Cheddar Broccoli Soup

I was in the mood to make soup, but honestly that isn’t unusual for this time of year. I had been wanting Panera broccoli cheddar soup since a friend mentioned it in her meal plan on Z Life What’s Cooking Faceboo k page.

But it wasn’t until I walked down to the garden that I realized it was my fate To Make Soup!

Ok, I honestly was just going to the garden to get some leftover greens for the chickens, and then I saw this.

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Well hello there Mr. Broccoli, lets put you in a pot! (Yes, I actually still had broccoli in my garden in January, I know crazy right!)

This is perfect for my “new” weekly recipe, following along with The Frugal Girl’s plan to try a new recipe each week. I’ve never made cheddar broccoli soup so I googled recipes and found several that I could tweak as my own for the ingredients I had on hand.

This is what I did…

Cheddar Broccoli Soup

1 stick of butter
3 Tbsp of olive oil (or bacon grease 😉 )
1 large onion chopped
3 celery stalks chopped
3 carrots peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves minced

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Saute veggies in butter and oil until soft then add:

1 cup of flour to make a roux

Cook roux for 5 – 10 minutes then whisk in:

4 cups of (warmed) milk
3 quarts of chicken stock
1 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
S&P to taste ( 1 tsp. of each)

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Cook and stir mixture about 5 minutes and then add:

8 cups of small (even a little bit chopped) broccoli florets

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Cook and stir about 10 – 15 minutes until broccoli is softened, then add:

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8 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

Stir until cheese is melted.

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This makes a big pot of soup. My 8 quart stock pot is almost full, shy of about 2 quarts.

But, I’m thinking this soup will freeze nicely and if I’m cooking I’m always making more than one meal.

The recipe could easily be cut in half if needed.

This soup is beyond delicious! So Good!

Now I wont have to buy Panera soup when the craving hits, I’ll just go to the freezer.

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The last time I bought Panera was around $10 for a small cup of soup and a small salad. This pot of soup (6 quarts) would cost about $23 (in my area of grocery costs).

That comes to about $1 per serving for a Panera size serving of this soup. Have you ever got a bowl of soup at Panera (or anywhere besides home) for a $1 or less?

But, if you have broccoli in the garden or freezer and homemade chicken stock on the shelf or freezer, then the (immediate) cost of this soup would be minimal at best.

To go with it I made a fresh loaf of Katy’s, the author of The Non Consumer Advocate’s homemade bread AKA The Tightwad Gazette’s homemade bread recipe.

Just YUM!!! No, really that’s all I could say, YUM!

Since I’ve never made this soup before, I’m counting this as my new recipe for the week, following along with The Frugal Girl’s plan to try a new recipe every week in 2017.

Go ahead, make some soup and bread… You’ll love it!

Till next time,

Lori

Weekly Meal Plan and Groceries

I hope y’all had a great weekend. Ours was pretty uneventful which is just fine. I hope everyone is safe after that awful ice storm. Our snow has all melted away thanks to some warmer temperatures, but it has cooled back down now to normal winter temps.

I was late getting my weekly meal plan done this week, but I finally got it done.

Having a weekly meal plan really takes away the stress of what’s for dinner and for me it also keeps my grocery budget in check. I make a grocery list based on my meal plan and go to the store once a week. We started a facebook group for this very purpose. Z Life What’s Cooking Group. It’s also fun to see what other people are eating and to get meal ides and recipes from others which helps with the dinner rotation rut.

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I picked up the needed groceries too.

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The cara cara oranges weren’t on my grocery list, but when I saw them it made me think of a friend so I splurged and bought a bag. Hopefully it will also curb the sweet tooth cravings I’m having and keep me out of the doughnut shop! 😉

I track my grocery expense with the Dave Ramsey “Every Dollar Budget” program. It’s free at his website. To date my grocery expense for January is $75.00 I round up to the next dollar because all change goes into the change jug.

My grocery budget is $300 a month which includes food for us and the dogs, health and beauty, cleaning supplies, everything but alcohol.

Admittedly I am purposefully trying to keep my grocery expenses low by staying out of the stores which in turn keeps impulse purchases in check. Also, keep in mind that we raise or hunt almost all of our meats with the exception of seafood and the chicken I purchase from Polyface Farms. I buy the chickens in a larder of 15 whole chickens at a time and I usually do this twice a year, so I expect sometime around July I’ll be stocking up again. This usually cost between $250 and $300 depending on the weight of the chickens I get. I do have a $50 off punch card that I’ll use with my next purchase that I need to not forget about.

