Where I come from Sunday is the day of rest, that is unless you are the mom. Then it is the day of rounding up, cleaning up and serving up. In todays day and age this comes right before a full work week. All that's left is Saturday, for some it's the day for hanging with your favorite person. For others it's football games and ballet practice. Either way Saturday is a great day for soup!
The best thing about soup is nine times out of ten you have all the ingredients in your house already. A bag of vegetables, a grilled chicken breast from the Wednesday's dinner, chicken stock and some spices. The only thing left to do is to figure out what carb you want... rice, barley, potatoes or egg noodles.
Let's try this again. Brown up some cubed beef in evoo, set aside. Cook diced onions and sliced carrots. Pour in some beef stock, drop in some cubed potatoes and seasonings. Pour into the slow cooker and head out. Thirty minutes before you eat drop in a cup of lima beans and corn, maybe some peas in the last five minutes. Serve with some homemade croutons.
Now what to do with the leftovers, that is if there is any. Freeze it, either place in single serving baggies or in large freezer bags. Make sure to push out as much air as possible and lay flat on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer(Thanks Rachel Ray for this tip). In a dutch oven make a rouge add liquid from soup. With a slotted spoon add meat and veggies from soup and top with a mixture of:
1 c. milk
3 eggs, can use Egg Beaters
1/2 c. Bisquick
1/4 tsp. seasoned salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. dried thyme leaves
Bake at 400 for 15-20 let cool for 5 minutes.
On one final note if you have a busy schedule coming up just make a couple batches of soup base, ie. broth, meat and seasonings freeze it. On a busy day throw the frozen soup along with root vegetables and in a slow cooker and cook on low.
So the next time you think you don't have anything to eat, just look around there's a whole world of food out there.
Ps. What are some of your favorite soups?
