Happy Monday!
What do you do when you want to clean out the fridge and the bread drawer… use all the odds and ends…and a friend stops by with some “specials” from the Christmas Tree Store and you have an It’s a Cinch project to do? Well here’s the answer…
you make
So my friend Pat stops by to visits and brings me my absolute favorite wine in the world (aren’t friends great!) and she also had a bag of goodies…she went to the Christmas Tree Store and wanted to share her fabulous finds with me. Well the bag was filled with Bob’s Red Mill Soup Mixes! By the way Red Mill stuff is awesome they have all kinds of flours…spices and much more and NO this is not a paid post…I just love the stuff! Anyway…I decided to use this combo of dried flavors first…
As you can see it is filled with yummy beginnings of a soup…I can’t leave anything alone and make it as is…so here is where cleaning out the fridge comes in…I took all the odds and ends out which consisted of all veggies and chopped them up…
a little bit of this and that…there was not enough of one to make anything solo so this was a perfect way to use them! Then I simply took out a large stock pot and fried some fresh garlic and scallions in a bit of olive oil and added the veggies and sauteed for about 10 minutes. Then I added the whole package of dried goodies…then 16 cups of veggie stock (yes it made a lot)! Added seasonings including the last of my fresh herbs from my deck garden…stirred up…brought to a boil…covered and turned it down to a simmer and left it alone for about and hour and a half…
mean time I had some stale Italian Bread screaming to be made into croutons! So I chopped them up…tossed them with a bit of olive oil and herbs and popped them in the over at 425 for about 15 minutes…believe me…it’s a cinch for sure!
Grated some cheese up (have to have cheese right?)
got out the bowls and it was all ready to serve!
hot…hearty and delicious…
croutons that make those packaged ones PALE in comparison and literally took 5 minutes to make…
yummy melted cheese and a simple garnish of some sliced scallions and you are good to go! Here’s another fringe benefit…this pot served a family of 4…2 lunches and I still have…
a full 1/2 gallon…yes 1/2 gallon of soup to use through out the week or of course you could freeze it! So I was able to clean out the fridge and waste nothing…empty out the bread draw and make enough croutons for bowls of soup and plenty left over for salads…use a bargain from a friend literally and get a gallon of delicious and yummy
soup! Talk about “savings” and cinchy meals!
ps…for some reason there was a can of creamed corn in the bag? I do have to admit that I don’t really like to use canned veggies but it’s ok sometimes…so I kissed the soup with it and I think it was the perfect touch!
There is not right or wrong to this recipe…you can use veggie broth…you can use a combination of broth and water or just water…any combination of veggies you can come up with will work perfectly! The basic formula would be 4 cups of liquid to 1 cup of dried mixture…you can also make your own by buying an assortment of lentils…split peas and barley with a touch of baby pasta and mix them all together and store in a mason jar! You can make as much or as little as you want! In the end…
Now let’s see what my friends have cookin up in their creative blogs…just click and ENJOY!
(((((HUGS))))
remember today is not only the 1st of October it is the first day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month…
have YOU and YOUR LOVED ONES had your
mamogram??? Consider this a reminder from a friend who cares!
remember today is not only the 1st of October it is the first day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month…
have YOU and YOUR LOVED ONES had your
mamogram??? Consider this a reminder from a friend who cares!