Summer's Bounty in February

Do you remember these?



and these?



In the winter they become this:



I took a piping hot bowl of this homemade vegetable soup and some saltine crackers to my mother in the nursing home. She ate the whole bowl with saltines broken up in it! Her appetite had been nonexistent the day before. Several days a week she is very nauseated due to her kidney disease and being on dialysis. So I was thrilled when she scrarfed down the soup.

It was a great weekend for making and eating soup. Dreary, rainy, cool...

My recipe for the soup:

1 large bag of frozen homegrown tomatoes

2 bags of Food Lion brand frozen vegetables for soup (contains everything, including okra, carrots, potatoes, green beans, peas, celery, etc.) Only $1.07 a bag AND SO EASY!

1 lb of lean hamburger, browned and drained

Chopped onion and green pepper cooked with the hamburger

A few shakes of garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper

Salt to taste. I didn't add much salt because my hubby, my mother and I don't need the sodium. My theory is that a little salt can always be added to your bowl, but it can't be taken out once its in the main dish.

I threw it all together in the crockpot, and let it cook for several hours.

Its so easy to make a big pot of soup and so much more healthy than the canned varieties. My hubby and I can take a bowl for lunch and avoid the sodium and other unwanted ingredients.

I hope you had a great February weekend, filled with coziness!