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Vegetable Beef Soup

This is a soup I made up. Great on a day when the snow is coming down in huge fluffy flakes - like today!

1 lb. Beef stew meat, cut into 1/2 inch cubes ***
1 cup onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups beef broth
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Brown meat in a small amount of oil in a large soup pot. When meat is partially cooked, add onion and celery. Saute until meat begins to brown and vegetables are softened. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute more.

Add 4 cups beef broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Let simmer 1 1/2 hours, or until meat is tender.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the soup pot. Simmer slowly until vegetables are cooked.

*** I like to use 1 lb. of diced left-over pot roast instead of the stew meat. If you do this, skip the 1 1/2 hour cooking time for just the meat, sauté the celery and onion and garlic alone and then combine all the ingredients and let simmer.

This works well in a crock pot – because you don’t have to really watch it. Just brown the meat and onion and celery on the stove and then add to the crock pot. Simmer on high for the first 1 1/2 hours if using stew meat. Then on low a few hours until the vegetables are done.

Also made bread to go with it:

And Biscotti:

Other two recipes are copyrighted, so can’t print here… I am so tired… too much cooking…