Beans, beans, beans!!

Oh my goodness! I just made THE.BEST.BEAN.SOUP.EVER!!!  And I'm so proud of myself, I made it all up. I could not wait to blog about this, even though it's late and past my bedtime!

I started off yesterday with some dried beans like in the picture above.  You can buy these already mixed like this in the dried beans section (next to rice, I believe).  They are packaged like that with a recipe and spices for soup.  I threw away the spices and opted for fresh veggies instead.  Let me (hopefully) come up with a recipe:

• 2 cups dry bean mixture
• 1 quart Swanson's low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1/2 onion (chopped)
• 2 green bell peppers (chopped)
• 1 red bell pepper (chopped)
• 2 stalks celery (chopped)
• 3 carrots (peeled and chopped)
• 1 quart tomatoes (drained)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/8 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper 

Soak the beans in water overnight.  Drain and rinse.  Place the beans and vegetable stock in large pot.  Bring to a boil.  Add chopped veggies, garlic, tomatoes and spices.  Simmer on low for about 1 1/2 hours.

DELICIOUS!!

 This would be great paired with some brown rice!