• 2/3 cup shredded carrots
• 1/3 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 of one 10-14-oz. package American-style cole slaw (mostly shredded white cabbage, plus some shredded carrots and purple cabbage)
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and diced
• 3 cups broth (beef, chicken, or vegetable)\
• 1 medium sized sweet onion, peeled and diced or sliced thinly
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste (comes in a small thin can, about 6 oz.; much thicker than tomato sauce)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 Tablespoon thinly sliced fresh basil leaves OR you can use dried basil or Gourmet Garden basil paste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup chopped green beans, squash, zucchini or bell pepper (or use 1/2 cup of all of them!)

Spray a non-stick skillet with Pam and heat over medium high temperature.  Saute the garlic, onion, and celery 3 minutes.  Add the carrots and keep sautee’ing another 2 minutes.  Ad broth and rest of ingredients and increase temperature to high.  Bring to a boil, stirring to combine all ingredients and break up the tomato paste.   Lower temperature to simmer (about 2 or 3 on a scale of 0-10).  Cover the pot and simmer about 15 minutes.  Serve hot.

Make it TexMex: add a can of Rotel tomatoes and chilies, substitute cumin for the oregano.

Make it Thai: Eliminate the oregano and the last vegetable option (green beans, squash, zucchini, bell pepper) and use 1/2 chopped bok choy instead.  Add in 1 teaspoon fish sauce, 1 Tablespoon diced ginger root, 1 Tablespoon soy sauce, and 1-2 Tablespoons lime juice.