beef barley lentil soup

i confess: not sure if this is my all-time favorite soup recipe..... but nevertheless it was good and, yeah, i'd make it again. why not. maybe i am just not so crazy about it personally, but i know there are people out there that would go nuts over it-- my mother, being one for sure.

i took the recipe for Taste of Home's "Beef Barley Lentil Soup" and modified it here and there- making changes and adding in stuff i wanted.
*caution* - it made a HUGE pot. :) like we ate it for supper two nights, bud ate it for breakfast on the 3rd day (yes, breakfast, lol)... AND i still froze two quart-sized baggies.

ingredients:
1.25 pounds stew beef (i think what i bought was chuck, cut up in chunks)
1 medium onion, chopped (i used 1/2 a HUGE giant sweet onion)
4 *big* red potatoes, diced in small chunks (or enough potatoes to make ~2 cups)
3 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, peeled & diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dried lentils, rinsed
1 cup barley
64 oz. reduced-sodium beef broth (two 32 oz. cartons)
1 large can (28 oz) whole peeled tomatoes 
fresh spinach leaves, washed and torn (i used probably 1 to 1/2 cup?)
1/2 to 1 tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
Oil for the pot (~2 to 3 tbsp.)
Lawry's seasoned salt
Worchestershire sauce (a dash)
pepper


directions:

in your biggest soup pot, add the oil and let it heat up a little. add meat; make sure to leave room for the pieces. overcrowding leads to poor browning. and you WANT your beef pieces to brown... browned meat tastes GOOD. 

turn the pieces on all sides to try to achieve as much browning as possible.  season beef with Lawry's and pepper-- and a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce (cause let's face it: W-shire sauce makes everything more delightful). :)

move your pieces and put them on a plate while you brown the other ones.  when you're done, move all pieces to the plate (successfully creating a "meat mountain"). :)


i got excited/was working hard on these next few steps, so i forgot to take pictures.. sorry.  now you need to add in your onions, carrots, celery, (a mirepoix, if you want to be french) :).. and saute' them in all the oily goodness left by the beef-- scraping the pan as you go. Heck, here i added a Tablespoon of butter, too... i couldn't resist. ;)  Add in your garlic after you let your mirepoix cook for a couple minutes. season this layer with a little more salt and pepper; and the thyme-- however much you want. i probably used a tsp.  **and don't forget to add in the celery leaves, too, if they came on the stalks-- they are soo good!

 

put the stew beef back in the pot. add the potatoes, and open your can of tomatoes, adding the juice, and carefully plopping out one tomato into your hand at a time, crushing it and adding to the pot.

stir everything together, add the bay leaf, taste, and season accordingly.
bring to a boil... let cool till everything is tender (especially test the harder things in the soup: the carrots, lentils, and potatoes)

when you're getting close to wanting to serve the soup, throw in your handful or two of torn spinach leaves, and let them cook for 5-10 minutes or so to wilt the leaves.

when everything is done, remove the bay leaf and serve in bowls with your favorite bread of choice (i made biscuits... from a can. who wants to do homemade after all of that chopping and cleaning? come on. if you know such people, send them to my house to also do the dishes, if they're that ambitious.) :)

a walk in the park

bud and i took a walk in the park on wednesday; it was GORGEOUS.  ptL we got to experience the warmth of the sun and some of (the remaining!..) fall colors before the wind blows all the trees leaves away into the winter bareness.

enjoy a few pictures (taken with our new camera!... which i still don't know how to use, lol... but i did my best). :)  enjoy!

lovely colors!

i absolutely **love** a river in a park. :)

i love how these two trees are growing together... AWWWW.

a fully uprooted fallen tree. whoa.

the flood plain!

oh, hello there. a 10(?)-point-buck!

sweetheart.

the reason he was hanging around.... :)

look at this sweet, younger little mister. doesn't he have sweet eyes? :)

6 months of marriage

today, i am grateful for 6 months of married life.

thanks for stopping in to read today; if you want to, feel free to join me in praying for my marriage today.

Lord, thank You so much for 6 months of marriage, and for providing me such a wonderful husband to share my life with.  Lord, I am so thankful for him; he reflects Your love and forgiveness to me over and over again.

I pray You would protect our marriage from anything that would harm or destroy it. Shield it from our own selfishness and neglect, from the evil plans and desires of others, and from unhealthy or dangerous situations.  May there be no thoughts of divorce or infidelity in our hearts, and none in our future. Set us free from past hurts, memories, and unrealistic expectations of one another. I pray that there be no jealousy in either of us, or the low self-esteem that precedes that. Let nothing come into our hearts and habits that would threaten our marriage in any way.  

Unite us in a bond of friendship, commitment, generosity, and understanding. Eliminate our immaturity, hostility, or feelings of inadequacy. Help us to make time for one another alone, to nurture and renew our marriage and remind ourselves of the reasons we were married in the first place. I pray that Bud (and me, too!) will be so committed to You, Lord, that his (and my!) commitment to me will not waiver, no matter what storms come. I pray that our love for each other will grow stronger every day, and help us to be used by You to love others and bring grace and truth to people around us. Fill us with Your Spirit, Lord, so that we can truly love one another out of Your strength and not our own.  In Jesus' precious name---- Amen.

adapted from The Power of a Praying Wife, Stormie Omartian (1997, Harvest House Publishers)