I’m making stone soup (also known elegantly as garbage soup) for dinner tonight, along with refridgerator bread rolls. Now what on earth is stone soup, besides a childrens story?
It is one of those good ideas that is so simple, so common sense, that when you hear it you just slap yourself on the forehead and shout “why didn’t I think of that????” Now I can’t remember where I initially got the idea. It was probably from “The Complete Tightwad Gazette” but it might have been from the knowledgeable and interesting folks over at the About.Com Frugal Living Forums (one of my favorite places on the web to hang out).
Here is how you make stone soup. You keep a plastic container with a lid in your freezer (I use a large yogurt container) every time you have a tablespoon of vegetables, meat, noodles, etc left over in the pan after dinner, you throw it in the container in the freezer. When the container is full, it is time to make soup. I simply defrost mine for a few minutes in the microwave (to help pop out the block of frozen food) then put it in my crockpot with about 2 cups of water and 3 bullions cubes. If the meat is mostly beef, I use beef bullion. If the meat is mostly chicken, I use chicken bullion. I’ll go through the fridge to see if there are any veggies in the crisper or rice/noodles that are leftovers to add in to it.
There you have it, what is essentially free soup! I tend to get enough little dabs of this and that to make soup about ever 2-3 weeks. Sometimes I use it as a simple dinner with bread and maybe a salad, like tonight. Sometimes it is a saturday afternoon lunch.
Some people like to “rinse” off the meat before placing it in the container, so that their are no additional flavors. Me, I just take a chance and throw it all in there. I remember one lady posting over on Frugal Living that her kids wouldn’t eat soup, so she made a “gravy” out of hers and served it over toast or rice. (just use flour or cornstarch and thicken up the broth-remember to dissovle the thickener in cold liquid before adding to the hot or you’ll get lumps!) Someone else only keeps the meat and veggies, not the starches, and adds to noodles along with “cream of” soup (or a basic white sauce-which is the same thing) and makes a casserole. Any way you do it you never get the same exact meal twice.
Now, what is refridgerator dough? Wait till tomorrow and see 🙂
Katie @ 3 Blondes and a Redhead says
This. Is. Genius. With a 2 year old and a 4 year old, we throw away a little of this and a little of that OFTEN. Too little to really save to be another meal for them, but mostly the food is untouched and perfectly wasted.
I am starting this new idea TONIGHT!