Groceries and Semi-Homemade Soup
My last trip to the grocery store went well. I bought:
- 4 cans Progresso vegetarian vegetable soup, 10/$10 sale - $1/4 coupon, $3.00
- 4 cans generic beans (2 black, 2 kidney), 4/$2 sale, $2.00
- 1 box Pop Secret low-fat popcorn, 10/$10 sale - $0.40/1 coupon (doubled), $0.20
- 2 packs Aunt Millie’s whole grain English muffins, 10/$10 sale, $2.00
- 1/2 gallon 8th Continent original soy milk, 2/$5 sale - $0.50/1 coupon (doubled), $1.50
As you might remember, I’ve been making an effort to make some of these things from scratch: the soup, the beans, the popcorn. I’ve been practicing making stove-top popcorn and soaking and boiling beans, and though my attempts are valiant, the outcomes are often not so great . This is moreso with the beans than the popcorn… the popcorn’s more just me being lazy. So I buy the canned beans because I like beans and it’s nice to be able to open a can and have them already nicely-cooked.
Anyway, I’ve found, as I know many of you out there already have, that canned soup + other stuff is a winning combination. Here are some of the things I add to canned soup: fresh or dried herbs, beans (homemade or from a can), canned tomatoes, frozen mixed vegetables, minced garlic, diced onion, small shell pasta, carrots and celery, an egg (crack it in and stir!) , and water or broth/bullion to thin it. I often find I can turn a two-serving can of soup into six or eight servings of semi-homemade soup. It tastes good almost without fail, so it’s a good crutch for someone like me who has good intentions but is kind of a crappy cook anyway. And since it dilutes the sodium of the canned soup out over three or four times as many servings, it’s a bit healthier too.
One of my favorite snacks is a toasted English muffin with butter. Unfortunately, our toaster broke last night. I got it for free at the end of sophomore year from a girl who was moving out, and it had been a loyal and brave toaster ever since. But last night, when I put my muffin in and it popped back out immediately with a flash of blue sparks, I knew it had kicked the bucket. So, new toaster time. I hope this time I can get a wide-slot toaster. Bagels didn’t fit in this one, and they’re another thing I love to toast.
Like this post? Subscribe by RSS
Or if you prefer, Subscribe by Email
Related Posts:
Monevator said,
Wrote on March 1, 2008 @ 5:30 am
A great way to make cheap soup is to make chicken stock after roasting one (or preferably two) birds. Just take all the bones and skin, bring to the boil, and then leave to simmer for 3 to 4 hours. You can put a bayleaf and some onion, carrot and celery (like an inch of each) in there two, but it makes the stock not last so long. Once it’s reduced down, carefully strain off what should be c a clear liquid, and put it in the fridge.
You can make all kinds of great soups with the stock - just add simple ingredients so you don’t mask the stock’s flavour. I can eat it raw, but maybe that’s an acquired taste.