I hate to waste food. Thus, my habit is to fill Ziplock freezer bags with odds and ends such as wilted celery, onions, tomatoes, extra veggies left over from meals, etc. I just noticed that I was accumulating quite a crop of these ‘extras’ so I decided to make soup. I began with some rock solid frozen stew meat at the bottom of my crock pot, and opened up my freezer bags, dumping everything else on top of the meat. I even had a couple of baggies of diced red and green peppers this time for extra kick. Fun! I added a few bay leaves and a couple of tablespoons of beef broth concentrate and crowned the whole thing with 2 bags of frozen mixed veggies (chopped carrots, green beans, corn and peas). Then I turned it on low and went to bed.

8 hours later I got up to make our morning coffee. I could smell the fragrance of stewing meat and veggies through the whole house…mmm…great food for a rainy, winter day. I added about a quart of beef broth to finish out the soup along with some salt and pepper.

All that was left to do was prepare a tossed salad and bake a whole wheat loaf in my bread machine. YUM!

P.S. My boys said my wheat bread was very tasty, but so dense it would make a great weapon! (First time recipe- I think I’ll adjust it next time with half bread flour )