I love to cook, I love to prepare food, I love to experiment with different food combinations and spices. I will follow a recipe, but not to the letter, it is my practice to look at 2 or 3 recipes for the same dish and take from each and come up with my own. This scares some people. It is unbelievable to me how many people don't use the kitchen in their home. I am dumbfounded at the amount of prepared foods and convenience foods that are consumed by some families.
It amazes me how many people these days do not eat home cooked meals. Has society given up on passing down the knowledge of how to cook, how to prepare a meal, how to spice and get creative with food? When I grew up I watched my parents cook every night. Every meal was prepared. I could count on one hand the number of times a year that we would eat out. Now, I can't say that about myself, I can count on one hand the number of times I eat out in a week; including my trips to Tim Hortons or when I'm 'on the go' and out shopping and I just grab a wrap.
Today I made Chicken Noodle soup. When I say I 'made' soup, I mean I made 14.5 Litres of soup! I do it in the stock pot. I bottle it in mason jars for a quick home made meal, or when I am working late for my husband to serve to the kids. My husband who considers himself to be 'unable' to cook ... he can, it just takes him longer and it frustrates him, the time management and planning of it.
So, here is my breakdown of my soup - I don't really have a recipe, but I keep to the same basic ingredients.
Chicken Noodle Soup
6 Chicken Thigh
8 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 head of celery, chopped
1 onion chopped
2 bags of fine egg noddles
10 Litres of water
thyme
poultry seasoning
parsley
black pepper
bay leaves (1 per litre of soup)
Epicure dry chicken stock
salt
I keep the drippings and stock when I roast chickens - fat and all and any left over chicken. I put it into a Ziploc and into the freezer until I make my soup. Cook chicken thighs in oven - remove skin, bones and fat and discard. Tear chicken into manageable bite sized pieces. Saute the carrots, celery and onion in olive oil. Combine all ingredients in stock pot except egg noodles in stock pot, simmer on med-low heat for 30-40 minutes. Boil egg noodles for 3 minutes (do not overcook), drain and add to stock pot. Bring to a rolling boil and divide into mason jars. Total preparation and cooking time 2 hours.
Here is the amazing part - the cost of this project:
Chicken $7
Celery $2
Carrots $1
Onion $0.50
Chicken drippings and leftover chicken $5
Egg noodles $2
Spices/electricity/water $2.50
Total $20.00
The ingredients produced 14.5 Litres of soup which is 43.5 servings
This gives a cost of $0.46 per serving!
I challenge you to go anywhere and get a serving of chicken noodle soup for under 50 cents!
I love to cook, I love my kitchen, I love using lots of spices, I love to make hearty meals, and I love to make soup. This winter I've been making alot of soups for a few reasons. They are easy to make with leftover roasts, turkey, ham etc. They can cook on the stove all day on low without thinking about them or having to babysit the stove. They can be stored in Mason jars for a variety so you are not eating the same soup for a week. They are relatively low cost in making. But most importantly my kids LOVE soup!
I always start with a recipe, or rather I should say I look up 2 or 3 that catch my interest with ingredients I have, then I usually take the best points from each of these recipes and then put my own twist on it - like adding a bay leaf or blending part of the soup with my hand mixer to make it appear creamy without adding milk, things like that.
So far this winter I have made Butternut Squash soup, Roasted Sweet Potato, Cream of Broccoli, Beef Barley, and just today I made the most amazing Ham and Bean soup.
Now, Lorena, there is no way it could be the Most Amazing soup if you don't share how you did it, and what made it unique now would it!
It started out the night before, as a huge bone-in ham. I threw a large handful of whole cloves into the bottom of my crock-pot and put the ham on top, filled with water, set to low, and went to work! Yup, the house smelled GREAT when I got home. Then I poured about a 1/4 cup of real Maple Syrup over the top of the now exposed bone and let it cook for about another 45 minutes now on high.
The next part is fun - eat the ham for dinner! Delic-Ious! (as my daughter would say)
Save all the liquid, strain the cloves out. Chop up about a cup of the ham, maybe more, and add a full package of bean soup mix (soaked over night and boiled for about an hour). I chopped about 6 carrots and 5 stalks of celery. Normally I would add a small onion, but beans alone do a number on my husbands 'gas' situation not to enhance that with added fuel of an onion. Toss in a bay leaf and let the crock-pot go for another day on low.
So simple, and man so delicious!
If you have some great tips or tricks to soup making, or if you have a recipe you would love for me to try out on my family, please leave me a comment.
Thank you for looking!
~Lorena~
