John's Favorite Soup

A delicious winter soup. It's finally snowy here in VT (more on that later) and snow always inspires me to make this warm hearty recipe - yum! My mom calls it John's favorite soup because my brother loves it sooo much.

A few warnings...

- This soup takes all day to cook. You have to have at LEAST 6 hours to watch it on the stove. I've never tried it in the crock pot because it really needs to boil and then simmer.

- It takes a lot of prep work (chopping, etc.) but you can't mess it up..

- You will have tons of soup to eat! It's great frozen and you can use a smaller can of V-8 if you want to make less.

OK If you're still interested, and you should be, here it is....

Ingredients:
- 1 large can V-8
- Chopped stew beef (any kind, any amount)
- 6 diced potatoes (bite sized pieces)
- 1 large diced onion
- 4 Beef bouillon cubes
- Water
- Pepper to taste
- Other veggies(celery, carrots, peas, beans, corn, etc.)

Pour the V-8 into a large soup pot. Add the stew beef (you will need to cut it up more to make it into bite sized pieces). Add the other veggies chopped into bite sized pieces(you can use fresh, frozen, or canned - but drained and don't use more than 2 cans of each). Add water - at least as much as 1 can of V-8. Add the bouillon cubes and pepper. I bring it to a boil and then turn it to low. Let it simmer, covered, all day (at least 6 hours or more).

OK - This time I made a few variations on the recipe. I'm trying to reduce my sodium intake (for blood pressure reasons) so I switched out a few things and it was still delicious! I used low-sodium V-8 out of the bottle, bought no salt added canned vegetables, and used the Herb-Ox Beef Seasoning instead of bouillon cubes(1 packet = 1 bouillon cube). I also had to leave the house a few times so I turned the stove on and off and the soup still came out fine. My mom suggested I bring it to a boil before eating it so I did.

I usually eat this with Saltine crackers (with the unsalted tops - yuck) or bread. Enjoy!