Hamburger Soup and Biscuits

I made the yummiest supper tonight.  Hamburger soup and biscuits.  Both were simple yet tasty.  We don't seem to do a lot of homey, simple meals, but we've started trying to make more of them to save a few bucks.  One of the best parts about this meal is that it isn't spicy (90% of our meals are) so it's something that we'll be able to make when BB starts sharing more of our meals.

I didn't have a recipe for the soup, I just winged it.  When I visited T a couple weekends ago, she had made a pot of it, so I felt inspired to give it a try on my own.  As for the biscuits, I used the recipe my mom has always used, but I included some whole wheat flour to up the wholesomeness factor, and I had to guess at the instructions as they were kind of vague.  Here are the recipes if you're interested in giving them a try (I'll try to be more detailed in the biscuit instructions that the original recipe is.)

Hamburger Soup

1 lb hamburger

2 carrots, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

Fry all together in frying pan until ground beef is cooked.  Drain fat.

Add:

2 tsp oregano

28oz can of tomatoes, diced (use the salt-free kind)

4 cups beef broth (I used the liquid bouillon and water)

1/2 cup barley

Freshly ground pepper to taste (I used oodles of this.)

Bring to a boil then simmer for 1 hour.

Fluffy Biscuits

2 cups white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cream of tartar

1/2 cup butter

1-1/3 cups milk

Mix first six ingredients together in bowl.  Cut in butter with pastry blender.  Stir in milk.  Mixture will be gooey.  Flour a workspace and place the mixture on the flour.  Sprinkle a bit more flour on top of the mixture and use your hands to spread it out.  Use a round cutter to cut approximately 12 biscuits.  Bake at 400F for 15 minutes or until browned.