Flexible inexpensive meals: Barley soup

This recipe is adapted from The Simple Dollar, which is a great blog to follow for information about finances and living life frugally in general.

Ingredients:
1 large (or 2 small-medium) onions chopped
1 bunch of celery chopped
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 carrots chopped
1 bay leaf
2.5-3 L stock (veggie or chicken)
1 cup barley (the kind that takes 2 hrs or less to cook*)
Shake of Chili Flakes
Shake of Parsley
Shake of Italian Seasoning
2 tsp basil

Method:

1. Fry the onions and celery in a little oil until the onions brown
2. Rinse barley well, then add all of the ingredients (except the basil) to the pot, and simmer gently for 2 hours. Alternatively, toss everything into the slow cooker on high for 3 hrs or on low for 6 hrs.
3. Stir in the basil before serving.

This is great with homemade bread.

*If your barley takes less than 2 hours to cook, simply adjust the cooking time on the stove top to that amount.