Hamburger Veggie Soup

Good fall morning!! Here where we are it's starting to get chilly at night. This morning at 6:45 it was 47° outside and 64° inside - and we have windows open (well, not all the windows, and not all the way open) in the house :) That also means that we (more like I) drug out the comforter and put it on the bed to stay warm at night. I also dug out my "winter" bathrobe to throw on while I get Daniel's breakfast ready and get him on his way (and blog, and eat breakfast... and anything else that I do before actually getting dressed!).

This weather - plus my extreme frugality right now - has had me looking to soups and stews this week. Yesterday I tried this recipe, but tweaked it to fit my own liking. Oh, it was very yummy!! You could easily cut the hamburger amount back, or even double all of the other ingredients to make a BIG batch of soup, and either have lots of leftovers or freeze some for later. And I served it with a huge, crusty loaf of fresh from the oven french bread, oooo-la-la!! You can click the link to see the original recipe, but I'm going to write my version here in the post.

Gayle so kindly hosts a Friday Recipe Swap each Friday over on her Grocery Cart Challenge blog. Scoot on over there for more yummy recipes!!

Hamburger Veggie Soup
1 lb hamburger
1 onion, chopped
1 can green beans, drained - reserve juice
1 can corn, drained - reserve juice
2 cups sliced carrots
1 can diced tomatoes
2 blocks beef bouillon
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
water
1/2 cup rice

(This recipe is supposed to be a crockpot recipe, but I forgot about making it until too late, so I just simmered it on the stove for a couple hours, my directions are for the stove-top method.)

Brown hamburger, drain. Add onion, beans, corn, carrots, tomatoes, Worcestershire Sauce and Cream of Mushroom soup.

To reserved bean/corn juice, add enough water to make 3 cups. Dissolve bouillon cubes most of the way in juice/water, add to soup mixture.

About 30 - 40 minutes before serving, add 1/2 cup rice* to soup, stir occasionally.

*Probably if I were doing it in the crockpot, I'd add the rice at the beginning when I put everything else in.

Daniel voted to add the rice since he is not a "liquid soup" person - he likes his soup to be pretty hearty. The 1/2 cup really helped out with that. We even had his parents over to eat with us! This recipe fed 4 of us nicely. The french bread, wow. It was my bread machine recipe, but the bread machine cycle for that was going to take too long. So I just mixed it up on the dough setting, and 30 min. from the end of the dough cycle (it's rising the 2nd time) I pulled it out and shaped it into a huge french loaf, put it on a greased baking sheet, and let it rise on top of the warm stove for about 30 minutes, then baked it for about 35 minutes. It had a nice, crunchy crust, and was the best french bread I've had! I even cut the big slashes in the top of the loaf before baking it so it even looked the part!! I wanted to take a picture, but didn't have time to.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this recipe!!