lentil soup

olive oil
2 stalks celery
2 carrots
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
2 C Lentils- 1 bag
2 cans chicken broth
1 can tomatoes
1 sprig rosemary
spinach

Saute veggies a few minutes in the olive oil add lentils, broth, bay leaf and tomatoes. Cook for about 20 minutes until lentils are soft. Add spinach (fresh or frozen)

refrigerator soup

My sister Shelley who really knows her stuff wrote this wise advice...


I make refrigerator soup on Fridays
It varies from week to week depending on what I cooked that week.
The base of it is
organic chicken stock
Then I take my left overs and add to it.
For example this last week
I had left over salsa
left over beef chunks, potatoes, carrots
So I added chopped onion, celery, bell pepper
It was sort of a spicy tomato beef soup.

If I had a lot of cream left over or milk that needed to be used up
then I might have gone a different route.

The left overs determine that type of soup I might go with.

My favorite spice is thyme I don't put it in everything but I do put it in a lot of things.

You can read more everyday tips on her blog Life in Lewisburg

The soup was a hit

The soup was a hit. I ended up using frozen veggies and not so much spinach. I also had some wild rice that I went ahead and used. I blended half the soup up with a hand blender, the other half I left whole. We eat the whole pot of soup in one sitting (there are 7 of us). There were no left overs. I think for most families this harty soup would last for two meals. I bet you could freeze it well. Even Jessica my autistic daughter liked it. Thank you for the good soup!

OK, I need ome more ideas...what's next?

The Soup

The 8 small potatoes cost about 50 cents. I'm using brown potatoes because I can not find red ones. I love red potatoes but they generally cost more. I had onions. Since most people just have onions I'm not adding them to the price. I paid around 2€ for 1/2 pound of good sausage. Laurie's recipe calls for 1 1/2 pounds of sausage. I figure it's there for flavor. I think less sausage will give us the flavor we want without the fat and cost. The good chicken broth I bought cost me 2.78€. I'm sure you can buy it cheaper in the States. I always have olive oil and garlic and bullion so I'm not going to add this to the total. The rice I had, but I'm going to say 2 cups of good rice cost 50 cents. I cook my rice in the microwave in a special rice cooker. It only takes 20 minutes to cook and it's always perfect. The bag of spinach cost 79 cents. I'm not going to add it to the soup until everything is cooked. That's just to save the vitamins. I will probably also add some frozen peas and carrots ( this also cost 79 cents)just because I like to slip in the veggies as often as I can. The total cost of this very large pot of soup is 7.36€ or about $9.70 USD. It took me about 15 minutes to peel and cut, and brown everything. It's cooking now. I'll have photos and a family review for you tonight. It smells good!!! As long as you add the spinach later, I think this would be a great crock pot meal.

George's Rice Soup

I got this e-mail from Laurie
It sounds really great! I'm going to make it for dinner tonight. I'll take pictures and tell you what the Heymann kids think of your soup! Thank you Laurie for the input. You are a great blessing!!!

George's Soup

We make a version that we call George's Baifan (rice) soup, with left
over cooked rice. I make a big pot and don't do much measuring, but
this is basically what goes into it.

6-8 small/medium red potatoes peeled, cooked & cut into small squares
1 onion chopped fine
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic in olive oil
1-1.5 pounds of mild Italian sausage, cooked
1 large bag of chopped frozen spinach
1 large can of chicken base (or your own chicken or vegetable broth)
1 tb Better than Bullion
salt, pepper or a seasoning mix to taste
two to four cups of water

2-4 cups of left over cooked rice (for George's Baifan version)


Cook the potatoes in a big pot, then brown the sausage (break up into
little pieces) and the garlic and onions together. When all is done,
combine the skinned and chopped potatoes, the sausage mix, frozen
chopped spinach and the chicken base into a big pot and water. Add
seasonings and Better than Bullion to taste. If you have some carrots
you can chop these up and add to the pot too. Cook for two to four
hours. Crock pot would be all day, I guess.

For picky eaters, I sometimes blend up the soup a little with my hand
held blender, so that there are not recognizable chunks to pick out!
The kids love this soup and it is very hearty and filling.

I have lately had lots of left over cooked rice in the frig and have
started adding this to my soups. If it is cooked for several hours,
the rice falls apart and thickens the soup nicely.

Laurie