Winter Time Comfort Food Recipes : Holiday Leftovers Soup

As the weather outside gets colder, my thoughts go to hot chocolate, hot soups, cornbread, chili and crackers.
Are you with me?
Here are some of my favorite winter time recipes.

Holiday Leftover Vegetable Beef Soup

Take a little of that roast, turkey, ham or chicken, whatever you have left over and almost every vegetable in the fridge and combine it with a few simple ingredients for a tantalizing hot soup to warm those cold bones on winter days yet to come.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium yellow onions, diced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 lbs leftover cooked meat: beef, turkey, chicken, ham or sausage
• 64 ounces beef stock or beef broth or chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
• Italian seasoning, to taste
• ketchup, to taste
• 2 cups of cooked green beans ( you can also use any vegetables you have on hand or in the fridge, be creative)
• 2 cups of cooked green peas
• 2 cups of cooked corn
• 2 cups of cooked carrots ( use the carrot sticks from the party trays, cook and chop into pieces)
• 2 cups of cooked diced potatoes
• cherry tomatoes and chopped green or bell pepper if desired (party tray leftovers)
• 1 (32 ounce) can of vegetable juice or tomato juice
• 1 packet of instant au jus or instant onion soup

Directions:

1. In a large pot, cook onions, celery, and garlic in butter or oil until onions are golden.
2. Stir in the chopped cooked meat
3. Add the broth, vegetable juice and the Worcestershire, stirring to mix, and seasoning to taste with Italian seasoning and ketchup (how much you add will depend on how seasoned the meat and broth already are, so be careful here).
4. Once the soup base is set, add the vegetables one by one
5. Add the au jus or instant onion soup and additional water or beef broth if needed.
6. Let the soup simmer on the stove for about an hour, stirring occasionally.
7. Cool, divide into cartons and containers and freeze until needed

Serve with hot buttered cornbread.
If you haven't added potatoes, this will freeze well. Potatoes become mushy when frozen.