Tasty Tuesday Spicy Vegetable Beef Soup!

Since it is apparently never going to stop raining and warm up around here, I'm trying to avoid looking longingly at the grill out on the deck, and am plugging in my trusty crock pot to make soup. You can make lots of variations on this theme, using different seasonings and canned vegetables.

Ingredients
1 lb or more of beef stew meat
1 (15.8 oz) can of Great Northern beans (undrained)
1 (14.5 oz) can of mixed vegetables (undrained)
2 tsp instant beef bouillon
1 tsp or more of any meat seasoning mixture (I used 1 tsp Weber's Smoky Mesquite and a few shakes of Chef Paul Prudhommes's Meat Magic)
1/4 tsp or more of freshly ground pepper
1 bay leaf
4 cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp instant minced or chopped onions (add during last hour of cooking)

Directions
Put all ingredients except the onions in a 2.5 quart crockpot. Fill to within 1 inch of the top with water. Cook on low for 8 hours or so, adding the onions during the last hour of cooking. I know I'm the only person in the world who thinks adding raw chopped onions to a crockpot at the beginning makes the soup taste funny, but if you want to do it that way, feel free!

When the meat is nice and tender, find a chilly hunk to share your soup with and warm him up!