vegetable beef soup

I know... what am I doing making big pots of hot soup in the hotest part of summer? I love soup... all year long, and I had frozen veggies and lean stew meat in the freezer that I had recently bought on sale, which meant that I just happened to have all of the ingredients that I needed for this on hand. The recipe below is the way that I would normally make this soup, but this time I changed it up a bit, and added a can of rotel instead of one of the cans of diced tomatoes, like my mother-in-law does with hers. This gives the soup a nice kick and some extra flavor. I've also made this by dumping all of the ingredients in a slow-cooker on low for 8-9 hours... it doesn't get much easier than that.

Vegetable Beef Soup

-2 lbs. beef stew meat (I like the lean stew meat)
-2 bay leaves
-1 tablespoon sugar
-1 yellow onion, chopped
-1 bag frozen mixed vegetables, thawed (I like the one with carrots, peas, grean beans, lima beans and corn)
-2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced into 1 inch pieces
-2 cups beef broth
-1 teaspoon salt
-¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
-1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
-1 tsp dried basil
-1 tsp dried oregano
-4 cloves garlic, minced
-1 (29 oz) cans diced tomatoes

Heat oil in stockpot over medium heat. Saute the onions until they soften (about 5 minutes). Add the garlic and saute until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add the beef and cook until browned. (Sometimes at this point I'll add a couple tablespoons of flour, stir to combine, and cook for 1-2 minutes, if I want a thicker, stew-like consistency). Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until all the vegetables are cooked and the potatoes are soft (at least 30 minutes).

Shannon