This week we have had some very cold weather (down to -30 and with wind chill a ways below that). Soup is the perfect meal for cold weather. Homemade soup is also very frugal and nutritious. Pair it up with fresh bread, biscuits, rolls or corn bread and you have a wonderful meal.
Usually when I make soups I just look around and use what I have and don't follow a recipe. That is what my mom does and so I learned that from her. It is nice if you have some sort of broth to start with. I was given some home grown chicken (which can be a little tougher) so I boiled a lot of it down and now have many containers of chicken broth with a little meat in my freezer ready to make soups. After Thanksgiving I also boiled the turkey carcas and now have a lot of turkey broth in my freezer too. To the broth you can add all sorts of vegies, noodles, rice or barley or whatever you desire. It is fun to be creative and see how great your soup can be.
I thought I would share a couple of recipes as well. Don't feel like you have to follow a recipe exactly, just use it for a guideline.
No Fuss Potato Soup
6 cups cubed peeled potatoes
5 cups water
2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cups thinly sliced carrots
4 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules (or just use broth instead of the water)
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 can evaporated milk
3 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Ham, cheese and snipped chives optional
Put together everything except the milk, parsley, cheese and chives in crock pot. Cover and cook on high for 7-8 hours. (or you can make this on your stove top a lot faster). Add milk and parsley and mix well. Cover and cook for another 1/2 hour, until heater through. Garnish with cheese and chives if desired.
Also my Mom's cornbread:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 cup oil
Mix dry ingrediants together. Then gently stir in wet ingrediants. Don't stir to much, some lumps are okay. Put in greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 400 degrees for around 20 minutes, check with toothpick to see when done.
For more frugal tips go visit Biblical womanhood.
What are your favorite soups?
We can get a white sort of velveeta cheese that I can grate up and put in my potato soup. It is still pretty frugal, at 20 cents a cube. I love your bag that is so cute, How did you do the flower on the front?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the ideas!
ReplyDeleteI like to use the old soup bucket in the freezer. It is the leftover veg from dinner. You have to watch out though. There was to much of something and I couldn't get the flavor just right.
ReplyDeleteNoticed you are from N.MN. Nice to meet you. We in the Central MN area. Give me a holler sometime.
Katie, That cheese you get sounds interesting, and definetely frugal! Is food a lot cheaper there?
ReplyDeleteTo see how to do the flower on the bag you can go http://proverbs31living.blogspot.com/2007/08/origami-quilt.html where I showed a quilt I made with these flowers on it and there is a link to instructions there. It is fabric origami and it is a lot of fun.
Thank you Dawn and Barbara for stopping by.
One of the cheapest soups I make comes from Christmas or Thanksgiving leftovers.
ReplyDeleteLeftover gravy
Leftover turkey
Leftover rice
saute onion and celery
add seasonings
That's it. The only cost is the onion and celery which I always keep on stock.
I still make your Grandma Peterson's homemade tomato soup all the time. I call it Peterson soup, in fact. I love it and my family loves it, and I'm sure my daughters will make it if they ever can their own tomatoes, which is iffy.
ReplyDeleteBecky (Blanshan) Colebank
Using leftovers is a great way to make soup! Leftover Thanksgiving soup sounds good.
ReplyDeleteBecky, I wonder if the tomato soup my Mom makes is the same? I really like homemade tomato soup (with home canned tomatoes) and I don't like tomato soup from the store. That is one of the things I am picky about.