YUMMY!!!!!! Cream of Mushroom and Potato Soup

I've been making soups once or twice a week for my meals at work, and also for supplements to meals.  I've tried to make sure that the soups are from scratch, and include items from meals that I made or that Greg made previously so that we're not wasting food.  We accidentally bought too many potatoes at the grocery store this week, so I made mashed potatoes for dinner tonight, and used some of the leftovers to make the soup.  We also had some mushrooms that were good but wouldn't have made it 2 more days.  So here's my soup recipe made from leftovers, and extras.

Cream of Mushroom and Potato Soup

2 cups of mushrooms chopped
3 cups of mashed potatoes
2Tbl butter, seperated
1 Tbl whole wheat flour
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of mixed veggies cooked
2 chicken bullion cubes
4 cups of water
1/8 cup of chives

Saute mushrooms with one TBL of butter.  Set aside.  melt remaining TBL of butter in 4 qt saucepan and stir in flour.  Slowly wisk in milk, and bring up temp and let it get creamy.  stir constantly with wisk.  after bubbling, keep stirring and add bullion cubes.  Then add mushrooms, potatoes, and veggies.  Use a handheld mixer to blend.  Slowly add 4 cups of water while blending.  Add chives.  Cook til bubbly again, and serve.

Makes 9 cups. 

Creamy Yumminess!

I plan on using two cups of this soup to make a chicken casserole either tomorrow or the day after that. 

Stove Top Rice Pudding

I was looking for an easy stove top rice pudding recipe to use on the stove (because my oven is broke), and I found a few recipes that looked great but called for HUGE amounts of recipe, and many ingredients.  In order to cook frugally, one must use fewer ingredients.  It saves money.  I wanted my rice pudding to be both great and economical.  Here's what I came up with:

1 1/2 cups rice, cooked.
2 TBL Sweetend Condensed Milk
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
one egg
1/4 cup of raisins

Turn the stove on to medium heat and add to a medium sized pan rice, sweetend condensed milk, milk, and egg.  Stir until egg is worked into mixture.  Add spices and raisins.  Bring to a vigorous simmer.  Stir VERY often.  Cook for about 8 minutes until mixture is thickened and raisins are soft.

Voila!  Serve warm.  :)

What Soup Was Made For

Somewhere in the last 20 years, with the advent of the Food Network, I think I stopped thinking about food in my pantry as a cumulative to be used together, but as a series of ingredients to fit whatever recipe I had.  If I didn't have what was in the recipe, I either went to the store to get the ingredients, or I didn't make the recipe.  But now that Greg and I are grocery shopping once a week, and not going out to eat, it's forcing me to look at the items in my pantry differently.  Now I look at items to see what recipes I can create.  So here's to the leftover ingredients that I had and the delicious Black Bean Soup that I made. 

(We've been keeping a bag or two of beans in the house, and then we soak them overnight, boil them, and use them for various things all week.  Black Beans were what we used this week.  The baby loves to eat beans which provide him with protein, and we love having more protein in our meals too!  We're also doing this with pasta too!)

Black Bean Soup-- From leftovers.

1 onion sliced (not left over)

1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies (not left over)

2 cups of black beans ready to use

1 cup of peas

2 cups of pasta

3 strips of leftover bacon

2tsp of Italian Seasoning

1/8 tsp of cumin powder

add pepper to taste

2 chicken bullion cubes

Saute onion, and add tomatoes stir add chicken bullion cubes, then add 2 cups of black beans, and peas and 8 cups of water.  Bring to a boil.  Add cooked pasta, bacon and spices. let simmer for 10-20 min.  And Voila!    A simple soup made from leftovers, and the flavors were wonderful! 

I'm finding that I'm absolutely enjoying trying to stretch every penny out of my pantry!  :) 

Cutting the fat

I've learned many things through the process of nursing my son.  One of the lessons that I learned while pumping was this:  every drop counts.  Every drop of breastmilk works with other drops of breastmilk to make a meal.  So there were days when I'd see drops, and I learned about economics through milk.  I never understood the quote, "A penny saved is a penny earned."  Because to me, it seemed like I had one wasted penny-- and why did ONE penny really matter.  But now I really know.  One penny, put with other pennies makes many pennies, which makes the money of my life.  And if I waste one penny, I'm wasting other pennies and that affects my goals and dreams, because there are less pennies to work with. 

My husband and I have always spent WAY too much money on groceries.  It's food after all, and I need to eat right?  So it's okay to overspend on the budget because it's food.  Wrong.  Although, I did operate for 10 years with this ideology.  And got fat doing it!  I'm now operating under the premise that every penny counts.  Even at the grocery store... and really this is the first time.  Most of my friends know that I've been into couponing, and I've gotten some really great deals!  But I've never made myself stay within budget, and even in couponing, I've wasted pennies. 

TIME TO CUT THE FAT!!

Well no more!  We resolved to stick to a number at the grocery store, and it's significantly less than what we used to work with.  We've cut out things that we used to do slowly.  For example, we used to eat out often, but with a toddler, that's really impossible.  So we cut that out.  Then last weekend, I planted a garden of beans and peas, and basil.  Obviously I could do more, but I'm operating with baby steps.  Next, I'm learning-- so is my hubby-- to cook with what we have instead of using recipes.  Recipes are just springboards for changing them to meet the ingredients we have at home. 

USING BEANS

Next, I'm learning to cook new recipes or use things I haven't used before.... like beans.  I've always used canned beans.  Now it's time to start using dried beans.  Yesterday, Greg soaked them for me, and then I made them the quick cooking method.  We'll now see how they work added to all sorts of meals this week.  I'm really excited to see what we come up with.

New Mom Fortifying Breakfast

My poor baby is teething and cutting his top two teeth, and has an ear infection to boot.  I've been up every 2 hours for the last two nights, and have only had 5 hours sleep last night.  While that's not downright sleep deprivation, I do feel tired... well, that was until I had my fortifying breakfast.  It consisted of the following:

• 2 Tylenol - for aches and pains from carrying a 25 lb child
• 3 fish oil for brain power
• 1 multi vitamin
• PSA--check with your doctor before taking supplements and medications.  :)
• 1 egg, two whites with milk and cheese - scrambled
• 1 serving of cottage cheese topped with blueberries for anti-oxidants, brain power, and flavor.
• water
• coffee to wash it all down.

I'm feeling more ready for the day by the moment!  I tried to keep the carbs low so that I wouldn't be tired.