Hearty Soup for a Chilly Day

Hearty Italian Soup for a crowd

To a large soup pot add:

• 2 lbs extra lean ground beef




• browned, crumbled, drained, seasoned with Johnny's Seasoning salt




• 1 gallon can dark red kidney beans - drain


• gallon of water


• 2 jars of spaghetti sauce with mushrooms




• rinse the jars with a little water and pour that into the pot too

Bring to a boil, turn down and simmer at least 30 minutes.

Add 1 package shredded cabbage with carrots (cole slaw mix)

Simmer another 15 minutes over low heat.

This is an extremely versatile soup. Leave out what you don't like, add what you do like to eat. You can cook your own dry beans instead of using canned if you have time.

**OPTIONS**

1. Heart Healthy - no ground beef, more beans


2. Use different types of beans. We like it with a can of garbanzo beans added.


3. GARLIC! We love to add several cloves of garlic to this soup!


4. onions, celery, green bell pepper - sauted first


5. fresh mushrooms or canned


6. extra chuncky spaghetti sauce - primavera


7. Need extra seasoning? Marjoram, Oregano, Basil are all yummy additions


8. leave out the ground beef and add Italian sausage or even polish sausage.


9. pasta just a little bit of those cute bow tie pasta noodles are cute - Remember just a little pasta this is soup not a pasta dish - my family doesn't care for it with any pasta but some people do

This is so easy to make and my family loves it with a hot loaf of bread. (Two or three loaves) If I didn't bake homemade bread then we pick up hot loaves of bread from Albertson's bakery... hot at 4:00 pm daily! LOL

Of course you can make this in smaller batches. I'm use to cooking for a small army! My small army has moved out but I still cook as if I've got a small army at home. I can tell ya, it's really good the next day. Just be sure to refrigerate the left overs.