Soup's On! With a Side of Football

Our kids are all grown with only one still in college, but Back-to-School time still feels like the beginning of Crazy-Busy time.  So here's the wonderfully easy crock pot soup that we had last night.  It only took a little forethought and effort to be able to enjoy a delicious bowl of Peter's Vegetable Beef Soup before Monday Night Football.  Yup!  He cooks!  I'm a lucky girl.  Except for the football part.

Peter says the best thing about this soup is that you can freeze it, put it in small containers, and then, on a cold winter night, when you don't know what else you want, pull it out for a homemade treat.

Vegetable Beef Soup - I love how everything coordinates!

Vegetable Beef Soup

~ 1 lb. ground beef (we've used leftover frozen burgers, ground turkey, whatever you have)

~ 2 qts. Tomato Juice (not V-8)

~ 1 bag frozen Vegetables for Soup (a must!  not mixed veggies)

~ 1 bouillon cube (dissolved in hot water)

~ Optional additions (diced onion, canned diced tomatoes, green beans, diced potatoes, clean out the fridge)

Brown the ground beef (you can do this the night before, drain it, pop it in the fridge and have it ready for the morning). Put the browned ground beef, tomato juice, bouillon and frozen veggies in a crock pot.  Turn on to LOW, 6-8 hours. That's it!

We served it with hot rolls and a Temperanillo.


So, back to the football game.  Last night was a challenge for us.  I'm a Washington girl and Peter's been an Eagles fan since birth.  I'm not crazy like he is about my football, but I definitely care.  We had to establish some game rules about not getting pouty or being sore losers and then, whoa!,  the Eagles came on like gangbusters.  Before I knew it, someone popped out of the room and came back in his throwback jersey (Randall Cunningham).  We forgot to make a rule about getting cocky!

I went to look for Watson's jersey, but it's somewhere in a storage unit.  No puppy jersey, no cat scarf! This is how it should have been:

Love these guys!  Hail to the Redskins!

Half of my clothes are still in storage due to the move, so no Redskins' tees were around, but hanging in the middle of all my dresses was my new throwback jersey (thank you wonderful brother-in-law and fam for my Sonny Jurgensen jersey).  Wearing it helped a little in the second half, along with my supportive yelling at the team, but we still lost.  Just less badly.

Anyway, I figure it's better this way.  Mr. Crazy About the Eagles can strut a little and I can insist he make his soup again for the rematch in November.

We can meet in the middle.

How about you?  Do you guys have any favorite easy recipes, crock pot or otherwise?  How about football watching traditions?  I promise more about house renovations and moving to come.