Minestrone Soup

Recipe status: List of ingredients is a bit overwhelming, BUT my incredibly picky daughter went back for seconds. It's a keeper. :)
Song: 20,000 Miles Over the Sea - Enigma

2 quarts water
1/2 pound navy beans, cooked until soft and drained
1/2 pound cooked, diced roast beef, drained of fat
1 cup diced celery
2 cup fresh or frozen green beans
2 cups chopped spinach
4 medium tomatoes, diced
1 can crushed, stewed tomatoes
1 cup diced carrots
1 large onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon beef soup base
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons white pepper
4-5 shakes Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons dried oregano
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Using 6-quart kettle or saucepan, combine all ingredients but cheese in order given. Simmer 1 hour, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasonings to taste, grate cheese on soup and serve.

Okay, first of all, this makes a TON of soup. So, you may want to half the recipe, unless you're okay with enough to feed your family again on another night. (Or, if you need to make a meal for another family, this is perfect to split it.)

Here are the changes I made:
Roast beef: I didn't have any, but I did have a few pieces of pork left, so I cooked them up with the worcestershire sauce.
Beef base: I didn't have any beef base, nor did I see any at the store. I just added a couple tablespoons of beef bullion instead.
Fresh basil: No fresh basil, so I used dried basil, and increased the amount just a bit.
Salt: I used natural sea salt.
Carrots: Didn't dice them, just sliced them really thin. It was more visually pleasing that way.
Navy beans: Okay, I don't cook dried beans, I cheat and use canned beans. I did have canned red kidney beans, so I put one can in (after I drained and rinsed.) It didn't look like enough, so I added another can. This time I didn't rinse the beans, I just dumped the whole can in so that it would thicken the broth just a bit. I really liked the red beans in there.

My addition:
Pasta. Gotta have pasta. And there was still enough broth to be able to dump the pasta right in. I added a whole box of the Trofie pasta (little ones that are twisted. So cute!)

My omission: (Not necessarily by my choice though), I completely forgot to grate the cheese on top. Oops. It was still amazing without the cheese. (Not sure if I would have been able to taste it anyway, the veggies & spices were plenty bold.

Next time I make it, I may add a bay leaf or two and a few rosemary sprigs and see how that tastes.