Stuffed Bell Pepper Soup

I just got an email from Dinky (Maw-Maw's sister/Mom's aunt). It was really nice to hear from her. She wanted to know the recipe for bell pepper soup so I decided to try to find it online. This is what I found ... not sure if it is good or not but it did get good reviews.

http://www.recipezaar.com/Stuffed-Bell-Pepper-Soup-202521

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 lb green pepper, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes or crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups water or low sodium beef broth
• 1-2 teaspoon beef base
• salt and pepper
• rice (optional)

Directions

1. Brown ground beef until fully cooked.

2. Drain fat from beef and set aside, do not discard the fat.

3. Saute the vegetables in the same pan.

4. Add water or broth, beef base, ground beef and rendered fat, let simmer for at least 15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

5. The longer this soup simmers the better the flavor. Stir in desired amount of rice.

6. Freeze without adding the rice. When ready to serve thaw and heat soup and serve with fresh rice. (You can probably freeze this with the rice in it just fine we just usually prefer to make the rice fresh.).