Vegetable Beef Soup

I wanted to try my hand at making soup...something I've never done before. So yesterday I did it and it was incredible. It's a slow-cooker recipe, but I imagine you could also do it on the stovetop if you don't have a slow-cooker.

1 lb. stew beef, diced into small pieces
3 regular sized cans of Mixed Vegetables including juice (I used the Compliments brand from Sobeys)
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 of a 900mL box of Campbell's low sodium Beef Broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients into the slow cooker and mix well. Cook on low for 6 hours. We actually did it on low for 4 hours and then high for 1 hour at the end, so that works as well.

Of course, if you had lots of time (and didn't have a toddler to deal with) you could chop up fresh veggies of your choice and put those in the soup instead of the canned veggies. This is just the quick-and-easy (somewhat cheating) way to make a delicious soup without spending a lot of time doing it. The part that took me the most time was dicing up the pieces of stew meat.

Alex's Burger-n-Rice Casserole

I started a new job yesterday, so Alex has been in charge of cooking supper the last couple of days. Tonight, he made up a new casserole and it is AMAZING. All three of us loved it and I told him he could make it again any time. Then I proceeded to ask him for the recipe, so I could share it with everybody. So here we go, Alex's Burger-n-Rice Casserole!

2 cups of long-grain rice, uncooked (do not use instant or minute rice)
1+ lb ground beef
1 can of chili style kidney beans, drained
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 1/2 cups diced carrots
1 cup diced onions
2 tbsp (approx) minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp Club House Italian Seasoning
Dash basil
Dash sage
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of shredded cheese (1 cup mozza, 1 cup old cheddar)

Cook rice according to directions on package, set aside.
Brown rice with 1 teaspoon italian seasoning. Drain and set aside.
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large wok, stir fry onions, carrots, green peppers, the rest of the italian seasoning, basil, sage, salt, pepper and garlic until the onions are clear.
Mix in rice, kidney beans and hamburger.
Put in a casserole dish (or two), cover with the shredded cheese, and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Note: This makes a HUGE amount of food, so make sure you use a really big wok. That's also why I said the (or two) when I spoke of the casserole dish. It might be too much to fit in one dish.