Vegetable soup

Sometimes I like to have a nice soup at home that doesn't taste as if it has been mass produced!  Well, I came up with two- made in very similar ways.  I make a vegetable soup and sometimes I turn it into a chicken vegetable soup when I want meat too!  What is great about making your own soup is you can add the vegetables that you want and the amount of seasonings you like to flavor the way your prefer!  First, I will tell you how I make the vegetable soup, then I will tell you how to tweak it to make it easy with chicken.
Vegetable Soup:
2 boxes of chicken stock
Garlic powder  and Lemon pepper - a couple dashes of both
one packet of Lipton chicken noodle soup
2 cans diced tomatoes (I usually use one with garlic and onion added)
2 chicken bullion cubes
A small bag of baby carrots diced up
Cucumber cut into chunks
Celery cut into bite size pieces
Portobello mushroom diced up
Basically you can add any vegetables that you want.  There are times I add leftover green beans or corn to it, because it is there.  I've added small chunks of potatoes before.  The more vegetable you add, the thicker and heartier it will be. Throw everything in the pot and cook until the carrots are soft.  You can always pressure cook the soup to make it go faster!  Obviously, with the chicken stock, it is not a true vegetarian dish, but you can always just use vegetable stock too!
To make it a chicken vegetable soup, don't use the chicken stock.  Take a couple chicken breasts and cook them in about four cups of water and add the seasonings too.  Once the chicken is done, you can cube or shred the chicken and add it back in the broth.  Then, add the vegetables and cook until the carrots (or hardest vegetable is soft). 
Happy Cooking!