I will often add hamburger to the veggie soup but I love the idea of doing it just for him. That would be a huge money saver! Great idea!!
It's my feeling that veggie soup can last for MANY days -- just so long as it is all heated to a boil every other day or so; however, I don't like the taste & texture of the re-boiled hamburger in old veggie soup, so I only put it in one bowl, or in one separate portion which I carefully keep separated from the "Mother Pot" of soup, LOL - such a tightwad!
Another extremely inexpensive way to doctor up your hubbie's Italian Soup is to take a about 5 Italian MEATBALLS out of your freezer and gently nuke them in the microwave, plop them into his soup bowl, and then ladle the soup into it and stir well.
Some cream soups, such as cream of mushroom become almost fancy by the edition of smallish homemade Swedish Meatballs.
And as you point out, since you're only doing to do this for one bowl of soup, it won't be at all expensive!
When I want some in soup, I simply nuke one package for each bowl.
I won't put wild rice in a pot of soup -- it would boil away and disappear into nothing; by adding just a bit to the bowl, you can actually SEE it and TASTE it.
Some people think that wild rice costs way too much money -- but the way I use it, it really dresses up some plain boring foods into real respectability, LOL.
Perhaps your husband would enjoy this, too.