The posting yesterday about how to use up your veggies rather than throw them out made me remember this post I wrote last year around this time. I sort of got out of the habit of keeping a “stone soup” baggie in the fridge over the summer, because soup just isn’t as appealing in the summer time-and then never got back into it because of Buddy’s unilateral decision not to eat soup or stew. However my final success with getting him to eat tomato soup last weekend (I have been serving that boy tomato soup for over 10 months and he FINALLY ate some, decided he liked it and ate 3 bowls last Saturday! AH-HA! Parental Success!) made me realize it was time to start again.
Tomorrow I’ll do the Best Of follow on article for Refrigerator Bread!I also vow to start a batch of refrigerator bread in the next week as well. Yum, fresh bread!
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Stone Soup and Refrigerator Bread-Reposted from January 26, 2006
I’m making stone soup (also known elegantly as garbage soup) for dinner tonight, along with refrigerator bread rolls. Now what on earth is stone soup, besides a children’s 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 bullion 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 dissolve 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 refrigerator dough? Wait till tomorrow and see 🙂
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