Budget-Friendly Hamburger Lentil Vegetable Soup

This is a delicious & simple & very inexpensive recipe that you can make as your main dish chocked full of fiber and nutrients!  I'll be surprised if you pay over $10.00 for all of these ingredients. When I was interning at the health department before I became a Registered Dietitian, one of the coolest things I saw was a recipe sheet for people who received WIC benefits but didn't know what to do with the food they were getting.  With this recipe, Mom's were able to put together a nutritious meal using the dried lentils, carrots, and tomato juice they were receiving.  I put this together in a pot for some of the WIC clients to sample and it was a huge hit.  One of my favorite days of my internship.  I still make it often because it FREEZES so well (I always double the recipe because of this) and I vary between adding hamburger and eating it without any meat.

 I hope you enjoy! Makes 6 Servings

 Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
46 ounce can of V8 juice
(I use the low-sodium or you can use 5 3/4 cups of tomato juice)
4 cups of water
1 cup lentils, rinsed
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced cabbage
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon green pepper (or green pepper flakes) *optional*
1 bay leaf


Instructions:

• Brown ground beef until crumbly
• Bring juice and water to a boil in a large saucepan or stockpot.  Add vegetables, salt, pepper, green pepper, and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil again.  Reduce heat and add browned ground beef.  Simmer for 1 1/2 hours.