Cheating with Soup

Making handmade and homemade meals is one of my favorite things to do. But I'm not always in the mood for a long cooking session (especially with my new jobs all starting soon!) or don't have lots of stuff to work with. Pre-made soups are perfect because they allow me to have the majority of the cooking already done, and I can just add some stuff to it and and feel like a champion chef. And I like that!

Things I do with canned/boxed soups:
-Add a can of beans. Probably something that I think goes with the soup.
-Add a grain. Some of my favorites are brown rice, barley, and buckwheat.
-Garnish the heck out of them. Bread, cilantro, spices!
-Pour a soup over some cooked pasta; I like thicker and more creamy soups for this, but I am sure it can work for whatever
-Cook my own veggies and add them

Yesterday I found a Split Pea soup and thought it sounded nice, but not enough. I fried up some polenta rounds to add to the mix. I've never paired these two things together, but I did look at the ingredient list for the soup and decided I'd go for it. The polenta was fried in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper until browned.

This bowl is not mine (Casey, why do I have your bowl?). I've just noticed that it strongly adds to the yellowness of this dish. It's an everyday struggle for me to break free from monochromatic meals. Oh well, this was pretty good still.