Beefy-Noodle-Vegetable Soup

So, we bought a cow.  Yup.  You heard right.  

We.Bought.A.Cow.

Lately, I've become more aware/interested in where my food is coming from.  So Michael (Mr. Research himself) found a local farmer that raises and sells organic, grass-fed, free-to-roam cattle.  And we bought one.  Well, actually, we bought a 1/4 of a cow.  So now my deep freeze is stocked full of ground beef, roasts, steaks, liver (ick!), and soup bones....most of which I have no idea what to do with!

Tonight I decided to give the soup bones and stew meat a try.  Not really knowing what I was doing (and with some over-the-phone guidance from my mom), I started boiling those soup bones.  

Word to the wise (and not-so-familiar with boiling beef soup bones)....thaw those puppies out before you throw them in the pot of water.  I apparently like to learn lessons the hard way.

My soon-to-be beef broth!

I did a little googling while I waited for the meat to cook and come off the bones, and I found a Paula Deen recipe that I only kind of followed.  (I act like I actually know what I'm doing in the kitchen!  Do not be fooled.)  I ended up just throwing a little of this and a little of that in the pot (along with some extra stew meat we had in the freezer from our cow).

And the result....

DELICIOUS!

Michael wants me to write down how I made it so I can duplicate it again some day.  So, in an effort to attempt to record my recipe:

Beef-Vegetable-Noodle Soup

1. Create the broth -- boil a beef soup bone until the meat comes off the bone.  (If I don't have a soup bone, I guess I can just use my Better Than Boullion and make some beef broth.  Note To Self:  Ask Mom.)
2. Once you have the broth and the meat off the bone, add the vegetables.  I was lazy (and cheap) and just bought a bag of frozen veggies.  I absolutely despise peas, so I made sure my frozen veggies were pea-less.  Specifically, we had broccoli, cauliflower, squash, zuchinni and carrots.  They were in super big chunks, so I chopped them up a little bit before tossing them in the soup.
3. Now it's time for seasoning.  (Here's where things get a little iffy.)  
• A few shakes of parsley flakes
• 1/2 Tbsp salt
• 1/4 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1/4 Tbsp pepper
• A couple of bay leaves
4. Once everything's simmered and tastes yummy (this post is so cookbook-worthy!), add some noodles.  I had bow-tie pasta, so I put a little more than a cup of noodles in and let them cook according to the package.  

I also ended up putting some more broth in (about 2 cups) and some extra water (about 1 1/2 cups) to combat saltiness and because a lot of my broth boiled down.

Moral of this story:  It's super easy.  And yummy.  And you don't have to be exact to make it super tasty!