Saturday, November 13, 2010

Soup Is Cooking On The Stove ... Chicken Noodle with Vegetables




Winter is creeping in and time for us to make soup. My goal is to cook a pot of soup every week. This will warm the house, our tummies and hopefully fill us up at a good price.

Today cooking on the stove is our version of Chicken Noodle with Vegetables. Perfect time to add any left overs should there be some in the refrigerator. The recipe came from Betty Crocker " Come Home To Dinner " but adapted to my kitchen. I cook on the stove rather than a crock pot and use a different pasta. This is a true keeper of a recipe for soup.

Sweet hubby deboned the Rotisserie Chicken we bought this week and boiled the bones making us some broth. We will add more broth if necessary using Chicken Bouillon granules.

We cook the 1 cup of elbow pasta first so that it does not soak up my broth while cooking. This is added back to the soup at a later.

Recipe is as follows

Chicken broth as desired .25 cents

1 tsp of onion powder or onion diced as desired ( I had no onion in the house so used powder)

1 tsp of thyme

1 tsp of pepper

1/2 tsp of salt ( I prefer to add more salt to my bowl of soup if desired rather than to much at this time)

diced up carrots amount as desired .25 cents

1 cup of elbow pasta .50 cents

1cup of diced up chicken $2.00

1 can of diced tomatoes with juice .69 cents

frozen mixed vegetables ( I like a combination of peas, green beans, corn and more carrots) .40 cents







To the broth I add the spices, chicken,

carrots and diced tomatoes. Cooked till carrots are almost done. Then add the pasta and 1 cup frozen vegetables. Simmer for about 1/2 an hour and dinner is done.




Oh so good for lunch today and for left overs during the week for our family of 2. The soup cost $4.09 plus the spices.

This is being linked to the following sites
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Thanks for stopping by... Lets keep saving together.. Grace

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Rare 1923 Vintage Recipe Making Polychrome Conserve



Thought I would share another recipe from this cool vintage recipe book. How about Polychrome Conserve...

1 pound of apricots, 1/2 pound of prunes, 1/2 pound of peaches, 2 oranges, 1/2 cup of sultana raisins, 1/2 cup of chopped nut meats and 2 pounds of Franklin granulated sugar.
Wash and soak the apricots, prunes and peaches, then simmer in the same water until tender. Pit the prunes and chop all the fruits fine, grate the oranges and add the peel and juice to the fruit with the raisins coarsely chopped. Cook for ten minutes, add the sugar and nut
meats and simmer until thick.

Thanks for stopping by ... hope that you enjoyed this recipe my vintage Franklin Sugar recipe book.. Hope that you will stay and read some of my other postings and come back again.. Grace

Monday, November 8, 2010

What's For Dinner This Week, Saving Money Eating At Home


Another Monday and time to plan for dinner tonight and this week.


This is our plan for dinners this week .

Hamburger Patties , potato salad and baked beans

Potato soup with experiment bread ( will let you know how it turns out)

Chicken Enchiladas ( planned last week but never made them)

Out to dinner with a friend

Pizza

Left overs

To be decided

What is on your menu this week, with reading so many recipes this last week so many choices out there. Plan to make Potato soup one night. Need to decide if I will make my recipe or one I saw at while surfing the Internet.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you will take a moment and read some of my other postings. Grace

Freezer Cooking Stage 3 Spaghetti With Meat Sauce plus What's For Dinner



Last night I knew I needed to deal with some more of the hamburger sitting in our refrigerator. I had picked up 6 pounds of ground beef on sale at Cub Foods to make some freezer meals. First came Stage 1 Chili ( fantastic I think), Stage 2 Our Souper Meatloaf and now for Stage 3 it is our recipe for Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. I first made Spaghetti as a new bride in 1966. I have slowly changed it by adding more spices. I have to say it just get better as time goes on. This recipe will feed 6 but since it is usually just the 2 of us I can stretch it to 2 meals and 1 lunch for us.

Okay back to last night. I had hubby divide the 3 pounds of hamburger into half. One half went into my kettle and the other half into the freezer for future use. We will reheat our Spaghetti Sauce tonight, boil some spaghetti and butter some good bakery bread. The remaining sauce will go into the freezer for another meal.


As I browned the ground beef

my sweet hubby chopped a 1/4 of an onion for me.


Once the ground beef was browned we spooned out the grease and added the onion to brown.

