Couponing has gotten
harder, so I have been
trying to save money by making more things from
scratch. One item that I hadn't even
thought about making from scratch was Cream of ... Soup. I am
constantly adding cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of celery ,and cream of potato soups into recipes,
yet it hadn't even crossed my mind. That is
until Pinterest. On a recent viewing session I saw
this post, and
had to do it.
I have been printing
a lot lately and was
out of ink. So I figured I could just
look at the recipe online and
print a label
later. After reading
all the reader comments, I decided to go ahead and
double the recipe
right away. So
after fixing dinner for the family, I set to work.
Did I
mention it was the
end of the day, and I was a
bit tired? Anyway, I poured all of the ingredients into the food processor in order to blend them well and break up any
lingering large chicken bouillon cubes. It went
quickly, so I poured most of it into a storage container, and made a
test batch to try. It was good,
but I was surprised by how
spicy it seemed, not exactly what I had envisioned, but
not bad. I decided to
double check the recipe and noticed that instead of adding
teaspoons of thyme, basil, and pepper, I added
Tablespoons.
Uh oh! My Vet (who knows my history with
trying to follow a recipe) is
snickering as he reads this.
Not being someone who likes to waste, I
wasn't about to
toss it. Instead, I grabbed a teaspoon and a Tablespoon in order to
calculate the difference and then
adjust the other ingredients accordingly. At this point I was
fully committed. I sure hoped it tasted good, or I would be tweaking it until
did!
Luckily, My math skills are
better than my ability to follow directions. I had to wait until later when I could get to the store to
replenish depleted
ingredients. This also allowed me to
double check my calculations.
Success! I can happily say that it tastes
great, and I am glad that I have such a
large stock to use.
Cream of "something" soup recipe
1 cup non-fat dried milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup bouillon (if you have cubes you have to smash them up)
You can use whatever kind you like (ie, beef, veggie)
4 Tablespoons freeze dried minced onions
1
teaspoon dried basil
1
teaspoon dried thyme
1
teaspoon pepper
**For the equivalent of one can of condensed cream soup, mix 1/3 cup dry mix with 1 1/4 cup water. Cook until thick.
I used it in
this awesome recipe for Cheesey Wild Rice Soup and it made it even awsomer! (I know it's not a word, but truth is truth.)
There are great ways to stretch your grocery budget. Thanks to shows like Extreme Couponing(:-p sorry, I don't like that show), we are all aware of the power of coupons. It is a bit of work in the beginning though, until you establish a routine and know your buy/stock up prices.
