Cold Weather brings Sick Days and Homemade Vegetable Soup

As you can probably tell by the title of this post - I have been home sick for the past 3 days. The bonus to that is that I have watched every movie we got for Christmas, have been able to sleep my life away, and I get to make my grandma Bec's famous vegetable beef soup.


On Sunday night, I attended the ASU Men's Basketball game, got to stay after for a pizza party/meet and greet with some of the players and then headed home. Once I arrived home, I noticed my throat felt a little scratchy. Within the next hour, I could barely swallow! I went and looked in the mirror and I had developed some white spots on my tonsils - which I have seen before when I had mono - so I was terrified!


Monday morning I called as soon as the Doctor's office opened and made an appointment. They did some blood work to check for mono, took a strep swab test, and sent me home with some ibuprofen. "Come back in a week if you aren't feeling better. I'll call you something in if the strep test comes back positive" - that's all my doctor said. I agreed to take her advice and went home. Monday was terrible. I was in bed all day. I ate some canned soup, but it wasn't that great. Tuesday, I felt worse - I stayed home and rested all day long. Thankfully, David was off work on Tuesday, so he and I watched movies and we ate grilled cheese with warm tomato soup, which did soothe my scratchy throat some.


Wednesday, I feel a little better but an annoying cough started in around 2:30 am and would not let up. I have now called my doctors office twice for tests results and have gotten no answers so I made another appointment with a different doctor. The new doctor wanted to see my lab results before prescribing me any anti-biotic that may be unnecessary. I understand that and don't want to take something if it's not needed but she did let me know about some helpful over the counter things I could take to ease the pain in my throat and help with my cough until my test results were in (If you can't tell - I will be switching doctors offices now :) ).


On cold days in Arkansas, my grandma can't keep her vegetable soup bin full on the buffet line at Country Vittles. People consume it by the gallon full and I absolutely love it. I called her when I left the doctors office and told her I wanted some of her soup. She, of course, then shared the recipe with me and I came home and made it.


This soup is so good, I promise you will want it any time of the year. It goes great with cornbread or crackers and can be cooked and bulk and frozen so you can save some for later! Try it out and let me know what you think!

Bec's Vegetable Beef Soup

1 lb. of Ground Beef

2 - 46 oz. cans of Tomato Juice

3 - 29 oz. cans of Veg-All - Strained (You can buy frozen bags of mixed vegetables instead if you don't like canned)

1 can of Rotel (original)

4 small Red Potatoes (Peeled and chopped)

1 Yellow Onion (chopped)

1/2 teaspoon of Baking Soda

1/4 cup of Whole Milk

1/2 Gallon of Water

Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large boiler (I used a 10 quart boiler) pour in your water, chopped onion, chopped potatoes, and crumble in your hamburger meat.

Bring this mixture to a boil and let boil until water is pretty clear and potatoes can be cut with a spoon.

Pour in the tomato juice, Rotel, Veg-All (or frozen vegetables), Baking Soda, and Milk and stir well.

Add as much salt and pepper as you like - I usually add some, taste the soup and see that it has a good flavor and add more if needed.

Bring this to a rolling boil- remember to stir occasionally so the mixture does not stick.

Once boiling, turn down the heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes so all flavors mix.

After simmering is done, pour into a bowl and serve.

Like I said - this goes great with cornbread or crackers and it can be put into containers and frozen to save for later!

Happy cooking! :)

-HB