Hearty Beef Vegetable Barley Soup

I've been struggling with eating PCOS friendly foods lately and one of my buddies on my WW board suggested I make some soup to take for lunch all this week. So I remembered that I've been meaning to incorporate barley in my diet since it's a powerhouse food for PCOS but the last time I bought it the dogs knocked it off the table and ate it. Hmmm... 


It's also Mother's Day today and my mother-in-law is doing WW too so I didn't want to make her bread or cookies (and funds are low this month so baking was pretty much the plan). I made this soup off the box of the barley and packaged some up in individual containers for Carolyn. I had a bowl for lunch and it's really good - even for soup which I'm not a big fan of. I will definitely be making this again and am going to take some to Dad for him to try too. 


I was only able to get 10.5 1-cup servings out of the recipe so I adjusted that in the WW tracker which made it 3 PP+. 

HEARTY VEGETABLE BARLEY SOUP (contains beef)

Frozen vegetables make this soup extra easy.

Ingredients

• 1/2  pound lean ground beef
• 1/2  cup chopped onion
• 1  cloves garlic, minced
• 7 cups water
• One  14-ounce can no-salt-added tomatoes, undrained, chopped
• 1/2  cup Medium QUAKER Barley*
• 1/2  cup sliced celery
• 1/2  cup sliced carrots
• 2  beef bouillon cubes
• 1/2  teaspoon basil
• 1   bay leaf
• 1  9 ounce package frozen mixed vegetables

Preparation

In 4-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, brown ground beef. Add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is tender; drain. Add remaining ingredients except frozen vegetables. Cover, bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 50-60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add frozen vegetables; cook about 10 or until vegetables are tender. Add additional water if soup becomes too thick upon standing.

Variations

*To use Quick QUAKER Barley, substitute 2/3 cup quick barley for medium barley and decrease water to 6 cups. Cook ground beef, onion and garlic as directed above. Add remaining ingredients including frozen vegetables. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until vegetables and barley are tender.

Yield

Twelve 1-cup servings

Nutrition Information

1 cup

• Serving Size: 1 cup
• Calories: 110 
• Calories from Fat: 27 
• Total Fat: 3 
• Saturated Fat: 1 
• Cholesterol: 15 
• Sodium: 190 
• Total Carbohydrate: 15 
• Dietary Fiber: 2 
• Protein: 7 
• Vitamin A:   0% 
• Vitamin C:   0% 
• Calcium:   0% 
• Iron:   0% 
• Vitamin E:   0% 
• Folate:   0% 

Dietary Exchange

• starchbread:1/2
• meat:1/2
• vegetables:1-1/2