Blueberry Lemonade: Leftover Soup

Just for fun, I decided to do a search on the history of soup.  I have this idea in my mind about the origins of soup, and a preliminary search did not reveal anything of value.  I had to do a bit of digging, changing up my search terms to find something close to what I was looking for.

In my mind, soup originated from poverty.  One small rabbit and a few almost rotten vegetables thrown into a pot with some roots and herbs would go much farther than the rabbit and vegetables cooked like a roast.  According to one article I found, soup originated to serve invalids.  I hadn't thought about that.  Regardless of its origins, soup continues to be popular in all socio-economic circles.  In our family, it provides a way to use every small piece of food.  We live on a very tight budget, and waste cannot exist.

Some items naturally make great soup.  Others do not.  Similarly, finding the combination of items that work best takes some practice.  I make various types of soup from leftovers, and over the years through trial and error, I have established a standard 3 recipes that I only slightly vary.

Fish
Vegetable (chicken, pork, beef)
Taco

Today, in the crockpot, is the vegetable soup.  I had the ingredients in the fridge and had not moved them to the freezer soup bowl.  The freezer soup bowl is a plastic container I put all leftover vegetables into and then use to make soup once the bowl is full.

In the crockpot is:  a few potatoes and carrots from a roast, a small piece of grilled pork chop, leftover green beans, a small amount of leftover au gratin potatoes, 1/2 chopped onion and a cup of frozen mixed vegetables.

Warm a tablespoon of butter in a skillet and add chopped onion.  Stir and cook until onion just becomes tender.  Add the leftover vegetables from the roast and heat slightly.  Add 1 cup of water and stir well, allowing the ingredients to mix well.  Pour into the crock pot.  Add a tablespoon of butter to the skillet and melt.  Add 2 tablespoons flour and mix well.  Heat through.  Add 2 cups of water to the flout mixture and stir to make sure no lumps exist.  Add to crock pot.

Add the other ingredients.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I like to add some rosemary and thyme. Turn the crockpot to low and cook for about 1 - 2 hours.

I hope you can find some tips and techniques to help expand your food use.  Check back often as I will post more frugal chef recipes.

Hodge Podge Chili

Hodge Podge Chili is one of the easiest recipes to make because all of the ingredients can be frozen ahead of time.  That's what makes it a hodge podge.  In the pot today are:

leftover taco filling
cooked red beans
leftover hamburger patty
leftover sausage patty

What "leftover" means is that once the meal was over, there was something not eaten.  I have a special bowl in my freezer to put the ingredients for Hodge Podge Chili.  I add to the bowl until it almost full, and then I throw the ingredients together for chili.

The cooked red beans are new.  I made a pot of these a few days ago.  The first meal we had from these was red beans and rice.  The other meal (besides the chili) I will make will be tostadas.

In the simmer pot, I added 1/2 cup chopped onion, 1/2 chopped bell pepper, 1 sausage patty (crumbled), 1 hamburger patty (crumbled), 1/3 cup taco filling and about 2 cups of the new red beans.  Add ground cumin, salt, pepper, garlic and chili powder to taste.  Bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer on low for about 30 minutes.

Serve with cornbread or crackers.

Bits and Pieces Fruits and Nuts

This recipe is just a fruit salad made with bits and pieces of leftover fruit.  Ok, ok, not that the fruit is actually left over, but the salad contains fruit that is the last of something.  I had 6 strawberries left in the container, so I chopped those up and put them in the freezer.  I also had 2 slivers of an apple left from a fruit plate.  I chopped those up and added them to the salad.

In my "bits and pieces fruits and nuts" are:

1/2 a banana, sliced
6 strawberries, chopped
1/4 and apple, chopped
1/2 a canned pear (this I added from the can and will use the rest of it for another project)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 chopped pecans
ground cloves
ground cinnamon
honey (about 1/4 cup)

Mix all the fruit and nuts in a bowl.  I have a bowl that holds about 2 cups, so I use it so that I can gauge how much fruit salad I have.  Sprinkle with cloves and cinnamon.  Drizzle with honey.  I used about 1/4 a cup.  Stir gently.

Divide the fruit salad equally between 3 - 4 (1/2 cup) airtight containers and store in the refrigerator.

Uses:

Add 1 container of fruit salad to oatmeal, yogurt or low-fat pudding..  One of my favorite recipes is to add 1/3 cup half/half to the fruit and simmer in a pan on the stove.  Stir often.  When heated through, sprinkle granola over it\