Crockpot Stoup. . .

I am posting twice today trying to get caught up.   I decided since our garden is getting ready to take hold I would use some of my items I had frozen from last year and make some vegetable soup.  The hubby and I went to our local meat market and picked up some tip meat and I decided I would throw that in my soup, now a vegetable beef soup.  
I had some peas and some tomato sauce from last years garden in the freezer so I somewhat thawed my tomato sauce to use as my base for my soup.  I also had some beef broth left over from my roast I had made over the weekend and that went in the pot too.  You could call this a cleaning out the freezer and cabinets soup, which means throw everything in that you have.
Here is how it all went in:
tomato sauce from the freezer, about 2 quarts
3-4 cups of left over beef broth
2 cups of frozen green peas from the garden
1 bag of frozen peas and snaps (store)
1 bag of frozen corn(store)
1 bag of frozen okra (store)
1 can of pinto beans (store)
tomato paste, V8 juice, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, thyme, dry mustard.
I added the tip meat last and this cooked about 8 hours on high.    We have eaten some of it but I am freezing a good portion of it for later.
I try very hard to make soup but inevitably it always ends up much thicker than just soup so my hubbs has nicknamed it stoup.  Too think to be soup and a little thin to be stew.  

Looking forward to our garden this year and we are so very thankful that the hubbs brother came and plowed and planted for us.   The hubbs has been out to check things out and yesterday he was out watering and making sure everything was doing well.  Thank you to my sweet brother-in-law.

Crockpot Mountain Stew

We have had a big, well what I consider big, temperature drop today.  With the temperature a little cooler it makes me hungry for my mama's Mountain Stew.  Our garden was a big success this year and we had lots of potatoes and a couple heads of cabbage and those two just scream Mountain Stew. 
Mom always made this on those cool days and it sure was good.   I only ate cabbage if it was in  her stew.  Since our garden did so well I cooked up a lot of extra recipes and froze them.   I have thawed my stew and put it in the crock pot for tonight.  Yummm
Here is moms recipe: 
1-2 lbs ground beef browned
2cans tomato sauce
3-4 potatoes cut up
1/2 head of cabbage
4 carrots cut up in bite size pieces
1 can tomato paste
1-2 cloves of garlic minced
2 tbs oregano
2tbsp basil
Chili powder
Thyme
3tbsp cumin

Throw it all in the crock pot for 6-8 hours.  If you need more liquid add a little V8 juice.  Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, crackers, or tortilla chips.
If you want to speed the process up you can boil your potatoes and cabbage before you add them.  Also cook the carrots.  Add your seasonings for your taste. 
We will be enjoying this tonight after football practice.