fennel Seeds
• 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
• Cayenne Pepper (I added this to taste. I like my soup a lil' spicy!)
• Super Secret Ingredient: Aw Shucks Seasoning
  (Again...added to taste. Thanks, Dad for the suggestion!)

Directions:

1. Break sausage up into bite sized pieces and brown up in a little EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil for you non-Rachel Ray watching peeps out there) in the bottom of a pot. Remove and set aside.
2. Add a little more EVOO to the pot and throw all the veggies, except the spinach, in the pot with spices. Cook until onion is translucent scraping up the little browned pieces of sausage as you go.
3. Put sausage, spinach, and liquids back into the pot and bring to a boil.
4. Once boiling, add Gnocchi.
5. Enjoy!  (o;

This soup was a hit and I know it's going to be a staple in our house especially this coming fall and winter. It's getting to the point where it's starting to warm up here in our area and I am just about ready to retire my soups and bust out the salad recipes! That's an exciting this. Can I just say that I don't know about anyone else and I know we are just waiting for the warmer weather and the summer to hit BUT just thinking about the fall coming with all it's warm soups, stews, cool weather, harvest activities, and the smell of crisp air with that wood fire smell in the air gets me all giddy inside! This must be what we will experience after this life. It never gets old. I get excited for each season for it's own joy and excitement it brings and usually way in advance. It's so funny. I hope I am not the only one but something tells me that I'm not!

I hope you have a blessed day! †

·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ Rebecca ·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