Hamburger Minestrone

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove crushed garlic
1 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
1 1/4 cups water
2 tsp beef bouillon granules
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
28 oz whole tomatoes, undrained
8 oz kidney beans, undrained
8 oz whole kernel corn, undrained
grated Parmesan cheese

Cook beef, onion and garlic in Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain.

Stir in remaining ingredients except cheese, breaking up tomatoes. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until macaroni is tender. Serve with cheese.

What I did differently from the recipe:
I left out the cabbage completely. I used 2 beef bouillon cubes instead of the granules, used 2 zucchini, and almost a whole cup of macaroni.

What I'll do differently next time:
Nothing, except maybe use a bit more Italian seasoning, which I did add at the end this time. You can substitute ground turkey for the ground beef to make it a bit leaner.

Verdict:
Thumbs up! This was a really easy recipe to do, and was so good. Every bite had different vegetables and flavors in it, which made it better.

$$:
We get our meat from a butcher, but I know you can get a solid pound of ground beef for $4 on sale. The onion was $0.72, macaroni was approximately $1.29, celery was $1.89, zucchini was $1.08, the tomatoes were $1.50, kidney beans were $0.59, and the corn was $0.57. That's $11.64. The other ingredients were free or I've had so long I can't remember what they cost. It is definitely an under $20 meal though, and makes at least 6-8 servings. I was able to freeze over half of it.