Make Your Own – Cream of Whatever Soup

You ever notice how a lot of recipes call for a good ole can of what I like to call Cream of Whatever Soup. In most cases, it honestly doesn’t matter whether you use Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Chicken, Cream of Celery or some other variation. It’s basically the soupy consistency and flavor that is needed for recipe. Well I found a wonderful blog called Once a Month Meals that posted a way to make your own Cream of Whatever.

Some of you might be thinking, but Cream of Mushroom soup is pretty cheap. Why would I want to spend my time making my own? First of all, you will save money by making it yourself. Second of all, you are making a cooking staple without all the added preservatives and unneeded chemicals and GMO’s. Third of all, it only took me an hour and a half. I did it after the kids went to bed one night.

I’ll walk you through what I did. There are several meals I planned for this month that require a Cream of Whatever in the recipe. So I decided to make a large batch of Cream of Whatever so I have enough for the month. According to Once a Month Meals, the recipe will make 1 “can” or 1.5 cups. Having this in mind, I just did 5 times the amount of everything called for in the recipe.

I used 8 oz of mushrooms. I found that when I was chopping my mushrooms, 2 of them made 1/2 cup. So to have 2.5 cups for my large batch I used 16 mushrooms which was exactly (1) 8 oz package.

I did NOT use 5 times the amount of onion. If you have read my previous posts, you know I don’t care TOO much for onion. I’m glad I went with my instinct on this one. I used 1/2 an onion and it was PERFECT for even this large batch!

The recipe calls for 2 cloves minced garlic. If you times this by 5, you need 10 cloves (or 5 tsp of minced garlic from a jar).

Here are these ingredients ready to sauté.

After I took this picture, I realized that I should cook this in a smaller skillet so I switched it out. Sorry it’s a bit blurry! We’ll call it an action picture! 🙂

When this was done sautéing, I took it off the heat and put on my biggest skillet with the butter. I used 2 1/2 sticks for my large batch.

Once the butter was melted, I added 1 1/4 cup flour and whisked like a mad woman!

 I let this cook and thicken for about 2 minutes. I stirred frequently to avoid sticking or burning on the bottom of my skillet. Next I added 5 cups of milk (which felt like a lot but it was fine) and 3 3/4 chicken broth. For my chicken broth I used my Homemade Chicken Broth but you can easily buy broth from the store. Then add your sautéed mixture that you set aside earlier. Then bring it to a boil.

It took a good 10 minutes for all this liquid to come to a boil, but once it started bubbling, I turned it to a medium heat and stirred frequently to avoid sticking. In total, it probably cooked for a good 15-20 minutes but my large batch has a LOT of liquid! It won’t take you that long in a small batch. Once the color of the soup started turning a bit darker and the liquid got thicker (not super thick though) I seasoned with salt and pepper and started trying my homemade concoction.

I finally got the right amount of salt and pepper and the taste was fantastic! The soup was so yummy I almost wanted to eat it as is! But then I remembered I needed it for future recipes and the fact that it was 10:30 at night. Not a good time for another meal! 🙂

Now the question was how to store all this soup? According to the author of Once a Month Meals, the soup will only stay good in the fridge for 4 days. If you can use it within that time, awesome! However, the meals that need Cream of Whatever come later in the month. Since each serving is 1.5 cups, I spooned each serving into a quart sized freezer bag.

This large batch made 8, yes, 8 servings! That’s 8 “cans” of Cream of Whatever! Three more than I expected! YIPPEE! I gave one to my friend and put the rest in the freezer. When I’m ready to use a “can”, I just need to thaw a bag and add it to any recipe!

Cream of Whatever Soup

Yields: 1-2 cans                           Time: 30 minutes                               Print

Source: onceamonthmeals.com

Ingredients:
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 1/2 cup main ingredient, diced
• 1/4 cup butter or substitute
• 1/4 cup flour or substitute
• 1 cup milk or substitute
• 3/4 cup broth
Directions:
– Sauté garlic, onion and main ingredient (mushrooms, chicken, celery, etc.) and set aside.
– Melt butter over medium heat.
– Whisk in flour. Cook for about 2 minutes.
– Add milk and broth.
– Add sautéed garlic, onion and main ingredient.
– Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring regularly, until it reaches desired consistency (about 10-15 minutes).
– Season to taste with salt and pepper and use as you would a can of condensed Cream of Whatever Soup in any recipe.

Make Your Own – Chicken Broth

The first of many “Make Your Own” posts will be Chicken Broth. This is as easy as can be and turns out great when you need a chicken base for soup or to make those “cream of whatever” soups!

First, you need the bones, leftover meat, veggies, and broth from ANY meal. OR if you buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery, throw the leftovers of that in the crock pot and make this yummy broth with that too!

Take all the leftovers and put them in your crock pot. Throw in any extra root vegetable like parsnips, potatoes, carrots etc. Season however you like. For my first try I just added salt and pepper and a bay leaf. My friend told me she adds a few whole peppercorns. Get creative and add your favorite spices!

Now, add water until all bones and veggies are submerged.

Put your crock pot on low and leave it on overnight.

In the morning, your house not only smells AMAZING, but your chicken broth is DONE! The liquid should turn a medium dark brown color.

All you have to do now is strain the mixture. I got 2 bowls and put them side by side.

One bowl had a strainer setting on top of it. I ladled spoonfuls from the crock pot to the strainer. As the broth leaked through the strainer, the bones and veggies were left in the strainer. Then I dumped the strainer into the second bowl. By the end I had 3 FULL cups of chicken broth (or about 24 oz).

