Hey, it's Saint Patricks day so a good reminder for taday is ... make sure you all get enough Greens... :)

Tomato Rice Soup

Soup, there is a beauty about soup because it is easy and efficient and you can use almost anything that is leftover or just laying around. It does not have to be fancy it just has to taste good to your family.

When you make a soup, use the big pot (ours is 8 pints/4 litres) , that way you can save some in the freezer for quick lunches. We reuse the 750 ml yogurt containers for freezing soup, they are just big enough to get four small bowls, that with a sandwich or crackers makes a wholesome quick meal.
One of my favourites is tomato and rice with meatballs. For this you need:

-1cup of grated and or chopped vegetable,check the fridge for some vegetable scraps you may have saved like, zucchini, celery, the last two limp carrots, broccoli stems
-2 Tbl sp garlic mix
-1 finely chopped onion
-2 Tbl sp dried parsley
-3 Tbl sp cooking oil
-1/2 tsp salt or spike
- tsp yellow mustard seedlarge can or jar of tomato sauce
-small can of tomato paste
-2 cups rice

Ok, here we go,
first, put the pot on medium heat, add the oil then the onion, mustard seed, garlic mix, and the chopped grated vegetable fry/saute that in the pot for about 5-10 minutes stirring occasionaly.
then add the tomato sauce and the paste and 2 cups of water ( you can use the water to rince out the last of the tomato from the cans. Put on the lid and let it simmer while you make the meatballs.

-1lb ground beef
-1 egg
- 1/4 cup of bread crumbs
-1/2 tsp salt
-pinch of pepper

Mix the beef, egg, bread crumbs, salt and pepper in a bowl, then make the meatballs by rolling small amounts in the palm of your hand. Small spoon sized ones are the best, I make them the size of a large marble.
put them onto a cookie sheet and bake them for 15 minutes at 350°F.

Step three add the rice and the meatballs and the drippings to the simmerring soup and fill the pot 1inch below the rim with more water .
Let this simmer on low heat for about 1/2 an hour and it's done.

Enjoy and have a good day,
And...

Jars are FREE

I have a thing about jars.

They are to my mind one of the most practical things. I put stuff in them, sounds obvious but, no matter where you live bugs love food and so do bigger critters, and we don't want them around... also we don't want to have to throw away food that they got into or wonder if they have...solution, Jars.

I like to use jars that are the same.

We use a lot of honey instead of just sugar, good jars....pickle jars are good too or whatever you buy in a jar that can be reused.

This is good for a couple of reasons, first, the thing I said earlier about critters. Second, its all alot easier to keep in the cupboard or the pantry,with the bonus of being able to see whats in them.

And third, some less obvious reasons are budget and environment, environment because this means that the jars arent going to the dump and you are not buying jars or containers that someone has to make and will eventually end up at the dump.

Finally budget, back to the last sentence you arent buying containers you are recycling free stuff.

Besides reusing stuff has become pretty respectable these days, anyway.

In fact if you look carefully at the grocery store you will find companies package food in jars made as drinking glasses when they are empty and alot of sauces are in reusable mason jars .(which eventually you would have to pay for also).

So get Jar creative, there's alot more here than meets the eye...

Ok I'm off and running to the grocery store ,

bye for now,

have a good day

And

Fuelling the Machine

This morning I was thinking about the stuff that needs to happen in the household... and i realized that a bunch of us do not know the first thing about it...

Here is a rough list of what needs to be done in one week:
-grocery shopping
-laundry
-feeding (daily)**
-folding the laundry
-help the kids with homework
-plan your menu
-keep the house clean

**I wrote daily above because, well, sometimes the obvious, isn't obvious. Its kind of cool (if you can cook) to take over and prepare a meal once in a while.. but after feeding the gang at the trough for the third time of the day you may have realized two very important things. One is that they expect to be fed and don't give thanks, and secondly there are three more meals to do tomorrow,...and again the next day...and the next...and the next...you get the idea.
What this means is that the two or ten things that you know how to cook, are not enough, you're going to run out of recipes really fast.

So the goal here is 'fuelling the machine', if the household is your new machine in order for your family to function well in it they must be well 'fuelled' (fed).

...and on a tighter budget to boot

so this morning I made an omelet and a video clip, the omelette was good the clip... not so much...I'll need to practice, but I attached it for fun anyway...


Making the omelette, for two takes two eggs and for four takes...four eggs
- 1 table spoon some sort of finely chopped onion
-1/4 cup chopped ham or bacon or salami or whatever bit of sandwich meat you have around
-1/2 cup grated cheese whatever you've got, the stronger the cheese, the less you use
-1/4 cup of milk
-4 eggs

first put about two table spoons of oil in a pan on medium heat, add the onion and the chopped up sandwich meat and fry that up a bit...

second, while that is happening, crack the eggs into a bowl, make sure no shell bits fall in, then mix in the milk and beat or whip or mix up the eggs and milk so that its smooth...

thirdly, pour the egg milk mixture on top of the fried (sautéed) stuff, put a lid over the pan and let the egg mix cook a few minutes (5-10) , still on medium heat.

lift the lid see if the egg is not liquid any more , sprinkle the chees on top, and with the spatula fold the omelette in half...

if everything went fine you have a half circle of omellette that can be cut into 1/8 size pie slices and served with toast and fruit on the side...

enjoy,

bye for now,
have a good morning,

And

Garlic mix preparation

Garlic...I love garlic and it is so versatile. I prepare a mix in advance that I keep in a jar in the fridge. It goes something like this....

-first, peel 2 cups worth of cloves
-second, either use a crusher or a blender-chopper thingy, or if you are good with a knife you could mince the garlic 'old school'

-pre first, start by squeezing half a cup of fresh lemon juice , that way its ready before the garlic

-Oh and before that when you are buying the garlic and lemons, pick up some BRAGG's naturally brewed soya ( it is really tasty and you will find yourself using it alot). I'll write more about that later.

So, now that I've got my thoughts a bit more organized, mix the minced garlic with the half cup of lemon juice and about 1/4 of a cup of braggs then put it in a jar (with a lid or it will stink up the fridge) and you're done...
This mix stays fresh and potent forever, when you need garlic just use a tea spoon of this stuff. What is nice is that it is ready to use whenever you cook without the fuss of peeling and mincing.

It just saves a bit of time...
I'm working on getting some video clips on here and a few more photos, and next i'll write about a 'Quickie Caesar salad dressing'

Bye for now and have a good day,

And