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!