Potato Soup

Last week my mom gave me most of a 10 lb bag of potatoes. I made Crash Hot Potatoes with some of them and decided to make Potato Soup with the rest of it. Here is the recipe I made up with what I had on hand:

~6 lbs of potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 T minced garlic
2 T butter
2 cans of evaporated milk
8 oz cheese, shredded
salt and pepper to taste

Cook potatoes in water until tender. Saute onions and celery in the butter just until brown, then add garlic. Heat through until you can really smell the garlic.

Once potatoes are tender, drain off half of the liquid and half of the potatoes. Use your hand mixed (or masher I suppose) to create a puree right in the pan with the remaining water and potatoes. Stir in sauted vegetables, evaporated milk, and cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted then add in the remaining potato cubes.

***
Apart from the time spent peeling and cubing the potatoes, this was very simple to make. If I had it, I would have tossed in crumbled bacon and then topped with green onions. But they weren't on hand today. You could also use heavy cream instead of evaporated milk.

This recipe is one that is hard to mess up though. So, if you have less or more of something it probably wouldn't matter much.

What do you do with extra potatoes?

Week 1 Progress Update

So far we are doing really good with the January Eat From the Pantry Challenge. I went to the grocery store Sunday night and spent $28, including 2 newspapers. I hadn't planned to buy clementines, but since the 5 lb box was on sale for $5.99, I picked it up. That is a good price where I live.

Our meals so far haven't been too far off the reservation, though tonight's dinner was a little unusual for us. My mom had a 10 lb bag of potatoes she wasn't going to use up so she gave them to me yesterday. I made our favorite potato recipe, Crash Hot Potatoes. That was the star of the meal, along with some appetizer type foods I had around - mini frozen crab cakes, summer sausage, crackers, and block cheese.

I did realize though, I will need to buy sliced bread. We eat way too many sandwiches around here to give that up and I don't have time this month to learn how to make an excellent sandwich bread. But I am still collecting recipes and tips in case anyone wants to chime in.

The more I look into our pantry, the more I know we can do this. There is just so much food in there!

Have you had to start stretching yet, or are your menus still pretty normal?

Casserole City

Tonight I got a little creative and pulled some random items from my pantry and freezer to make dinner. Bruce isn't a huge fan of casseroles, but if I add enough meat and flavor he can handle them on occasion.

For tonight's casserole, I took the 3 chicken breasts that Bruce defrosted and cut them into chicken strips. This was easier because they were still partially frozen. I browned the strips in olive oil then set them aside. While they were hanging out in a bowl next to my stove, I dumped in what was left of a bag of frozen peas along with 1 1/3 cup of water.

I let that heat up then added a box of whole wheat chicken flavored stuffing. I mixed that in just until moistened then placed the chicken over the top.

On top of the chicken, I put two things. First, I poured a mix of cream of celery soup mixed with 1/2 milk. Then, I shredded about 1/3 cup of cheddar cheese over that. Placing the lid on the pan, I let it heat up for about 5-6 minutes.

While this was cooking up, I made a green bean casserole for the oven. I did not have any french onions, so I decided to use Ritz crackers. This was a gross miscalculation. They got super soggy in the soupy mix. Plus, I was reminded that I do not like frozen green beans. I have made them a hundred different ways and have never liked them. So, I won't be buying them anymore, and I still have 1 bag left.

From my stash I used - frozen chicken, 1 can cream of chicken  soup, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1/2 bag of frozen peas, 1 bag of frozen green beans, and a box of instant stuffing.

Saturday Night Dinner

We don't normally cook dinner around here on Saturday nights. It seems we either end up eating out somewhere or we are too tired so fix leftover, or even cereal sometimes. But I had the chicken defrosted from earlier in the week and still hadn't made the Sweet & Sour meal that I had planned.

I cut 1-lb of chicken into thin strips and marinated it in flour, soy sauce, water, and that squeezable ginger and chili pepper paste you can buy in the produce section. After a quick stir-fry, I removed it from the pan. Next, I stir-fried 1/2 of a diced red pepper, about 1 cup of frozen, chopped onions, and a small handful of carrots, thinly sliced on he diagonal. Once they had softened up, I added the chicken back in. I let that set for a minute while I mixed up 1/3 cup of ketchup and sugar each with 1 1/4 cup water and some powdered sweet & sour mix from the back of my pantry. Pouring that over the chicken, I brought it to a boil and then let the sauce cook down and thicken. All of this was poured over cooked white rice and topped with pineapple tidbits.

I was very skeptical about the whole ketchup thing and am pretty certain the mix was just a thickening agent, but the meal was delicious! We are both looking forward to packing it for lunch on Monday.

From my stash I used up the powdered mix, rice (and I made extra for the week), the onions, and the pineapple.

Sausage Frittata

Tonight we had a breakfast-inspired dish for dinner. I made a sausage frittata based on this recipe I found on-line. Here is what I did:


Cooked and drained 1 lb of ground sausage. Put sausage back in deep-sided pan and then poured 7 scrambled eggs over top. I moved the pan and eggs around a bit to let the eggs seep in through the sausage. After a few minutes I put a lid on the pan and then waited a few more minutes. Once the frittata began to setup I removed the lid and sprinkled cheese liberally over the top. I put the lid back on and waited for for the dish to finish setting up. To serve, I spooned salsa over the top and served with Harry & David tortilla chips.


I was able to use up 1 lb of frozen, Rich Plan sausage, some salsa (of which I have 4 jars still left unopened), and I got to open up the bag of delicious Harry & David chips! Bruce really liked the meal and said I could make something like this again. If I were to do it again, I would use more eggs (7 was all I had), 1/2 as much sausage, and I would saute onions and peppers with the sausage for more flavor and nutrition. Actually, I can think of several different ways I could add vegetables into the mix and still enjoy it. Plus, we get to enjoy the leftovers for breakfast!