Beef and Noodle Vegetable Soup

Fall is finally here...so it's finally time for warm comforting soups.  I love soups...it's an easy way for me to eat my veggies.  My husband and kids are not big soup lovers.  I'm trying to ease them into eating soup with me, so I started with a soup containing pasta and tender steak.  I'm still waiting for my Mom to visit and bring me a copy of our family's beef vegetable soup recipe, so until then, I will make up my own!   I can't wait for my Mom to bring over her recipe file so I can copy down all those wonderful dishes she cooked for us when we were growing up.  She always made a nice dinner no matter how many hours she worked...THANKS MOM...you're the best!

Now, back to this soup recipe.  My girls ate most of their soup...the beef was eaten first, then the noodles.  Well, at least they ate it.  A couple of veggies might have made it into their tummies.  My hubby said he could eat this soup every night.  He kept asking me "are you sure this is healthy"?

Ingredients:

1 lb beef chuck mock tender steak, cut into large bite size pieces
1 T olive oil
1 large white onion, cut into large pieces
1 cup sliced mushrooms
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 stalks celery, sliced
1 cup baby carrots, cut in half
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
4 cups beef stock
1 can low sodium beef broth (2 cups)
2 dried bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
kosher salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste
1/2 lb egg noodles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large stock pot or dutch oven over medium high heat, add the olive oil.  Season the beef with salt and pepper, and add it to the hot oil to brown it on all sides.  Add the onion and mushrooms to the pot and cook for another 5 minutes.  Add the garlic, celery, and carrots.  Stir in the tomatoes, beef stock, beef broth, bay leaves, thyme, onion powder, and garlic powder.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Turn off the heat and transfer pot to the oven.  Simmer in the oven for 1 hour, or until the beef is very tender.  Put the soup back on the stove top on high heat.  Add the egg noodles and boil until noodles are tender.  Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.  Remove the bay leaves and serve.  I made mini corn muffins with our soup.  Enjoy!