Homecooked Meals Don’t Have To Be Expensive

Family dinners, don’t have to be complicated or expensive. With simple ingredients you can make wonderful hearty soups for your family and stock your freezer. Today, I’d like to share a few of those recipes I created over the weekend. But first, let me take a few minutes to share why I love making soups that have simple ingredients.

Make-Ahead Freezer Meals

Soups can be prepared days or even weeks ahead of time and at your convenience. Some soups actually improve the longer they simmer, as all the different flavors blend and mingle with each other. Most of all, they freeze well! I make large batches, then freeze them in ready-to eat meal size containers or one gallon freezer bags. Every time I serve the soup, I may add different things just to vary the tastes.  

Some great classic soups are Split Pea Soup and Harvest Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup. Both of these freeze well.

Here’s a brothy vegetable soup that is hearty and delicious! It’s one of those soups that tastes best when given the chance to sit overnight. The flavors really blend together.

Minestrone Soup

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 cup onions, diced

1 cup celery, diced

1 cup carrots, diced

2 garlic cloves, pressed

1 28 ounce can organic diced tomatoes with juice

1 15 ounce can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup fresh zucchini or yellow squash

1 cup french green beans

1 cup Mostaccioli noodles

6 cups chicken stock

1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a stock pot, over medium heat, saute onion, garlic, celery and carrots in olive oil until lightly brown. Add tomatoes with juice, zucchini or squash, kidney beans and green beans. Stir until ingredients are combined. Slowly add chicken stock and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil and add noodles. Reduce heat to a simmer andcook for 2 hours. Rember, the longer the soup simmers, the more flavorful it becomes.

When ready to serve, grated fresh Parmesan cheese over the top or add some croutons.

   Recipe Note: When soup is fully cooled, transfer to a freezable container or ziploc freezer bags. Freezes well up to one month.

As always, my quick and easy recipes for Busy Moms can be found on my website Noel’s Kitchen Tips.com.

Visit my new Amazon Kitchen Store  for some of my recommeneded appliances, storage and kitchen needs along with some of my favorite cookbooks and aprons to help you with your family meal planning. For high quality kitchen tools for your kitchen, visit www. NoelsKitchen.com

Would you like to join our growing Family Cooking Club? Share recipes and tips with others? Join the Family Meals Matter Cooking Club on Facebook.  

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