My mom made this for me the night before the first day of school, every year. She'd serve it to me for breakfast the next morning. (I didn't like typical breakfast foods when I was a kid. Still don't.) It's so delicious, and the smell and taste of it still makes me think of chilly fall mornings, notebooks and new clothes!

3 tsp butter
1 medium onion
1.5 lbs ground beef
2 cans beef consommé
4 carrots, sliced thin
4 celery tops (remove before serving)
sprinkling of parsley flakes
1lb can crushed or chopped tomatoes (it's actually supposed to be whole tomatoes but my dad and I hate big chunks of tomatoes)
9 tbsp barley
some ground pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tbsp salt
2 bay leaves (but mom doesn't use them because it's too much trouble to dig them out before serving.)

 

Sauté onion in butter (um, chop it first.), add to hamburger and brown it. Drain it. Add the hamburger and rest of ingredients to a soup pot. Cook one hour. Serve to your daughter on the first day of school. Make sure she drinks her milk! And stop slouching!