Tomato Beef Soup with Bacon 6 - 8 slices bacon
½ - ¾ cup chopped onion
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced
16 oz. V-8 juice
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained, cup up
1 lb ground beef (or 1 lb, ground turkey)
½ cup chopped green pepper
½ cup chopped yellow pepper (could even use red sweet pepper)
2/3 - 1 cup chopped zucchini in bite size pieces (with skins on)
½ cup uncooked rice
1 tsp sweet basil
2 cups Kale or Collard greens, washed
2 - 3 tsp sugar
1 can tomato sauce or tomato paste
6 cups chicken broth (or 3, 16 oz cans - or you can use chicken bullion added to water)
dash of black pepper and dash of salt (this soup is supposed to be a little sweet, kind of like the Campbell’s Tomato soup in the can, so don’t add too much salt and pepper)
optional : 1 cup fresh, or frozen green beans)

Cook bacon in large saucepan over medium high heat until crisp; drain and break into pieces and set aside. While bacon is cooking, wash and cut up vegetables. In bacon drippings, sauté onion, garlic, green pepper, yellow pepper, rice, zucchini, kale and onion until tender (but not too long because you want the vegetables to be a little crisp) In the meantime, fry the ground beef in a separate frying pan, until brown and the pink is gone. Add cooked beef and remaining ingredients to the vegetables, leaving the crumbled bacon to put in the soup right before serving. Bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer 5 minutes or until hot. Makes 8 servings