Momma's Vegetable Beef Stew

When I was about six years old, my mother took me to a few Weight Watchers meetings...

No. This isn't a weight loss post...

Although, it does bring up the thought that I really SHOULD try that sometime...

To lose weight, I mean. Hmph.

ANYWAY! At one of those meetings -at least- they gave out a recipe for a garden soup that is now one of my MOST FLAVORite foods ever! Honest. We make it a lot during the cold months, and living up here in PacNW, we have lots of cold months! It is an extremely easy and inexpensive meal to make.

While I couldn't find the original WW recipe, this is a similar vegetable soup recipe found on a blog called A Veggie Venture. It calls for vegetable broth, garlic, onion, carrot, cabbage, tomato paste, green beans, basil, oregano, and salt. I like my soup to have a little more body, so I have always added yellow crookneck squash and zucchini. We never ate cabbage in my house as a kid *shrug* so, instead of that, we use quartered Brussels sprouts. Trust me. I adore Brussels sprouts in this soup... my kids actually ARGUE over who gets the MOST in their bowl! Seriously. I'm not just sayin' that to get props. No, really.... ah, well, thanks!

So, my typical recipe includes: canned stewed tomatoes, onions, green beans, cauliflower, corn, carrots, garlic, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, crookneck squash, zucchini,  home-made salsa, vegetable broth or bullion, salt/pepper/Italian seasonings/crushed red pepper flakes and a 4-6 oz bone&skin-less chicken breast diced or shredded. This means that by the "old" standards, this soup is more accurately dubbed - 4point Chicken Veggie Soup. I don't care.... I don't count points... I just LOVE this soup!

Today, I didn't have any vegetable broth.... or chicken stock. So instead I used some left over roast beef stock that my mother and daughter had frozen late last month. (They took all of the meat and veggies we had left and mixed them with a gravy my eleven year old made from the crock pot juices! It was awesome for her first 'from scratch' gravy) To make it taste better with the beef, I omitted the salsa. I have a fabulous loaf of fresh French bread ready to break open and sop up the tasty broth at lunch! I can't wait!


Here is my Vegetable Beef Stew recipe:

3c reserved roastbeef pieces and gravy - including vegetable pieces

1 Onion -diced 
3 Carrots - rough chop  
3 Cans stewed tomatoes

1lb fresh Green beans - snapped to size 
1/2 lb fresh Brussels sprouts - halved

3 small Zucchini and 3 small Crookneck squash - cut in half, chopped rough

4 medium potatoes- quatered, chopped, boiled with salt

1 cup water   
Seasonings to taste (basil, oregano, thyme, salt, cracked pepper, bay leaf) 

Combine all ingredients in a large stock pot and allow to simmer, stirring occasionally, for at least 1 hour.  Serve and enjoy!

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edited to avoid unintentional copyright infringements