Soup-er Sunday

 Fall is here and so is hearty soup season!

My family loves soup. I love quick and easy recipes that they will ALL eat. Knowing that I was going to be busy with chores, errands, a Girl Scout troop meeting, and Sunday Night Football, tonight's dinner needed to be quick, easy, and good. 

We tried this recipe for Rustic Potato Soup, from Jill Winger's Prairie Homestead Cookbook. It checked all of the boxes. I liked that I only needed  to make one substitution for household intolerance -oat milk for heavy cream. In the future, I probably would just skip that ingredient, or use cashew milk to give it a creamier texture, but it was good, regardless. 

The only garden element I was able to include in this recipe were the greens. I wasn't able to collect enough kale from the garden, so I threw in some chard along with it to make up the needed quantity -substitution #2. 😉

It also worked out really well that I just happened to finish making a pot of chicken bone and veggie broth as dinner prep started. I had cooked up a couple of whole chickens the other day (they were on sale!) and had put the meat in the freezer for quick and easy meals another day. I saved the carcasses and added veggie scraps that I save up in the freezer to make an awesome stock. Look at that color! Yum. I put the needed amount into the soup and stored another several quarts for later. If you have never tried making your own stock, I highly recommend you try. It is easy and so good for you, as you can control the ingredients including sodium and fat quantities, not to mention the nutrition from cooking the bones down. 

Voila! Delicious, hearty, and so easy to make.

There are no leftovers of this dish to speak of. 

Success!

Try-it Tuesday: Homemade Larabars *updated 8/14*

Yes, I know it isn't Tuesday, but I tried something new yesterday: Homemade Larabars.
I have been wanting to do this ever since I tried a Larabar and my sister sent me a recipe from her Cross-fit group. I found more recipes online and sucked it up and bought the ingredients at Costco.
Here is the link to the awesome homemade larabar recipes that I used.
Flavors chosen based on the ingredients I had: Cherry Pie, Gingerbread, and Dark Chocolate Brownie.

 I forgot to take pictures during the making of, so I apologize that you have to make-do with the after pics.
They turned out so good!! I'm partial to the Cherry Pie ones -which ironically was the recipe with the biggest substitution. I found a smokin' deal on the Craisins flavored with cherry juice and figured I try that rather than spending a small fortune on dried cherries. So good!! Probably adds a little extra sugar though.
I opted to make these more of a snack-size so I formed them using a 2T scoop which comes out to be approx 1/2 a regular bar size.
My picky eldest happened to be in the kitchen when I discovered a Gingerbread one that had missed getting into the bag -she gobbled it down and pleaded for another. Win for me!! Everyone had a Brownie one for dessert and the kids were begging for seconds. More win!
There are two things I LOVE about these: First, they are made with no added sugars, have lots of protein and fiber, and are in general a great snack option that the kids truly enjoy. Second, the great value -I'm a sucker for a bargain.
At my Costco you can get an 18 count box of Larabars for just under $16 which comes out to just under $0.88/bar. Good price, I'm not arguing that. I just get bored with the lack of flavor options. Enter the plethora of recipe options.
Here is what I purchased from my local Costco (unless otherwise noted):
Dates: about $8 **found a pitted variety for $5 in yesterday's trip to Costco, bought them instead*
Almonds: 3lbs for 15.69 (48 1/4C servings)
Pecans: 2lbs for 13.69 (32 1/4C servings)
Cherry flavored Craisins: 10oz bag for .99 (a deal from the back-rack at QFC) (7 1/4C servings)
*I also got a sack of cashews from Trader Joe's, but did not use them in this round of "baking", so did not count them in the calculations.
I used all of the dates (save for 1/4C): approx $8.00
8 servings of almonds: $2.62
4 servings of pecans: $1.71
4 servings Cherry Craisins: $0.57
I got the equivalent of 19.5 bars with those 3 recipes, so the total comes out to approx $0.66/bar. That's a 25% savings. :)
Granted, I did not include the 2T cocoa powder, 3T chocolate chips, 3/4t ginger, 3/4t cinnamon, and 1/4t cloves. These are all in my regular pantry stock, but I can't imagine they would add more than a couple of cents on per bar.