Desperation Soup!!!

I had (and still have) no plans on attending family game night with the church youth group tonight. AND I thought none of my kids were attending either.  WRONG.  One decided to go, so I had to come up with soup REALLY fast for them to take with them.  I will not send my kid empty-handed!

So now, I go into the kitchen and do what I do best....make something wonderful out of whatever is in my cupboards. I should be named Little Miss Hubboard.  I ended up making Vegetable Beef Noodle:

This is what is in it:

1 pound of ground beef, cooked
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
Carrots
Green peas
Corn
Broccolli florets
Egg noodles
Salt & Pepper
Dry brown gravy mix (yes, I went there....)

While I thawed the hamburger out in the microwave, I sauteed the onion and bell pepper in a scant bit of olive oil. I added the smashed garlic in as well.  After the ground chuck (poor chuck) was thawed I added it to my pot as well. I guess I should explain I went ahead and started with my soup pot, no need to get TWO pans dirty.

Of course, the whole two pans thing did not, well, PAN out! I used a second pot to heat about 4 cups or so of water and added a generous dumping of the dry brown gravy mix.  I did not measure, sorry! I whisked this together until it began to boil then removed from the heat.

I drained the first pot of ground chuck (poor chuck), onions and peppers of the grease from the hamburger.  I then tossed in the vegetables I had from my freezer (the carrots, peas, corn, broccolli). Next came several cups of water and I turned the heat up to high to get a boil going. 

I then added the brown gravy mix I had set aside.  I stirred it well and then washed the pot so that I could use it again (I was determined not to get a THIRD pot dirty!) so I could boil the egg noodles.  I only used 2/3 of the bag of egg noodles.  When they were almost al-dente, I added them to the soup.

It actually tastes pretty good for a desperation move!! Now to go wash all those pots!!

There is actually a very good reason why I was not going to Family Game night. I am in the midst of preparing for something VERY big that I cannot as yet reveal on this website! But when I can, I will let you in on the secret!!!!