Vegetable Beef Soup - Basic Recipe - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 lb ground round
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrot
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 2 cups tomato juice or 3 cups v 8 vegetable juice
2 (10 1/2 ounce) cans condensed beef broth
2 1/2 cups water
1 (15 ounce) can cut green beans, drained
3 cups vegetables, of choice (yellow corn, shoe-peg corn, lima or butter beans, green peas, large potato, peeled and diced, whatev)
1 1/2 tablespoons parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation

Brown meat in large pot along w/ onions, celery, and carrots.
Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil.
Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30-45 mins til veggies and barley are done.
Note #1: I've been adding 1/2 cup pearl barley to the soup, which will be done in the amount of simmering time. Quick barley takes only 10 minutes to cook so you could add later.
Note #2: I've found that adding pasta, while good at first, it continues to absorb the soup liquid and get really big and the soup becomes more like a stew. If you'd like noodles, I would cook them separately and add them to the bowl just before ladling in the soup.
Note #3: You could also add rice, if you would like.