I can get real creative using leftovers. When you make a meal, stuff usually goes together pretty good. I take the leftovers and make soup. I just add more vegetables, tomato or mushroom soup (homemade!) and whatever else suits my fancy. I may serve it with a grilled cheese, egg or peanut butter sandwich. Homemade soup is much cheaper than the canned stuff.
I also make my own hot chocolate mix using really good for you deep chocolate! You can control what goes into it. I leave out the sugar creamer and add my choice to each serving, like stevia, sucanat and real cream or evaporated milk.
My daughter refreshed my memory about making bone soup. Buy a whole chicken, roast it for the flavor for one meal. Keep the bones, skin and trimmings. Put them all into a pot of water along with 1/4 cup vinegar (to extract the calcium from the bones), and an onion, some carrots and celery then simmer in a crockpot for maybe 24 hours! You can discard the veggies then, or if you're like me, you could figure out some way to use them. Some people add them to the compost pile.
You'd be surprised how much more meat you can get off the bones. Anyway, after you're done with your really good chicken stock, you're ready to make some more really good soup. It smells up your house real good! Have fun, y'all! God bless you real good!
By Ginny from Charles City, IA
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By
01/18/2012
My time sure is "worth something, too!" I get to do what I love to do! Amen? Amen! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
By
01/04/2012
For years I have collected bones (chicken, turkey) to make soup stock, using vinegar. You can put them in a bag in the freezer until you get enough, or get around to making soup! Makes great stock!
By
01/04/2012
MartyD, LOL thats very funny!
I also didn't know about the cabbage and the chicken bones I will try that next time. Also the lemon sounds good too.
By
01/04/2012
This is an amazing post. I am serving more soup this year, it is one of my favorites! I had no idea about the vinegar or cabbage I am so glad I read these posts!
Blessings, Robyn
By
01/04/2012
Like your tips etc. I've always made my own soup. I roast the chicken first, use some for a chicken dinner. If there's any left over I use for sandwiches or wraps with raw veggies and salsa. I then use the carcass for stock. But never put cooked veg (or any other cooked food for that matter) on the compost heap or in a compost bin as it will encourage vermin. Jan UK
By
01/04/2012
Definite thumbs up on the bone soup! Cabbage is also an acid and added to bones, will leach out the calcium (for those who do not like vinegar). Another option is lemon, which then results in a beautiful broth for making the Greek, Aveglemono. Delicious!
By
01/02/2012
I love homemade soup! DH would never eat it and insisted on THE noted store bought stuff. I always made soup for my boys when they were little but DH never tried it. His mother was one of the tragic stories of the depression. When things started looking up and all her family and friends were back at work she gave up all semblance of frugality. She never fixed leftovers, made soup or cooked potatoes in their jackets for fear that people would think she was poor. Garage sales and thrift stores were out of the question.
When DH and I started to notice that his fave brand of soup wasn't very good any more he asked me if I remembered how to make the soup I made when the kids were little. I said yes and we have been eating homemade soup ever since. Now, mind you, we were married for more than 50 years when he made the alarming discovery that my soup is better than Campbell's but it takes longer for some people.
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