Lori'S Mexican Chili Crockpot Soup - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 lbs extra lean ground beef
2 cups onions, diced (1 large onion, can use white, red or a combination)
1 cup celery, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup low-sodium taco seasoning (I use CoffeeB's Taco Seasoning Mix with less salt)
2 cups beef broth (may need more)
1 cup corn
1 (19 ounce) can chickpeas (or your preferred bean)
1 (19 ounce) can kidney beans (or your preferred bean)
1 (10 ounce) can mushrooms, sliced, with juice
1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes, crushed or diced
cheddar cheese, grated (optional)
avocado, diced (optional)
tortilla chips, broken (optional)

Preparation

In a nonstick pan, lightly brown ground beef. If you are using anything other than extra lean beef, you may want to strain off the fat now. Add onion, celery and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes.
Add taco seasoning and beef broth and simmer for 15 minutes. This will infuse a lot of flavour into the ground beef. Meanwhile, add remaining ingredients to the crockpot. You can add the liquid from the beans or not - I did.
Add ground beef mixture to the crockpot. If you find that there isn't enough liquid, add more beef broth. I cooked it on low for 6 hours, but I can't imagine why it can't be cooked longer. The longer you cook soups in a crockpot, the better they taste!
If you can taste the soup partway through, you may want to season it to your tastes at this point. Add some freshly ground pepper, chili powder or any of your favourite spices or seasonings.
Top with grated cheese and diced avocado and tortilla chip pieces if you wish.