To this was added sugar, salt, pepper,oregano, thyme, basil and garlic.


After stirring all together we added 16 ozs of Tomato Sauce and 8 oz of diced tomatoes and 4 oz of water.


Simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour and you are ready to eat.

Spoon over cooked Spaghetti, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese ( if desired)

There are times I will add diced mushrooms and tomato paste.

Recipe
1 1/2 pounds of ground beef ( I used 85 percent)
1/4 of an onion
1/2 tsp of sugar
1/2 tsp of salt ( we are cutting down on salt)
1 tsp of pepper
1 1/2 tsp of oregano,
1 1/2 tsp of thyme
1 1/2 tsp of basil
1 tsp of garlic
1 16 oz can of tomato sauce
1 oz can of diced tomatoes
4 oz of water

I will be posting this recipe on the Internet at Monday's
http://www.thegirlcreative.com/2010/11/just-something-i-whipped-up.html
http://asouthernfairytale.com/2010/11/08/panko-crusted-green-bean-casserole/
http://itsablogparty.com/delicious-dishes/
http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/11/individual-beef-pies.html
Tuesday
http://www.brendascanadiankitchen.com/2010/11/cookbook-sundays-double-decker-truffled.html
Wednesday
http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/
Thursday
http://aroundmyfamilytable.blogspot.com/2010/11/tip-day-thursday-carnival_10.html
http://grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/11/grocery-cart-challenge-recipe-swap_11.html
Thanks for stopping by.. Lets keep saving together .. Grace

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Rare 1923 Vintage Recipe Book Found At Estate Sale


I love Estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores and antique stores. We are always on the hunt for some treasure to buy and resell on the Internet to help suppliment our income.

Yesterday we were out hunting and stopped at a small estate/garage sale. Boy was it chilly. November in Northern Minnesota is not really garage sale time.

Well in this garage is a pile of books and as I look through them I found craft books on quilting, basket making and a couple of recipe/cookbooks. One of them was " The Franklin Sugar Sweetmeat book printed in 1923. Small recipe book and only 64 pages.

I will be listing it tonight on eBay but until it sell will share some of the recipes with you. It is rare and I have only found 2 other copies for sale on the Internet so far.

Tonight I am sharing a recipe for French Meringue Tart

6 egg whites, 1/2 tsp of vanilla, 2 1/2 Franklin Granulated sugar or 3 cups of Franklin Powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp almond extract, 1 pint of whipping cream
Beat the egg whites stiff and dry, add half the sugar and beat again until the mixture will hold its shape, then gradually whip in the rest of the sugar and the flavoring. Line two layer cake pans with paper wet on the underside and spread the mixture lightly on the paper. Bake in a very moderate oven until firm and just tinged brown. Put together wtih whipped cream or ice cream and pile whipped cream on top. Decorate with fruit and serve very cold



Thanks for stopping by.. grace

Freezer Cooking Stage 2 Souper Good Meat Loaf

With winter closing on us here in Northern Minnesota I am in the mood to cook and get some freezer meals ready for cold nights and easy cooking.
I do not want to spend hours at one time cooking enough food for a month or more. So I am doing it in stages. Our freezer is really only the top of a refrigerator so could not get that much in any way.
Here is Stage 2 Souper Good Meat Loaf .. Stage 1 was our really tasty Chili

My recipe for meat loaf is off the Lipton Onion soup box.


The recipe calls for two pounds of hamburger


To the hamburger I added 1 package of onion soup mix

2 egg



1/3 cup of ketchup


16 or so crushed saltine crackers

1 Tablespoon of Worcester sauce.

3/4 cup of water

Mix all ingredients together and shape into 2 loafs.

We then baked for an hour if we plan to eat right away.. This makes 8 servings.


I like to take the left overs and add them to left over baked or boiled potatoes and make a home made hash for another meal


Rather than bake today I have shaped into 2 loafs and wrapped into Aluminum foil. I am freezing these for future meals.



That is stage 2 of my Freezer Cooking Plan.. I now have 3 dinners of Chili for 2, 1 light lunch for 2 and 2 meat loafs that for the 2 of us will make 4 meals.


Thanks for stopping by.. Lets keep saving together .. and watch for stage 3 Freezer meals coming. I have 3 pounds of ground beef waiting for me to make meals with... Grace