Tortellini Soup

• 1 lb Italian Sausage (my mom gets the stuff that's packaged like ground beef, but I could only find the actual sausages. So I just took off the sausage wrappings and broke it into pieces)
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 clove of garlic, minced OR 1 tsp garlic salt
• 5 cups beef broth
• 1 cup water
• 1 large can (~795ml) chopped/diced tomatoes, blended
• 1 small can tomato sauce
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• ½ tsp dried basil
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1½ cups sliced zucchini
• small package of tortellini
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 medium green pepper
• grated Parmesan cheese

1. Brown sausage in frying pan. Once it's cooked, place it in a large pot (sans drippings).
2. In frying pan; sauté onions and garlic in drippings - then add to pot.
3. In pot: add beef broth, 1 cup water, blended tomatoes, tomato sauce, chopped carrots, basil and oregano.
4. cut green pepper in half, remove seeds, and add both halves whole (this is just for the flavoring. If you want to keep the green pepper IN the soup, just chop it and obviously don't remove it at the end).
5. bring to boil and simmer for 30 mins.
6. Cook tortellini separately while soup is simmering.
7. During the last 15 mins: add zuccini and parsley.
8. When soup is done simmering, remove both halves of green pepper (unless you chopped it) and add cooked tortellini - sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to serve.

SO YUMMY!!! This recipe makes a nice BIG pot of soup. Lots of leftovers! Best part: it tastes even BETTER the next day.. and the day after that, too! Enjoy!!!