Shrimp Florentine-ish Soup

Last week before the weather turned crazy warm, we had some great, cool soup weather. I told my internal medicine partner that I was going to go home and make soup and cornbread. I actually followed through on that! I just had to decide what kind of soup to make. I knew I had a frozen vegetable soup starter (peppers, corn, onion, and okra!!!) in the freezer as well as some spinach. Hmmmm....shrimp florentine? So, I stopped by the little grocery store near my house on the way home from the gym and picked up a can (they had no frozen except for big bags) of shrimp and a can of cannelini beans. Put all these flavors together and it's a lovely little soup! I didn't put enough chicken stock, but that's easy to fix when you warm up another bowl. Because of all the veggies, this is the perfect recipe for Sweetnicks' ARF Tuesday. Drop by her site for more great recipes. Shrimp Florentine-ish Soup

1 bag frozen veggie soup starter

1 10 oz (or half a 16 oz bag) frozen spinach

1/2-1 can cannelini beans

1 can shrimp 4-6 cups low sodium chicken stock*

1 can chopped, stewed tomatoes

1 can rotel (I didn't use this this time, but would next time)

garlic powder, to taste (I LOVE this stuff!)

salt, to taste (I didn't use any, as I'm trying to be a good example to my heart failure patients, even if they can't see me!!!)

pepper, to taste

parsley

parmesan cheese

1/4 cup quinoa, if desired (I just had this on hand and wanted to get rid of it!)

Place soup starter veggies and 2 cups chicken stock in a large soup pot. Cook until tender. Add the spinach and quinoa (if using) and cook until spinach is no longer frozen. Add shrimp, tomatoes, beans, and remaining chicken stock. Add garlic powder, salt, pepper, and parsley here. Cook until soup gently boils and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve with fresh grated parmesan cheese, if desired. Goes great with Triscuit thin crisps (LOVE these!) or cornbread.