Tonight's dinner...

As it has been cool , rainy and obviously cloudy all day, I decided to make DH's favorite soup for dinner.  It's a recipe from his mom, known around here as Italian Soup (pronounced Eye-talian).

It's hearty and easy to make, and around here, it's quite popular.  I'm serving it with some cheap bolillo rolls from the grocery (4/$1).

1# ground beef
1 med/lg diced onion
3 stalks celery sliced
1 or 2 cups carrots sliced
2 cloves garlic diced
1 16oz can diced tomatoes (or fresh if you have them)
1 15oz can tomato sauce
1 15oz can undrained small red beans (I hate kidney beans so I use these instead)
2 cans beef broth (or 2 cans water and 5 tsp bouillon granules)
1T dried parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp ground pepper
2c shredded cabbage
1 can 15oz green beans (or frozen or fresh if you prefer)
1/2c elbow macaroni (best if you precook it)

Brown the beef in your big soup pot and drain it. Then add all the remaining items EXCEPT cabbage, green beans and macaroni.  Bring it to a boil, and simmer until veggies are tender.  You can add water and bouillon as needed to taste.  10min before you serve it, add the cabbage, green beans and macaroni.

Serve with bread (garlic bread is great with this!)

You can play around with the amount of spices to suit your taste, or substitute ground turkey for the beef, but it won't taste the same.