SAVING SOME MONEY

I want to talk a little bit about budget friendly recipes.  Dishes that will help you stretch the family budget at the grocery store.  We all want to save money when we go shopping, but in these days that is getting harder and harder to do.  How do you put quality food on the table without it breaking the family’s budget?  You learn to be creative, and by that I mean you make pasta dishes, pots of soups, and start cooking with more vegetables and grains and less meat.

There’s nothing that says home like a warm comforting pot of soup.  Soups made with fresh vegetables are not only nutritious but they are also fortifying and filling, add a tossed green salad and you have a complete meal for half the cost of what a meat meal would cost.  Soup for dinner could easily replace a meat meal at least once a week, and besides saving you some green at the grocery store you will be feeding your family a warm satisfying meal packed with lots of healthy vegetables.  What could be bad about getting them to eat more vegetables?

MUSHROOM BARLEY SOUP

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons dried porcini mushrooms
2 tablespoons margarine
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 ribs celery with leaves, diced
1/4 cup parsley
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pound fresh porcini or other mushrooms sliced
1 tablespoon flour
2 quarts beef broth or water
1 cup whole barley
2 teaspoons salt

DIRECTIONS

Soak the mushrooms in enough hot water to cover for a half hour. Strain through a filter. Reserve the water.

2. Coarsely chop the dried mushrooms.

3. Melt the margarine in a stockpot and saute the onion, celery, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, carrot, garlic, and fresh mushrooms until soft, about 5 minutes.

4. Lower the heat and add the flour, stirring every 30 seconds for about 5 minutes or until thick

5. In a soup pot heat the broth or water. Add a cup of mushroom mixture at a time to the pot, stirring.

6. Turn the heat to high, and add the reserved mushroom water and barley. Stir well and add salt to taste.

7. Simmer, covered, for about an hour or until the barley is tender and the soup is thickened, stirring often.

8. Add additional chopped parsley, mix thoroughly, and adjust seasonings.