Staple Vegetable Soup (plus a failed dessert!)

Soup...

One of the foods I love to cook the most! Mostly because it's so versatile...

It can be chunky, creamy, healthy, not so healthy, vegan, salty, sweet, filling, or used as an entree.
This is the soup I make the most often. It's a staple in my diet because it's filling, filled with vegetables, incredibly tasty, low in calories, and can be easily switched up (change the protein, add or remove vegetables, etc).

Soup porn....

Staple Veggie Soup (this makes two servings)

8 cups water
Chicken broth (I use powdered, 3 large spoonfuls)
2 large carrots
2 large celery stalks
1 medium onion
1 large potato
1 cup cooked corn
Source of protein (chicken, shrimp, beef? For this occasion I used lentils! If you use lentils or other water-absorbing legumes, make sure you have more water.)
Uncooked soup noodles or rice (quantity can depend- I like my soup with a LOT of noodles and almost no broth left)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place water in pot and add a little salt. Bring water to a boil. While the water warms up, chop up carrots, celery stalks, onion and potato.

2. When the water boils, add broth, carrots and celery. Add pepper to taste. Let the soup simmer slowly. After five minutes, add potato and onion. After five more minutes, add noodles and corn. Let simmer for twenty more minutes, then add protein. (If protein was uncooked, add it with the carrots and celery right at the beginning.)

3. Taste to see if the carrot and celery are cooked through. These ingredients take the longest to cook, so when these are done, the rest of the soup should be ready! Enjoy :)

Below: failed attempt at a peanut butter-chocolate-coconut dessert. It tasted good, but the bottom layer wouldn't hold! I will re-post this one when I find a better formula.