Posted in Tightwad Tuesdays
Good day to you, and welcome back to Tightwad Tuesday with Canadagirl. If you would like to join us in encouraging each other with our tightwadry, please do go visit Mary for more information.
As usual, my tip today involves food. The recipes we share with each other not only perk up our own dinner menus, but also serve to create more personal relationship bonds with the women who take them as their own. There's something to be said for knowing that you've helped another family, even in so minor a way as to add a new dish to their dinner table. Other recipes, while humble, suddenly take their place in others' holiday traditions. To know that you've shared that joy of food, or of a specific dish, with another family is a very warm feeling.
Today's recipe is a brand new one in my home. I just made it this past Sunday, and it was a complete and utter rave. It was requested that this go in our regular lineup of meals, but we're trying a new meal almost every night in October, so what's regular anymore? I hope your family enjoys this as well!
Crock Mushroom Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 pound sliced mushrooms
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half
salt and pepper to taste
In a frying pan, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil and butter until onion is transluscent. Add mushrooms, and cook until well-browned, about 10 minutes.
Place mushroom mixture in crockpot, add chicken broth, and cook on low 5-7 hours. Add the half-and-half and salt and pepper in the last hour of cooking.
Notes:
I added maybe another tablespoon or butter during the cooking process, as the mushrooms seemed to be drier than they should have been at that point. I don't know how much this affected the taste.
Price per bowl:
Mushrooms: 2 cartons @ $1.89 each
Onion: $0.33
Butter and Olive Oil: $0.40 (estimated)
Garlic: $0.05
Half-and-half: $0.75
Chicken Broth: Free (pulled homemade out of freezer)
Salt and Pepper: negligible
Total cost of soup: $5.31
Cost of soup per bowl (4 of us): $1.33
We paired this with a loaf of crusty bread (that I bought at the store because I didn't have any in the freezer and didn't want to bake on Sunday) that cost $1.39, and salads all around. I'm going to estimate each salad (veggies, salad dressing) at $1 apiece. This brings this entire healthy and filling meal to $10.70, or $2.68 per person. This was a meal worthy of a sit-down restaurant, and hubby and I agree the soup alone would probably sell anywhere in the neighborhood of $6 a bowl it was THAT good. Estimations bring us to believe that had we gone out for this meal, it would have cost us approximately $38. At that price, I can feed my family three complete dinners! Think about that the next time you go out to eat.
All in all, this meal was a delicious, filling, satisfying, and nutritious one. The absolute icing on the cake was that the soup only took about 15 minutes to make, and the salads 20. Perfect time allotment, in my humble opinion. Bon Apetit!
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
