Angel Food First Impressions

Got our Angel Food boxes today! They look so yummy! Quality looking stuff too! My husband was definately surprised how far the money we spent for the food went. We got the Bountiful Blessings Box and a popcorn chicken special.

Each location is a little different I'm sure, but at our location we just drove up, told them our name, and they loaded the food in our car. As we drove away my husband said, "Do they offer this service for groceries?" It was definitely the quickest shopping trip ever, it was awesome!

My husband already had plans to meet a friend for breakfast this morning so me and the boys ate some waffles and breakfast links. The links were from the angel food box and yummy! C decided to just eat the waffles but O ate both of the boys links! I was surprised once I got them that the links were chicken, not sausage like I've seen before, but they tasted the same! The texture inside was slightly different, but not TOO noticeable.

I'll let you know more once we get a chance to cook some more of it! So far we're definately planning on doing this again!

           

Yummy Homemade Vegetable Soup

Did I mention this is so yummy! My husband had a taste (thinking it would be bland) and said, "woah, this is tasty soup!"

I used the recipe on the back of the Kroger 14 oz. can of vegetable broth for a guideline but I tweaked it with what I had on hand and LOVE the outcome! Here you go:

Ingredients:

• 3 bags (12 oz.) frozen "vegetable soup mix" (Kroger brand)
• 3 cans (14 oz.) vegetable broth
• 1 can (29 oz.) tomato sauce
• 1 can (14.5 oz.) crushed or diced tomatoes (if diced, run them through the food processor before adding to recipe)
• 3 tsp. dried parsley flakes
• 2 tsp. dried cilantro
• 3/8 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. dried oregano

Directions:

• Add everything to a large pot (I used a pasta pot with the strainer removed)
• Turn the soup on high to boil
• Once boiling, reduce to medium heat and cover. Stir occasionally.
• Remove from heat once the vegetables are done (and your preferred softness).
• Remove 1 - 1 1/2 cups of vegetables from the soup along with 1/4 cup liquid and put into the food processor. Pulse until veggies are somewhat pureed. Add back to pot of soup and mix thoroughly.

This makes at LEAST 10 cups. We ate a few portions ourselves before I divided it out to freeze and still ended up with just under 8 cups to freeze. So the amount could even be closer to 12 cups! I'll add the exact amount next time I make it. Until then, just know it's a lot! This is a great soup to make ahead to freeze for nights that you don't have time to cook or to bring to someone who is needing friends to bring food to them.

Price:

This is a fairly cheap soup as well. The bags of vegetables are $0.88 a piece at Kroger. I forget how much the broth is but I don't think it's more then $2.00/can. In fact I'm thinking it's closer to $1.50/can. The tomato sauce is definitely under $2.00. And the diced tomatoes always seem to be hanging around my house even though I have nothing to use them for! Well, until now!!! Everything else is just seasonings we always have on hand.

Enjoy!

           

How Long Can You Cook From What You Have on Hand?

I've been trying to cook from only what we had in the house this week. It has been interesting for sure!

It all started because we had a small food budget this paycheck. So I purposely went to the store as soon as we got the paycheck and bought as much food "ingredients" (vs. cooked prepackaged meal items) as I could for as cheap as I could. I made sure everything I bought could go together to make a meal (instead of just buying items we liked). Also, I checked prices and made sure to get the best price I could on everything I bought and definitely got a lot of store brand when it was a good option. Something different I also did was order some food from Angel Food Ministries. We'll pick it up this saturday so I can't comment on how that went yet. I'll tell you how that goes once I have a chance to look it over and try some of it.

What has come out of it? A few new recipes and a LOT of hearty wholesome meals! And surprisingly, it hasn't taken MORE time out of my day. Instead of us waiting until we were starving and putting together the quickest thing we can (which probably wont fill us up), I'm cooking up something during nap time and it's all ready to eat when we're just starting to get hungry. Ed and I have both noticed that we have more energy the next day since we've been eating more filling (and rounded out) meals in the evening.