Homemade Vegetable Soup

When Dewayne and I first got married I really didn't care for Vegetable Soup. He loved how his mom fixed it, so we called and got the recipe. I have been fixing it the same since and I now love it too. I think my mom-in-law only uses corn and potatoes in hers. I add more vegetables and you can add or leave out whatever you like. If you add more vegetables, you may want to add more tomato soup and water. You could also use prepared fresh vegetables instead of canned. I have made big batches of this soup, put it in quart jars while it is still extremely hot, put jar lids and rings on. The lids seal and when we needed something quick, I just open a jar and heat it up. The longest I kept mine was a couple of months.

Ingredients:

*1 lb. ground beef

*4 (10.75 oz.) cans condensed tomato soup

*4 cans water (use the empty soup cans)

*1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes

*1 (15.25 oz.) can whole kernel corn, drained

*1 (15.5 oz.) can red kidney beans, drained & rinsed

* (14.5 oz. ) can sliced carrots, drained

*2 (14.5 oz.) cans green beans , drained (I use 1 qt. home canned green beans)

*1/2 small onion, chopped

*1 tsp. salt

*1 tsp. pepper

*3 lg. potatoes (diced to whatever size you prefer)

Directions:

*Fry the ground beef and drain. You can fry the onion with your ground beef, cook it with you potatoes or just put in with the soup, whichever you prefer. I usually fry mine with the ground beef, but forgot today, so I just chopped the onion, cried like a baby and sauteed it in a pan by itself in enough butter to cover pan (if you sautee by itself, stir until it is finished or it will burn) and threw it in the pot.

*Add the tomato soup and water to a large pot and stir to combine. Add all your vegetables except for the potatoes. You can leave out the kidney beans until the end too, but I just throw mine in, in the beginning. Add the salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

*Start heat on medium to medium high. When the soup starts to boil turn down to simmer and let cook 1 to 2 hours. You can let it cook longer if you have the time. The longer it simmers, the better it is. The pot I am cooking today has been on close to 3 hours. Make sure to stir often, to prevent sticking on the bottom of the pot.

*About 30 minutes before soup is ready to serve, cook your potatoes in water close to the desired tenderness, drain and add to soup. Cook for 20 or 30 minutes longer, making sure your potatoes don't get too soft.

A CUTE & TRUE STORY ABOUT VEGETABLE SOUP:

Dewayne likes to eat peanut butter sandwiches with his vegatable soup. We used to spend alot of time with my mammaw and we got her on the vegetable soup kick. Dewayne told her to try the peanut butter sandwiches with the soup next time she had soup. It went a few weeks and we were visiting, she told us that she tried putting the peanut butter in her soup. She had thought we said to put the peanut butter in her bowl of soup. She said it was pretty good (her pretty good, was not too good). I can't imagine what it tasted like and don't plan to find out.