I kept the carrots for snacks for my toddlers and kept the celery to make Cream of Celery Soup.         

Well I already calculated the chicken when I made my Whole Chicken Crock Pot meal so I’m considering the bones, chicken and veggies FREE (plus spices). I was just going to throw out the bones anyway right?

Let’s talk prices—>

I added 2 cups baby carrots to make this broth which cost $0.84.

SOooooooo… 3 cups of chicken broth cost me a whopping $0.84. Compare that to 2 cups (14 oz can) of Swanson or even store brand chicken broth at $1.00 or more and you are saving big time AND you know exactly what ingredients are in your chicken broth. This was not a difficult feat because the stuff cooked while you were sleeping! HA! Gotta love that!

Tell me how your broths are turning out! What creative concoctions are you coming up with?

The Cheapest Whole Chicken Crock Pot Recipe Ever!!

This is one of my staple recipes. I probably make it 3 times a month. It’s cheap. It’s easy. It’s healthy. AND I can use the leftover bones and veggies to make chicken stock.

Let’s jump right in! This whole chicken recipe has a total of 7 ingredients (plus spices) and like I said above, you can use the leftovers to create soup bases or “cream of whatever” soups! Here is my next Five Dollar Dinner that will save you money.

Click HERE for the recipe and calorie breakdown.

Now. Let’s figure out the cost of this delicious meal!!

Whole Chicken: I only buy these when they are $1/ lb. I try to find 4-5 pound birds because that is what I’m used to cooking and it fits in my crock pot. You can opt for a smaller bird if you have a smaller family, or a larger bird if you have more mouths to feed or LOVE leftovers!! 🙂 The cost of my chicken was $4.90.

Baby Carrots: I love my crock pot but sometimes I wish it was a bit bigger. My boys LOVE soft cooked carrots but because the chicken takes up so much room, I can’t fit more carrots to cook for snacks for later. First World Problems right? Anyway, I buy baby carrots in bulk at my local Costco because they last a long time in the fridge and I use them in lots of recipes. The regular price for these is $5.79 but it has 13 1/2 cups of carrots! That makes each serving (1/2 cup) $0.21. So my 2 cups of baby carrots was $0.84.

Celery: In this recipe, I use celery more as a flavor addition than a “I love to eat the celery as a part of the meal”. But if you like celery, then add some more! 🙂 I use 4 stalks and chop them into 1/2 – 1 inch pieces. Sometimes stores will offer a bunch of celery for $1.50 which is a decent price. At that price you are looking at a cost of $0.40 for this meal. I, however, bought my celery in bulk at Costco for $3.79 for 40 stalks which made the celery for this meal only $0.38. PLUS the leftovers from this meal will help make my next batch of soup that much more yummy!! 🙂

Potatoes: On this particular day, I used brown russet potatoes. I have used red (new) potatoes in the past and been just as pleased with the taste. I ONLY buy russet or new potatoes by the 5 or 10 pound bag. These potatoes came from a 5 pound bag that cost $3.00 at Kroger. That is not a great price. In the potato off season (winter – spring), you can get 5 pound bags of SMALL russet potatoes for $2-2.50. Check your grocery ads for the current prices! When I’m making this recipe, I always put the celery and carrots in first and then “supplement” with the potatoes. This way, I make room for the super healthy veggies and less room for the starch. With that being said, the number of potatoes will vary a bit from time to time. Usually, I use 6-8 red potatoes or small russet potatoes quartered or 2-3 large russet potatoes cut into sixths. So the cost for 3 large russet potatoes was $1.35. If you were to buy these on sale in the $2 range, 3 large potatoes would only be $0.90! That’s a 45¢ savings!

Onion: I like cooking with onion because I do think it adds a lot of flavor; however I don’t like actually eating the onion. Therefore I usually use half the amount of onion that is called for in recipes. This recipe should probably have a whole onion but I use a half an onion. Do whatever suits your family. 1/2 an onion cost me $0.27.

Lemon: These are tricky little boogers. They rarely go on sale. And when they do, they are not advertised in the circulars. This means it is hard to plan EXACTLY what the cost will be until you arrive at the grocery store. At Kroger I can normally find a lemon NOT ON SALE for $0.79 but I have purchased them for $0.50 at Aldi before. The lemon I used this time was unfortunately $0.79 so I’ll use that for my calculations. Let me know where YOU find lemons for a good price!

Minced Garlic: I use already minced garlic from a jar. It’s also hard to find this on sale so I got my jar for $3 but I’ve seen them for $2.50 before. In a 4.5 oz jar, there are 32 servings. Each serving is 1/2 tsp. I used 2 tsp so my cost is $0.36.

Bay Leaf: If you remember, I don’t normally incorporate prices of spices in these posts but bay leaves can be figured by the leaf. This recipe uses 1 bay leaf which was $0.13.

Here are the spices I typically use…

The total cost for this recipe is $9.02! Wait a minute (you’re thinking)! This is yet another post where the total is MORE than $5 and this is the Five Dollar Dinner Blog.

Let’s break it down into actual meals. The chicken and veggies normally makes about 6-7 servings. Divide the total cost by 7 servings and that gives you $1.29 per serving. My family (2 adults and 2 toddlers) will eat 3 servings per meal. The cost is $3.87 for meal 1, $3.87 for meal 2, and $1.28 for a leftover lunch for the hubster!

Woot wooooot! Another successful Five Dollar Dinner!