Soup Planned
It’s soup season again! Though I prefer summer weather I love fall foods! Squash, corn, and soup are the foods for us in autumn. I’ve enjoyed two new soups made by friends and family in the last two weeks. For the whole summer, four different soups! All wonderful. I will be making my own renditions of the most recent soups over the next couple of days.
The first soup I’ll be making is a Mediterranean soup with a chicken base, with tomato and clams for a different taste. My mom first made it two weeks ago. It was so good, it may become a favorite.
The second soup, as made by a good friend, was a vegetarian black bean soup. It was spicy and thick. Rick even said that the way it was made he didn’t feel like he was missing meat. At the moment money is tight. Meat is expensive when compared to veggies or bulk dried items. Money saved is good. Nutrition kept is even better.
New Soup Goals
Last year, I spent the fall and winter, and even a few summer days perfecting chicken soup. I discovered roast chicken makes the best stock and froze a ton of it. This years plans are to experiment outside the basic chicken soup. I want to add beans, use only stock, try vegetarian (for fun and financial). I want a soup to discover a soup I’ve never had before – or make a soup, I’ve never made before. It will be an exciting soup searching journey! Gluten-free of course!
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I have never made egg drop soup before, and actually never liked it at the restaurants. Rick on the other hand, loves it. The last time we made it, Rick was the one whom did it and I just watched. At the time, we were not eating totally healthy so we used the flavoring packet from Top Ramen. We will not be doing that ever again. Can you say MSG?
All the recipes that I looked up had chicken stock listed as the base, but I didn’t have chicken bones to make chicken stock and will not use anything else that I do not make. I looked up how to make veggie stock and made that. It was so much better than veggie stock that comes in a can. Of course, it gave the soup a different flavor and because of the half jalapeño I added to the stock, a little bite.
You will need the following:
• 4 cups of veggie or chicken stock
• 2 eggs
• Sea salt
• Green onions (I didn’t have any left after making the stock so there are not green onions.)
Bring the stock to a gentle boil, add the chopped onion, taste, add salt, taste. Gently whisk the two eggs in a separate bowl. This next part may require two people. Turn off the heat just before you add the eggs. Hold a fork around 8 inches above the stock and gently pour the eggs through the fork. Stir the stock as the egg is poured. It is supposed to slow down the flow and create the little ribbons. I did not get the perfect little swirly egg ribbons as you can see in the picture, not sure why. It does not affect the way it tastes in my opinion. And Rick really liked it. If you make this on occasion and have any tips feel free to let me know!
In the last two weeks, we have discovered that Rick’s work cut back that started about two months ago had a nasty effect on our recent finances. So I’m trying very hard to cut back on our spending, making everything last longer and cut back on things that may turn into expensive surprises later such as electricity.
Today or tomorrow, I will be off to my favorite store Central Market – which I have been avoiding because they have such fun stuff on which I tend to blow money – to get soup bones and roast for our next meals. I am concentrating on using everything in my fridge before going back for more.
Last weekend I bought organic chickens and roasted one for one meal and some left-overs and then used those bones for soup along with the second chicken. For the recipes check out these links: My Favorite Chicken Soup Notes on Chicken Soup The perfect roast chicken
This week it will be a beef soup and roast. Bones do not cost that much and roast is a cheaper alternative to the steak Rick would prefer. I have only made beef stew/soup once before so this time will be yet another experiment. It turned out well last time, but sometimes things do not translate into a successful second try.
Yesterday Rick and I were talking about things we can do to make things easier financially. Turning down the heat would be one. We live on the first floor in our apartment complex. It is much more different than living on a third floor apartment. Heat rises so in our old apartment we hardly needed the heat on. Here it seems it’s never warm enough. We have resolved to put on another layer of clothing, turn off the wall heater unless it’s unbearable and use the oil heater first. I do a lot of cooking with the oven so that helps warm things up on most days. It is just a little cooler on days we have left-overs.
Aside from putting on a sweater at home and sitting on the couch with a blanket, wear a scarf are great ways to stay warm in winter. I am a huge fan of scarves. I have a huge pile of them that my cat loves to sleep on. You loose a lot of your body heat through your head and neck and feet. So wear socks, slippers, and a scarf at home to keep you warm and cut back on the electric bill.
