Straight up, this is my mom’s recipe. I’ve made it 20 years…it never fails to be awesome.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound Ground Beef (use extra lean)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Salt and Pepper to Taste
- 12 oz can diced tomatoes
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 T. Italian Seasoning Herbs
- 1 T. peanut butter
- 10oz bag Frozen Green Beans
- 10oz bag frozen sweet peas
- 10oz bag frozen corn
- 10oz bag frozen cut okra
- 3 stalks celery (cut into 1/2-inch pieces)
- 3 large carrots (cut into 1/4-inch pieces)
- 4 to 6 Red Potatoes, quartered
- Handful of Brown Rice
Cooking:
- Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add Ground Beef, onions and garlic; cook 10-12 minutes breaking it up into smaller and smaller bits as you stir (Salt and pepper to your taste). When done remove from heat and set entire pan aside, do not drain (if you use extra lean, should be less grease anyway).
- While that is cooking, break out a big soup/stock pot…put in diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, Italian Seasoning Herbs and Peanut Butter. Heat to a simmer and stir until peanut butter is completely melted.
(If you asked “Peanut butter…wtf?”… Peanut butter cuts the acid in the tomatoes and smooths out the flavor, enhancing and melding the flavors of all spices more or less replacing the need for a bay leaf in any tomato-based dish. It will keep you from having to take a Prilosec.) - Place vegetables in your soup/stock pot, add water to cover vegetables totally. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
NOTE: You don’t have to add the WHOLE bag of each of those ingredients. I usually just eyeball it and see that it’s got about an equal amount of each thing. - Once simmering add meat and rice, and simmer a full 45 minutes to an hour. The longer you simmer (up to 3 hours) the better it will be. And as always it’s great the next day.