Italian Sausage And Bean Soup

    My daughter, Karrah made dinner for us last night and it was delish. She made Italian Sausage and Bean Soup. It has so much flavor. If you want to try it here's the recipe. By the way it is also lo cal. We found it in the Taste of Home Healthy Cooking Magazine.
     1 lb. bulk Italian sausage
     1 med. onion finely chopped
     3 cloves garlic, sliced (we use the little jar of chopped)
     4 cans reduced sodium chicken broth. 14 1/2oz
     2 cans pinto beans rinsed and drained. 15oz each
     1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
     1 cup medium pearl barley
     1 large carrot, sliced (we used the baby carrots in the bag and sliced them)
     1 celery rib, sliced
     1 tsp. minced fresh sage (we used dried)
     1tsp. minced fresh rosemary or 1/ 8 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed (dried)
     6 cups of chopped fresh kale. (we used mustard greens because we couldn't get kale)

     I sprinkled a little bit of shaved Parmesan cheese on mine. Yumm We also had garlic bread with it.
     1.  In a dutch oven, cook sausage and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Add garlic, cook 1 minute longer. Drain if there is too much grease.
     2.Stir in the broth, beans, tomatoes, barley, carrot, celery, sage and rosemary. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 45 minutes.
     3. Stir in kale, return to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until vegetables are tender and kale is wilted.
    The prep time is only about 20 minutes it's the cooking time that takes a little longer, but you can do other things while your house is smelling delicious.

    I hope you like this it is yummy. According to the mag. 1 1/2 cups of this soup equals 339 calories. That's pretty good for a dinner that is this filling.