Mary McQueen offers two more recipes for the bundle. These look like things you could make in bulk and eat on for awhile, a technique of mine to save time during the week.
Tomato and Spinach Soup
Note: K, I have to admit, this first one I have jacked from Rachael Ray, but it is delicious, cheap, fast, easy, healthy, lasts for days, and feeds many. I have only ever used vegetable broth in this soup, but if you want a little protein, I’m sure chicken broth would do just fine. I store extra soup in the fridge for a couple days, and then you can freeze it for eons! And by the way, I don’t usually measure. This soup will feed about four people. Add crusty bread and salad for a complete meal. Oh, and extras you can send along the next day in a thermos in your kid’s lunchbox.
1 large shallot
2 cloves garlic
1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes (I sometimes use the fire-roasted, which gives the soup a nice smoky flavor)
1/2 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
2-3 cups veg. broth
Several handfuls of fresh spinach
Olive oil
Pepper
Saute the shallot and garlic for a couple minutes. Add the crushed and diced tomatoes. After the tomatoes are heated through (maybe 5 minutes or so), add the broth until you have a soup consistency (this is a thick soup, though). After everything is bubbly and hot, add the spinach and cook until wilted down (another 3-5 minutes). Add pepper to taste (you don’t really need salt because the canned tomatoes are already salted usually).
Egg Salad
Note: When I was little, my mom always made my egg salad with ranch dressing - extra yummy. If you have an aversion to ranch dressing (or don’t have any or whatever), use a little less mayo than the ranch and half a small lemon. This is just a very simple, very cheap way to make egg salad, but you could always add extras like capers, for example, if you have the $$$.
Eggs (usually about 1 1/2 - 2 eggs per sandwich)
Ranch dressing (see notes)
Scallions (if you want)
Salt
Pepper
Put the eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a rolling boil. As soon as the water is boiling, turn the heat down so you have a gentle boil, and cook the eggs for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, take the saucepan off the heat, dump out the boiling water, and run cold water on the eggs until they are no longer warm. To save water (and my water bill), I cover the eggs with cold water, let them cool down in that water, dump the water, and repeat (rather than running a continuous stream of water over them). When cool, crack open the eggs, and mash up in a bowl with a fork (sometimes a knife works better). For every two eggs, add a spoonful of dressing. Basically, you want just enough dressing to bind the eggs together. Add one chopped scallion per two eggs, and salt and pepper to taste. You can eat this with crackers, on bread sandwich-style, on lettuce cups, or plain….
I prefer my egg salad with a very small straw.
I’ve just made the tomato & spinach soup and can vouch for its awesomeness. Cheap, simple, and tasty, enough for this broke student anyway, with tons left over. Consumed alongside a salad made from the leftover spinach, a handful of nuts and raisins, and Ridiculously Easy Vinaigrette (olive oil and balsamic vinegar).
Consider me helped! Thanks, Mary and Lauren.
What-You’ve-Already-Got Soup
I think that vegetable boullion cubes (around $2 for a box of six) are the single most important staple in a kitchen intent on saving money. Though most are tailored such that each cube makes two cups of broth, the broth can be weakened (especially if adding other items to a soup), thus stretching the cost. A small can of tomato paste (50-70 cents) is also a good buy, since you could add half a can to six or eight cups of water/broth and still get a strong tomato flavor. (Ketchup, if it’s what you’ve got, can do the same thing.) Onions and celery can be sauteed in butter or oil to soften and then added to broth to make it more savory; spices like thyme, rosemary, parsley, and dill can all turn plain veggie broth into something pretty tasty, and CVS often sells these spices for 99 cents a jar. Soups like this can take any type of frozen, canned, or fresh vegetable, or even lemons, apples, and oranges. Also, egg noodles (between 50 cents and $1 for a one pound bag) expand greatly and can be an excellent and filling addition to the soup. I find that, even when making the soup noodle heavy, I can stretch a single bag of egg noodles to accommodate a gallon of soup. The best thing about soup, though, is that it reheats well and tolerates tweaks with each reheating. If you toss in some frozen peas when reheating onion soup, it’s like a brand new meal and nothing is wasted. In general, to make the soup, add your vegetables to simmering broth and bring the soup to a boil; turn down the heat and let the soup simmer for 20-45 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add the noodles when the vegetables are nearly cooked, as they only take 3-5 minutes to soften. And if you, like I do, collect packets of Saltines, the cost of the entire (healthful) meal (plus two days of leftovers) is quite low, usually between $4 and $8.
Miss Havisham’s mention of tomato paste reminded me of what to do with tomato paste leftovers - I put tablespoons of the remaining tomato paste on a cookie sheet and freeze it until rock hard. Then I put them in a ziploc bag or gladware container and then pop them out one at time when I need tomato paste. It’s cheaper than the tube of paste, and lasts longer than in the fridge (I thought I could keep it sealed in a plastic jar in the fridge, but it got moldy.)
I also do this with wine and chicken stock - any leftovers go right into an ice cube tray, and then I pop them out one at a time as needed.
I’m sure these tips are well-known, but I didn’t find out about them until just recently, so I figured I might as well mention them for anyone in similar shoes.
Vegetable Barley Soup
simmer about 25 minutes once all is together
Two cups pot barley, cooked
5 cups water, vegetable broth or chicken broth
{add more water/broth if needed as soup cooks}
one yellow onion
the leafy end of the celery and a bit of the real deal
2 cloves garlic
2 carrots
Chop the vegs a you like them
8 oz chopped mushrooms
6 plum tomatoes, canned, not juice
2 cups greens in season sliced thinly and sauteed until still crunchy, in olive or canola oil ie) kale, cabbage, spinach, mustard greens etc. add to soup at the end of cooking. You can use frozen spinach.
paprika
cayenne pepper
basil
salt and pepper
{Above to taste, about 1/2 tsp each}
one bay leaf
Or whatever herbs you like and taste before serving to adjust if needed
a small piece of the rind from a piece of parmesan cheese if you save them in a bag in the freezer, toss a couple into the simmering soup to flavour it. If you’re a real miser like me, when the soup is cooked, rinse them, dry them and put them back in the bag in the freezer. Or eat them while you stand at the sink congratulating yourself on a pretty good soup
peas whatever
you can also use parsnip, potato, turnip, chunks of squash or pumpkin, whatever you have on hand
Just before serving and after adding sauteed greens, add a spash of cider vinegar or a squirt of lemon juice if you have one around
if you’re flush, you could add a couple teaspoons Pesto sauce, and a handful of chopped flat leaf (Italian} parsley, just before serving.
Red Lentil Soup
5 or so cups vegetable broth or water
4 to 6 carrots, more or less as you like
One small potato
One chopped yellow onion
1-1/2 cups red lentils
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
Optional: cayenne pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander if you have it
salt and pepper
one scant tablespoon vinegar, or if you have a lemon rind around {you save them in the freezer) you can add a piece of that while all cooks
plain tart yogurt
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
one bunch fresh spinach (or frozen which is just as nutritious and often cheaper)
Simmer everything but salt, cilantro and spinach for about 1 hour, stirring. Add the 1/2 cup chopped cilantro at end of cooking. Stir. Correct seasoning.
Just before serving, rip up spinach and saute in one tablespoon oil until wilted. About 3 minutes.
Serve each bowl of lentils with a heaping tablespoon plain tart yogurt, a bit of the wilted spinach and a dusting of cumin.
Or: chopped green onion (scallion)
Or: a few chopped cashews, a few raisins and a bit of grated apple.
Oh wow, that’s an excellent recipe for pony! Do you prefer Shetlands or Irish Sport Horses?