Comforting Ground Beef And Barley Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb. lean ground beef (use beef with less than 10% fat for south beach diet)
• 2 tsp. + 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 t minced garlic (or less if you're not that crazy about garlic)
• 6 cups homemade beef stock (or use 3 cans beef broth and a little water to make 6 cups)
• 4 cups vegetable stock (or 2 cans vegetable broth and a little water to make 4 cups)
• 2 tsp. dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 cup finely chopped celery
• 1 cup finely chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup pearl barley
• 1-2 t balsamic vinegar (add 1 t, then taste to see if you want to use more)
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste