vegetable beef soup

my brother in law has diverticulitis. he suffers terribly from it and i wanted to help him however i could. he normally eats a terrible diet consisiting of mostly take out....Jack in the Box is his favorite.

Anyway - I know he likes vegetable soup. His mom used to make the best and everyone loved it. I decided to make him some soup. It's for Boyd and I too, but I know Richard would benefit greatly from that nutrtrient filled broth.

I was bargain shopping with coupons, the whole nice yards ( i wish there was just one store with the best prices and no games, but i can't find one that works for me...but that's another story) I found a beautiful sirloin steak for 2.99 per pound. In a large pack with two steaks for about $5. I took one steak out and froze it. I trimmed the other of most the fat and then sliced it thinly , threw it into a hot frying pan that had been sprayed with Pam. Then I quickly diced a large brown onion (those suckers burn my eyes the worst) and put about 1/4 of the onion in the fry pan with the meat and the balance went into the soup pot with about 2 tablespoons of butter. Carmelize those onions, yum. I microwaved 2 cups of water with 4 small beef bouillion cubes (nuked for 3 minutes), crushed the cubes and added the hot brown liquid to the soup pot with the onions. Then I added 18 shakes of garlic salt and 12 shakes of coarse ground pepper to the meat in the fry pan. Oh! and I added some (about a teaspoon) dried sliced garlic I found at Big Lots. (They have spices for cheap, but be careful, sometimes you get really duddy stuff) The meat is almost browned. Stir everything. Next I diced up 5 stalks of celery. Be sure to wash all the dirt out and trim the uglies off first. Add to soup pot, stir. Beef was brown, so I poured the meat into the soup pot next. Be sure to get all the yummy brown herby grease into your pot. Stir and simmer. Peel and chop one parsnip, 6 medium carrots, 2 large russet potatoes; add to soup pot and simmer. I wanted to add tomatoes, but Richard told me he was afraid the seeds in the tomato would hurt his stomach, so instead I added 3 small cans of condensed tomato soup, becasue that is what i had. you might want to use a tomato paste if you don't like the sweetness of the canned soup. you might want to taste and be sure you have a flavor you like still. Then - Chop a large head of cabbage. Add about 1/4 of the cabbage to the soup pot and put the balance into a stock pot with about 6 cups of water. Boil the stock pot cabbage about 5 minutes. Now - pour all your soup pot into your stock pot and stir well. Simmer another 15 minutes, stir so it does not burn. Turn heat off and let sit another 15 minutes.

This was the best vegetable beef soup I've ever made. Both Boyd and Richard loved it - and Richard felt better the next day.