Vegetable Beef Soup

Every year my extended family on my mom's side goes on a beach vacation/ family reunion. We rent a house and spend a week reconnecting and enjoying each other's company. Instead of eating out, each family takes turns cooking. It is tradition that on the first night there every year, we will have vegetable beef soup that my Granny has made and brought from home. We always serve it with cornbread. This soup is an approximation by my mom and me to replicate my Granny's soup. It's not nearly as good! But it's hearty and still pretty tasty. Also, I ran out of room in my crock pot so I didn't get to put in all the ingredients. Luckily, it's hard to mess up soup.

Vegetable Beef Soup

1 lb. round steak, stew meat, or ground chuck
1 large onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
3 stalks celery, sliced
4 carrots, sliced
1 can cut okra in tomatoes
28 oz. can diced tomatoes
16 oz. bag frozen mixed vegetables
15 oz. can kidney beans
About 1 quart water
2-3 tsp. beef bouillon
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the meat with the onion and garlic. Remove excess grease. Add remainder of ingredients and cook until vegetables are tender – at least 2 hours on the stovetop or all day in the crock pot. About 8-10 servings.

I ended up doubling some things (meat, tomatoes) and not others simply because of space issues. And I totally didn't have room for celery or carrots which probably would have made it much tastier. Sorry, guys!