Simple Vegetable Soup with Shrimp

 The weather has been crisp and windy lately so I felt like making chicken noodle soup. But I did not defrost the chicken in time nor did I have any noodles. This is chicken noodle soup without chicken or noodles so its just vegetable soup with shrimp. It turned out ok but I would like to improve it next time with chicken and homemade chicken broth.

1) Chop up carrots, celery, onions. Dice garlic and cut up herbs (green onions, basil, mint). Fresh thyme tastes really good with this but sadly I didn't have any. Oh if only I had more thyme...

2) Peel and de-vein shrimp. Cut into halves, sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic powder and place on a cutting board. Place a piece of saran wrap over the shrimp.

3) Take a mallet and pound it like you mean it. Lift the saran wrap, mix up the shrimp and season the other side, then pound again.

4) In a medium pot, heat a bit of oil and start to sautee the ingredients on medium heat in this order: 

garlic and onion, then carrots, then celery. They don't need to be cooked too long but the onion should be translucent. Add the shrimp last and cook until they just turn red. 

5) Add one can of chicken broth and cook on high for a few minutes. Then add some warm water and bring to boil. Once it boils, turn down the heat and salt/pepper to taste.

6) Garnish with herbs and enjoy! Makes about 6 servings of this size.

Pricing: I was already at Target to redeem a free 12 dozen eggs coupon they had mailed to our house so I decided to check out their grocery section. The celery and carrots bags were about $1 something each. Would I shop the produce section at Target again? Not really. It's more expensive and there are fewer options but I bet Target was targeting (tee hee) people who don't want to make multiple stops. Everything else was already at home and we grow our own herbs. Total cost = cheap.