Leftover Soup

Tomorrow I am making leftover soup! I thought I would tell you a little about how it goes.

Leftover soup is delicious, easy, and thrify.

The base for the soup ingredients is....leftovers! After meals when you have a little bit of rice or veggies or broth or meat that nobody wants to eat, stick in the freezer til soup day. Eventually you'll need a crock pot meal, and you should have a nice variety of items to go into your soup.

Start with some liquid. Whether you have homemade broth, or an organic broth like Imagine brand (please none with MSG), or a creamy soup base (I often get Imagine brand organic soups marked down at Kroger), any of it plus some water will work. Pour it into your crock pot.

Now is the time to empty all of your little containers and ziploc baggies of leftover bits and pieces. Put it all in the crock pot.

Then add in any fresher leftovers that you have in the fridge as well.

Then if you aren't happy with the amount of stuff in there, chop up some onion, carrots, celery, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, etc. Toss in some frozen veggies if you like. I now like using my Thrive freeze-dried veggies--I have a really nice variety, so it makes my soups so much more flavorful and colorful than I used to have when I didn't have so many different veggies on hand all the time!

You can add cooked or uncooked brown rice, wild rice, or barley. If you want to add pasta it does best to go in toward the end of cook time since it gets pretty mooshy after being in the crock pot all day.

Once you've added all the food bits that you want, add more water or broth if you feel that it's needed. Then add seasonings like parsley, a bay leaf, marjoram, sea salt, pepper, or any other herbs or seasonings that you think will add to the taste.

Cook it on low in your crock pot. Come home to a beautiful dinner!

It's never the same soup twice, but it's really good regardless. As long as you get the liquid-to-food ratio right, you can't really go wrong.

Enjoy!

Cauliflower Curry

I don't mind telling you that I'm not an adventurous eater. I am not a person who wants to travel the world to taste food everywhere. I have never lived anywhere that had Indian, Cuban, or any other authentic ethnic cuisine. I grew up on all-American food, with Americanized Italian food on the side. :)

So, all of that to say I have little-to-no experience with curry. Normally, if I had seen this recipe in a book I would not have even considered making it. If I had looked at the ingredients, double that. But thankfully, my mom made this while we visited her last week and Oh-me-oh-my! this is Soooooo Gooood! My husband and some of the kids loved it too. And I have been dreaming of making it here at home ever since.

Today's the day!

I love crock pot recipes that don't ask me to do much beyond throw everything in the pot. If I have to pre-cook stuff, to me it kinda loses the point. Well, this is one of those easy-peasy recipes, so, give it a try! (ok, you will have to chop some stuff....can you handle it? :) )

Throw into the crock pot:

4 cups cauliflowerets (fresh or frozen)

3 medium tomatoes seeded and chopped (2+ cups) or the equivalent of canned diced tomatoes (get cans without BPA please!)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 14-ounce can coconut milk (not cream of coconut) (I'm not really sure how healthy this is, so report back to me if you have anything to say about it. There is no sugar in it, but there were some preservatives. I found mine by Chinese food at the grocery store.)

1 Tablespoon soy sauce, or you could substitute Bragg's liquid aminos

1.5 teaspoon (not 15!) curry powder

half a teaspoon sea salt

half a teaspoon dried crushed basil

Cook on low 4-6 hours.
Shortly before you want to eat, stir in 6 ounces fresh organic spinach. Cover and continue to heat on low for 10-15 minutes or so.

The perfect accompaniment to this is organic brown rice. If you have a rice cooker and will not be home while this is cooking, use it!

Experiments I look forward to trying with this:
-throwing already-cooked rice into the pot for the last hour of the cook time
-you could add cut up bits of cooked chicken to this as well
-the recipe book I saw this in suggested topping this with chopped peanuts, raisins, and/or shredded coconut. I would not have thought of any of those, but now it sounds really yummy.

This is very warm, soothing, comfort food. Perfect for fall and winter! Be brave and give it a try. Let me know how you like this. :)