Illness Day 7 and the trouble with soup

I have gotten sick more times this year than I have in probably the past decade. My co-worker, who oscillates between calling me the socialist and the watermelon, comes by daily to remind me that I'm only sick because I "don't eat no meat." Over the past month, I had been doing remarkably well defending myself and finally even becoming victorious on a few of our various political debates, but days of incessant coughing and fatigue have left my voice sounding like that of a whining toad, thwarting any defense I try to make against his verbal antics. Mainly he has been alleging that the only effective remedy for my ailment would be the fatty broth of a good chicken noodle soup (and also insisting that the reason I'm getting sick so often is because I've become a vegetarian). Although I do not doubt that my poor nutrition and general disinterest in eating of late is partially at fault, being vegetarian in itself is not the problem but rather my laziness.

This whole week I've been struggling to find foods that are nutritious and simplistic enough for me to prepare in my weakened state. I first went for the canned soup aisle, frustratingly finding that the majority of vegetable soups contain beef or chicken broth. (This delayed revelation is due to the fact that I generally don't drink soup, particularly canned.) I bought a variety, consisting of whichever ones I could find, but found them all rather disagreeable (as my illness got worse, anything with more than a mild taste or smell became noxious) and instead stuck to a diet of plain oatmeal and periodically forced orange juice. Yesterday I again tried Amy's No Chicken Noodle Soup and remembered why I never bought it again after the first time years ago: even after adding water to neutralize its excessive saltiness and thereby disobeying the can's orders, the soggy spaghetti noodles and the tofu chunks, which were supposed to taste like chicken but had the consistency of over-chewed gum, made the soup still too unbearable to swallow.

Today I brought a can of vegetable soup to work for lunch, only to notice during the mid-morning the words "beef broth" on the ingredients list. I tried to trade it with one from my co-worker friend's stock, but all of his were tainted similarly. I left work early and went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients necessary to make my own damn soup and, as simple as it was, it turned out to be the best thing I've eaten all week (see recipe below).

I need to expand my culinary repertoire beyond the ten or so dishes I know how to make from fresh ingredients before I slowly starve myself to death. (I'm not even going to breach the subject of all the toxins that processed foods contain and their damaging effects.) I have a whole stack of untested recipes, so I'll just start working my way through those, tweaking them to taste until I get a feel for what I'm doing, all in the hopes of regaining a little creativity and health in a single activity.

Perhaps I'll continue to post the best recipes here pretending that someone actually has interest in my kitchen endeavors.

Ingredients:
6 tomatillos
1 large onion
1 red pepper
1 jalapeño
3 carrots
1 1/2 cups of elbow pasta
2 cans of white beans
1 small can of diced chilies
4 cans of vegetable broth

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Cut tomatillos, onion, pepper, and jalapeño into large pieces. Line a baking sheet with foil and oil (or non-stick spray) the bottom. Toss vegetables with a little olive oil and spread evenly onto baking sheet. Roast vegetables for about 20min in the oven or until edges are charred a bit. Blend roasted vegetables in a food processor (or blender) for a few turns until diced (not puréed).
Chop carrots into circles and boil until tender.
Cook pasta until al dente.
Boil vegetable broth in a large pot. Add white beans, carrots, roasted vegetables, chilies, and pasta. Cover and let simmer until ready to eat.