Yummy, Vegetable Soup!

Okay, so when I was a little girl this was not exactly my favorite meal. Now that I am grown up, however, I can really taste the homey goodness of vegetable beef soup. Especially when Mama has done all the hard work and used just the right amount of vegetables. Yesterday I decided to put my pretty new crock pot and some of the Christmas gifts from Mama & Daddy to use. I got out one jar of the tomato based vegetable soup base, some barley and the directions on how to use the automatic settings and the probe on the new pot. It seemed pretty easy ... I just browned the ground beef in steak dust seasoning and added it, along with about a cup and a half of barley, and one jar of soup, set the timer to automatic - stew - and dropped the probe in. About an hour into, I looked and the barley had soaked up all the liquid, so I added Jar #2 of Mama's base. It wasn't long until I realized that I was going to need even more liquid (that barley was sure thirsty.) I added a can of beef stock, waited, then added one more jar of Mama's soup mix. All of a sudden I realized my 6 quart crock pot was slap full of vegetable soup and there was only me and Frank to eat it! Oh well, it was quite delicious so I had two bowls yesterday, one for lunch today, and just finished my fourth bowl (only a cup each.) Hard to count the points but I am hoping they weren't too much. Frank took about 2 cups with him to work today and agreed with me that it was pretty good stuff. He said I definitely had to share the credit with Mama - I thought it generous I got to share - I probably would say she got ALL the credit! Afterall, even if it wasn't my favorite soup (that's chicken noodle) I was always paying attention to how she made it and what it SHOULD taste like. Well, anyway, thanks Mama, it was delicious ... oh, and I saved the jars in case you want to refill them again this Christmas :)