My turn in the kitchen

So, as a christian who observes Lent (yes, I am all mixed up here), I have chosen to forgo animal meat (but not fish). Inspired by Jamie and Belle's desire to share some tasty recipes, I decided to enter the kitchen and express my creative genius. I use genius here very loosely. Especially in light of the fact that I usually enter the kitchen to move the prepared food to the table for consuming it. I'm watched very closely when I do help in the kitchen to make sure I don't add parts of my hands unintentionally into the meal. Or eat the ingredients before they make it to the meal. I'm often guilty on that count.

For this soup (it's really a stew, come to think of it), I chose to make my life easy and get most of the veggies out of a can. Originally, I bought a pound of carrots, but they were somehow declared deficient and were "removed" during the preparation of the carrots. Yeah, I ate them. Or fed them to the dog who sat expectantly waiting for pre-dinner scraps. (What a mooch.) This soup stew was very easy to make and took me less than 45 minutes from preparation to picture taking. Cleaning the mess I made took me much longer.

Amazingly, the stew came out great with this creative mix of some of my favorite foods, like pasta, corn and carrots. I think the best part of this recipe is that it has much lower sodium, compared to premade soups in a can. And it was both crunchy (the corn) and filling (the pasta).

So, here it is:

Fish and Veggie Stew

This serves 6-8 people (or if you're like me, it serves 4).

Ingredients:

4 to 6 carrots about 8 inches long
1 16 oz can of crisp scalloped sweet corn (white or yellow)
1 14.5 oz can of sliced, peeled unsalted tomatoes
1 6 oz can of golden sweet peas
1 6 oz can of solid white albacore tuna
1 lb of orzo pasta
1 16 oz container of low salt chicken broth (I used Swanson's)
ginger powder
thyme powder
salt
fresh ground pepper

Preperation:

Place about 16 to 20 oz of water in a pot and bring it to a boil. When it boils add a tablespoon of salt.

While waiting for the water to boil, wash, peel and slice the carrots into thin discs about 1/4 inch thick.

Add a cup of orzo into the boiling water and stir vigorously for a minute to make sure they don't stick to each other. Place lid on the pot and keep an eye on it.

Place all of the chicken broth into a 2 and 1/2 sauce pan and place it on the stove at medium low heat. Place the carrots in and allow the broth and carrots to simmer. It is done when you can pierce the carrots with a fork all the way through. Add seasonings to your taste preference.

When you have done this, wash and open the cans for the rest of the items in this recipe. Drain all of the liquids in the corn, peas and tuna. You will be retaining the liquid that comes with the tomato slices.

When the carrots are ready, add the corn, peas and tuna into the sauce pan with the carrots. Break the tuna apart into bite size pieces. Bring this to a boil.

When the orzo is ready, drain the water out, rinse off the excess salt, and add the tomatoes and liquid to it. Gently mix them together. Bring this to a boil.

When both have boiled, add the carrots, broth, peas, corn and tuna to the orzo and tomatoes and gently stir the mixture together.

Allow it to cool and then serve!