In full disclosure, this is the first year I’ve used the Dave Ramsey “Every Dollar Budget” system and honestly I had become pretty slack in tracking expenses. This year I wanted to get serious about it and I think the Every Dollar system is going to be the trick. Plus it’s free, my favorite price.

I believe this will be a learning experience for me this year to see the actual hard numbers on all of our expenses, but it will show us areas where we can tighten up on for the future. Retirement is getting closer and this will help us get more prepared.

Hope you and yours have a great week.

Till next time,

Lori

Our Homestead Ways

This past weekend I posted a video to my face book page of our chickens and their house. I’ve been asked why we don’t free range our girls.

I’m not of the mind that you have to free range your chickens in order for them to be healthy and happy. However, I will share that when we first started out with chickens about three years ago I did try free ranging them and it was awful because two of the neighborhood dogs got three of the girls and they died a horrible death. When that happened it almost completely turned me away from raising any animals on our little homestead. And we didn’t for about a year.

But, I really really wanted some chickens so the Z Man built a chicken house that he is able to move around the yard so the girls can get fresh grass and it keeps the grass from dying off.

Their house is double wired and even has wire wrapped on the bottom to discourage predators from getting to them. We want them as safe as possible.

They have a roost inside the house and three laying boxes, although they only use one for laying eggs. We’ve never had more than 6 chickens at one time, and it has proven to be enough room for them.

Because the house is built partially over their run it somewhat protects them from the weather too.

Our chickens are happy and healthy and I don’t feel like we have given them any less quality of life because we choose to house them. We choose to keep them safe. Yes they feed us and we have and will continue to cull our chickens as needed, but we also treat them as pets.

They get plenty of fresh vegetables from the gardens and from the kitchen in the colder months. We do feed them chicken feed and I put oregano from the herb garden in their water every week which acts as a natural antibiotic. Sometimes they even get a little whey from the raw milk.

The Z Man built their home and took great consideration for their needs before constructing it. He did a fine job and it has proven to be a happy arrangement for all of us.

Every homestead is different, and we can’t all do things the same way because nature and environment doesn’t allow it. But we can share ideas and examples and use what works for us and leave what doesn’t for the next person.

The same holds true for our hogs. We do not have the room to free range our hogs, so they live in a pin and get the same treatment as the chickens.

My Grandma and great Uncle Jimmy kept their farm animals in pins, and if it was good enough for them, then it’s surely good enough for me.

No, not all homesteads are run the same way. But I believe that we all live by the same principle. Live well, take care of yourself and your family and don’t expect others to do for you. And just keep it simple.

Till next time,

Lori

Weekend Eats and Hummus Recipe

I hope you had a great weekend. We got about 6″ of snow this weekend, so we ended up staying in all weekend and watching football and that was just fine.

The babies got to play in the snow with the Z Man and they got to wear their new sweaters.

As for the chickens, well they are stronger than I am. Every winter I’m always amazed how well they do in the cold weather. Of course the Z Man always makes sure they have a cleared spot, fresh water and of course food. I made a video of the chickens and you can see that on my Facebook page. I can’t get it to upload on the blog.

I love to make soup and especially in the winter when we get snow. This weekend was no different. I made a big ole pot of potato soup, and this time I added a jar of my canned corn and I have to say it was fabulous. I stole the idea from a friend who was making a potato corn chowder this weekend. I’m pretty sure corn in the potato soup will be routine in the Z home from now on. I added a little crumbled feta cheese on top.

I was craving some fresh veggies this weekend too, and luckily I had some in the fridge that needed to be used. For some reason I was craving veggies and dip, so I decided to make some hummus. This is maybe the 3rd time in my life I’ve made hummus so I’m not really sure where this is coming from….

I googled hummus recipes and found one that I thought I could work with and tweak it the way I wanted it. The recipe called for tahini and let’s just be honest, I have never bought tahini, and wasn’t even sure what it was till I googled it. It’s a paste made from ground sesame seeds. Not usually in my pantry, but at least now I know what it is.

I’m also not a big fan of garbanzo beans (also known as chickpea) but I did put up several jars of great northern white beans this fall and thought it would be a good substitution for the garbanzo beans.

This is what I did…

In the food processor add…