We had our second piano lesson last week. It makes me chuckle, because unlike gross motor skill things like soccer, this is proving to be…challenging for our young man. He is already frustrated that he cannot magically play the songs we sing at church!

Anyway, I “paid” this week with beef vegetable soup and cornbread (made from the every faithful blue Jiffy box, so no recipe there). I also threw in a few jars of applesauce I had canned back in October.

Beef Vegetable Soup

• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef, browned & drained
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 14 oz can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 14 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups V8 (a soda sized can, or two small cans)
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 1 tbsp original Mrs. Dash (in the yellow bottle)
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 16 oz bag frozen mixed vegetables

In a large soup pot, brown the ground beef, adding the onions toward the end. Drain. Return the beef & onions to the pot, add the rest of the ingredients. Stir and simmer. The longer this simmers, the better it tastes. In fact, this is one of those soups that tastes better the next day, actually.

This soup freezes really well, but doesn’t hold up so well in the crock pot. I made it on Wednesday, kept it in the fridge overnight, and as soon as we got home from CC on Thursday, I put it on the stove to simmer until dinner. That worked just fine!

Enjoy!