Skinny Crock Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

1 pound lean ground beef (80/20)
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cans Veg-All mixed vegetables (or similar)
16 ounces reduced-sodium beef broth
1 can tomato paste (6 ounce)
2 cups hot water
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon onion powder
1/2 cup stevia (to taste)
Salt and Pepper (to taste)

It's an old Weight Watchers trick to drain the ground meat of the fat after cooking and rinse meat with hot water to remove as much fat as possible.

I like mixed vegetables with diced potatoes and corn in them, but you could cut the carbohydrates in this recipe more by using mixed vegetables without the potatoes. You could even curb the carbs further by using individual cans of vegetables and omit diced potatoes AND corn. Frozen vegetables may be used as well.

You can use any dried spices that you like in this soup.

Stevia? Yep, it's in there. It brings out the sweetness of the tomatoes. I know a 1/2 cup sounds like a lot, but this recipe makes a huge amount of soup. If you like, start with 1/4 cup of stevia and do a taste test.

I serve this soup with a huge salad of mixed greens with lite ranch dressing.

1. Brown ground beef. Drain and rinse with hot water.
2. Mix tomato paste with hot water and whisk until smooth.
2. Add ground beef, diced tomatoes, mixed vegetables, beef broth, tomato paste/water mixture, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and stevia in crock pot.
3. Cook in crock pot on low for 6 hours.


Serving Size: Makes 14 one cup servings

Number of Servings: 14

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user FRESHPAINT04.