One very blustery day a couple months ago my friend turned to me at work and asked how long it would take to make homemade chicken soup. She had a very sick husband at home and she was beginning to feel under the weather, too. It was pretty late on a Friday afternoon and she was exhausted. She said she had a half a roasted chicken from the store in the freezer, and thought she might make homemade stock with that and then add some veggies. I took one look at her and said don't spend all night making soup you don't feel like preparing! Go to the store, get a package of chicken noodle soup from the box, pick up another chicken from the deli, and toss in some frozen veggies. The whole thing should take 20 minutes and taste great!
She came in on Monday and said not only did I make a great suggestion, she'd taken another package of some other soup and mixed it together. Her husband was so impressed she's to make it again and again!
That's the point, isn't it? We can study and practice all the Cordon Bleu recipes until we put ourselves in the poorhouse or the nuthouse, but when it comes to cooking for ourselves and our families, it's about getting the best-tasting, quickest, most nutritious plates on the table. We picture our families as those in the Norman Rockwell paintings, but we're all more often like the Simpsons...we get our food on our plates and gobble it up as fast as possible to move on to the next event! So why do we have to fall prey to take-outs and drive-thrus? Why can't we have a couple of good old fashioned soups hanging around ready to heat and gobble up?
Instead of preparing homemade stock every weekend (I cook on Saturdays) - which is actually easy enough to do, but gets a bit tiring trying to make and keep - buy some stock cubes, don't salt additionally, and put together your soup or stew! Beginning with some chopped or sliced onion in a little oil with some black pepper and then other ingredients added makes a fresher tasting dish. And instead of trying to shell peas or string beans that might be out of season or too pricey to purchase fresh, buy and keep frozen vegetables and canned tomatoes and chilies on hand. A cup or can added to anything, but most especially soups and stews will up the nutrition level and make a prettier dish. Also adding some dried or fresh herbs to your pot will boost the taste level. The only fresh vegetables I use when making a quick soup are onions, potatoes, carrots, zucchini or other squash, or any soft vegetables that will cook quickly. The first three I always saute in a tiny bit of oil before adding any raw meat or liquid so they have a head start cooking and get a little more taste brought out. The meat doesn't always have to be raw, either. A deli chicken or some leftover roast or other meats can be easily chopped or shredded and added to the pot.
The thing to remember is when you're "faking" soup or stew, don't just open a can or stop at a store and buy ready made. It's easy, quick, and relatively cheap when you watch how much you spend on the quick ingredients.
For some soup and stew recipes, keep looking to my website: thirteenturtlesoup.netfirms.com
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