Easy Cheesy Vegetable Soup

If you want your family to eat more vegetables (willingly!) and enjoy good, hearty soups in the fall and winter, this one is for you. It's my own concoction, adapted from Leanne Ely's Saving Dinner. This recipe is suitable for a crockpot or stove-top.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, cored & broadly chunked
3 medium carrots, peeled & chunked
3 stalks of celery, washed & chunked
4 c. chicken broth (water + bouillon cubes work well)
1 t. thyme, crushed
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8 oz. shredded cheese
2 c. milk, divided
1 jar Ragu Double Cheese pasta sauce

Put the first set of ingredients in a stock pot (6 qt) or large crockpot and cover. If using crockpot, cook on low for at least 8 hours or high for 4 hours. If using stovetop method, allow the ingredients to boil and then reduce to low until the vegetables are soft and easily broken with a rubber spatula or knife.

Once the vegetables are soft enough (as indicated above), turn the heat to low and use a stick blender to puree the contents of the pot. If you don't have a stick blender, strain the vegetables and a small amount of the broth to a blender and whirl on purée until smooth.

Once the contents are smooth and there are no more chunks and/or strings from the celery chunks, add cheese (anything except mozarella or swiss) to the pot, stirring to melt. Combine 1 cup of milk and 1 jar of Ragu Double Cheese Pasta Sauce in as well. The pasta sauce will be thick and you'll use another cup of milk in the jar, swishing it around to get the rest of it out and in the pot of soup. Combine well.

Season with salt & pepper to taste and serve up with salad and crusty bread. It's a hearty, filling soup that your family will rave about! :)

Bon appetite!

~Sue

Sticky Prices

Everything has gone up in price these days; as the fuel-price rises, so does the cost of getting the things we buy to market. And retailers aren't going to foot the bill for that all by themselves; they raise the prices on the things we buy so they don't feel the pinch as much.

But what happens when the price of fuel drops, as it's done recently? We rejoice a little bit each time we go and fill up our cars and it costs less, but how about the prices for the things around us?

I just read this morning that UPS is introducing a 5.4% surcharge to cover their fuel bills and residential-delivery differential, starting January 1, 2009. Wait a minute. The price of shipping via UPS already went up when diesel fuel jacked up to over $4.00 per gallon! And now the price is coming down, so why the surcharge?

That's a sticky price. Grocery stores are full of them, too. Groceries tend to see the slowest price-increase when fuel costs go up (so much of it sits in local warehouses and doesn't make a large difference in the profit margin of a store), but once the prices do climb, they're up there for a while. When fuel prices decrease, the increased prices at the grocery store are the slowest to drop, as well.

So how to combat this? Short of growing all your own produce, home-canning, and avoiding the grocery store, I can't come up with any significant way. But that's also why I shop sales WITH coupons. Something at a good price gets procured in large quantities and stored in my pantry, but "good price" to me means "on sale, purchased with a doubled-coupon." So I hang on to coupons and purchase when the price drops.

No one knows what the future holds in terms of fuel prices and the economy. Chances are good that it will be hard for some time to come. But if you can plan ahead and build a decent pantry for lean times, you'll make it through with a little more grace and aplomb than otherwise.

And you'll survive the "sticky prices" that are everywhere.

~Sue

Half & Half Hack

Do you like the taste of half & half in your coffee or tea? Do you hate the price of the stuff? We do and we do over here.

My husband & I consume a full pot of java every morning and our choice of addition is half & half. For a while, I could find it cheap(er) in small containers at Kroger, but as the cost of fuel went up, so did the "sticky prices" of groceries (more on that in another post). And our precious half & half went to the ridiculous point.

Then I began buying it in bigger containers at Costco -- making the run there every 4 weeks or so. And then those prices went up.

So as they say on our son's favourite Disney show ("My Friends Tigger & Pooh"), "Think, think, think."

A few weeks ago, I was at Costco and noticed the price of heavy whipping cream was less than half & half when compared ounce-for-ounce. Half & half is merely whole milk with heavy cream added, so could I make half & half for us cheaper than buying it ready-made? Hmmm. I bought a single container of heavy whipping cream and figured it was worth a try.

