Soup Supper anyone?

This is day 11 in my own pantry challenge and I found some soups hidden away in the cabinet. Soup suppers can be a very frugal way to feed your family. Think ahead in the day and get the bread machine out too. Make some sort of yummy bread, that always makes a meal seem special, or swing by the grocery store and pick up a loaf of crusty french bread if you are not gluten free. Pop a pan of brownies in the oven too. It's little things like that, that keep my husband from saying "Were only having soup?"

Also you might think about adding to your soup or mixing flavors, sometimes I will mix the Chunky soups or Progresso ones. Such as 2 different types of beef soups or 2 different types of potato soups and add some extra corn, green beans, peas, carrots, canned potatoes, whatever your family likes, this way it sort of bulks up the soup, as my guys don't care much for runny soups. Sometimes I add a bit of cornstarch (1/2 cup cold water to 1 tablespoon corn starch, stir it up well and add to boiling soup, stir until thickened, about 3 minutes).

If you make a potato soup you might try sprinkling some cooked bacon on top or a touch of cheese (if you can have dairy) and even some parsley. YUM!! Search the web for some very frugal potato soup recipes!!

For the homeschooling mom soup suppers can be a huge blessing!! Easy meal, no planning and you can even let the kids pick 'their own can of soup'. Or you can dump all the ingredients into the crockpot first thing in the morning, get the bread machine up and running and dinner cooks while you teach. What a blessing a soup supper can be.

Enjoy a soup meal each week and I bet you will save a few calories and $$ in the new year!

SOUP's ON!!

Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 9 How is it going?

Just checking in to see how it's going. Remember you can still buy groceries, but do your best to eat from what you have in the house, it's like FREE food!! I'm needing some raisins, but I fear stepping into the grocery store and buying more stuff! lol. If you see a great buy on something, feel free to stock up on it, but also use what you already have too.

My doctor put me on a diuretic this week and I was told to really be watching my salt. So that has made things interesting on the pantry challenge to say the least. So I got some low-salt cookbooks from the library (we love that place!), found a recipe for no salt cream soup (not great, but it was OK). I had ground beef in the freezer, rice in the pantry and celery in the fridge, also had all the ingredients for the 'cream of no sodium soup'. I used coconut milk to make that, it was the unsweetened kind, but it still had an odd sweetness to it (oh well, at least I am using it up in the pantry challenge). I made beef & rice casserole for myself (gluten free) and then I made the guys a regular one using up 2 cans of Campbell's cream soups from the pantry. I also had made some wild rice from the pantry and used that in their recipe.

For desert I made a apple buckle (some call it apple betty) using gluten free flours, apple pie filling and Rice Bran flakes to add some fiber without changing the taste or texture.

Apple Buckle with yummy coconut ice cream to go with it.

Have you been having fun with this? Make it fun, have the kids go into the pantry and make some sort of fun meal. Our meals don't have to look like Julia Childs (loved watching her as a child with my mother). Any creative meals come across your table this past week?
Moe

Pantry Challenge day 8

I found some grilled burgers in the freezer from late this summer and we had those for one dinner, then I made Salisbury steaks for the next night. I used up the rest of the hamburgers and 2 cans of beef broth mixed with some cornstarch and dried onions. I put those into a pot with a lid and put them on med/low for about 45 min minutes, I served with green beans (1 can cut & 1 can string) and packaged rice mix (all from the pantry).

Any good recipes coming your way? Share them with us.
Moe

AWESOME link for you & a blessing I got.

AWESOME link!! Click here to head on over to "Denverbargins.com" she has a great article on pantry challenges. Sounds like she is really trying to tighten her belt, but a few of the suggestions would pertain to a great many of us right here and now.

Now for my blessing, as many of you know I love visionforum.com and we buy a lot from that site. I bought the DVD Tea with Michelle Duggar, I know, I know, some of you don't care for the show, so please have a great day & skip this post  :O)  

 I was so blessed by the DVD and plan to have my family watch it with me.
As an adoptive mom (I've had 4 miscarriages) to an only child, I so enjoy the Duggar's take on parenting and children. She has never made me feel less of a mom for not being able to "be fruitful and multiply", she has shown me the blessings of having even just one child. I really got a lot of out the video on how to train my child in the ways of the Lord, simple, easy ways. WOW!!  I also laughed when she spoke of the piles of laundry and 2 hours of washing dishes (things that can't be put in the dishwasher) and how to get your kids to work together. You will be blessed beyond measure from this DVD. Here is a link for more info Tea with Michelle Duggar. They have the DVD on sale this month. (I do not get any thing for posting about this DVD  :O)
Have a great Saturday and hug your child (or children!)
Moe