In order to successfully complete this "life hack," you need to have a container for combining milk & heavy cream that can be closed and shaken when you're ready for it. Happily, our milk is delivered in glass bottles with plastic lids, so I generally have a clean glass bottle hanging around. :)

Pour equal amounts of milk & heavy cream in to the container and shake. Half & half that comes from the store has been homogenized (a process whereby high-pressured air is shot through the product to break up milkfat molecules and make it smooth), and the stuff you're making won't be. However, I've discovered that as I shake, I'm getting a fresher-tasting half & half in my coffee and a head of foam on my cup that makes me feel like I'm drinking an expensive cuppa coffee from a gourmet coffee shop. ;)

If you've got the inclination and the willingness to hack something yourself, let us know. This little hack saves us about $1 per container of half & half and is entirely worth it.

~Sue

Free Cappuccino at Barnes & Noble

Here is a link for a printable coupon for a free tall cappuccino (up to $3.20) at a Barnes & Noble cafe.  Expires 10-31-08.

props to couponcravings.com for the link.

Enjoy,

Colleen

Free Samples and Printable Coupons

Here are some links to free samples and coupons without a catch:

Dunkin' Donut Coffee

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

Mr. Clean -$2 printable coupons

Cascade printable coupons

Dawn printable coupons

Swiffer printable coupons

Febreze printable coupons

Scentstories Yankee Candle printable coupon BOGO

Col

One Dish Taco Meal

This dish is hearty, easy, and makes a lot. I make it healthy by using very lean ground beef and brown rice, but feel free to tweak it to fit your family's tastebuds. Props to Mary Hunt at Debt-Proof Living for the idea for this meal; I tweaked it to make it "mine," but her idea was the basis for it.


1# lean ground beef, browned and (if necessary), drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
1 can seasoned, diced tomatoes (either Ro-Tel or Italian-style)
2 pkts taco seasoning
4 cups beef broth (may substitute 4 c. boiling water + 4 bouillon cubes)
1 box instant brown (may use white) instant rice -- 14 oz.

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Place beef, corn, beans, tomatoes, and taco seasoning in a large pan (I use an electric skillet), combine well. Add beef broth and stir well. Heat contents on medium-high and add entire 14 oz box of instant rice, stirring well. Cover the dish and allow contents to cook on med-low for 30-35 min (or until all liquid is absorbed by rice). Sprinkle with shredded cheese, serve with sour cream & hot sauce, as desired.

~Sue

Stick Another Stone in the Pot

We can clip coupons, shop sales, and turn down thermostats all in an effort to save money. But what do we do with the food items we procured on-sale, with (doubled) coupons, and that don't shove our utility bills through the roof?

I've got answers. And recipes. One of my passions is creating hearty meals that are budget-friendly and taste good; most of them will feed a family of 4 at least twice (or provide enough leftovers for a few days worth of lunches). All of them are tasty and healthy.

Check out the new category and new recipes as I add 'em. :)

Happy cooking!

~Sue

Rite Aid Printable Coupon

You can print a Rite Aid coupon for $5 off $25 here. The coupon doesn't expire until 12-31-08.

My Walgreens Trip on Friday

I bought 6 bottles of softsoap body wash + a crossaction oral-B toothbrush and a cheese snack pack. 

Softsoap is on sale for $3.49 x 6 =  $20.94

Crossaction Oral-B toothbrush = $4.49

cheese snack pack = $1*

total = $26.43

- $5 off $20 or more.

- $6 (6 x $1 off each softsoap bodywash in EasySaver catalog). 

- $15 in rr from previous purchases.

total cost = $1.66 (including taxes) used my walgreens gift card from Walgreens rebates and received

- $10 in rr for buying 5 or more softsoap body washes.  

- $4.49 in rr for Crossaction Oral-B toothbrush.

*If you have them scan the $5 off $20 coupon first, you won't have to purchase this. They scanned the easysaver coupon first for me before I could stop them. :( 

Another Walgreens Coupon Good this Weekend Only

Here the link to a coupon for Walgreens good only this Friday and Saturday at Walgreens. http://www.walgreens.com/hotbuys/default.jsp?ec=hn601_getcoupon

$5 off $20. 

Happy Shopping. :)

Colleen