Soups – Family Friendly Frugality

Thanksgiving Leftover Turkey Gravy Soup {Good Cook Leftover Thanksgiving Recipe #62}

Disclaimer: GoodCook sent me a basket of goodies for Thanksgiving that I used to help make this post possible. All opinions are my own.

I’m not a big fan of leftovers. Truthfully, we rarely ever have leftovers, but when we do my husband loves to take them to work and that is just fine by me.

The one time of year I don’t mind leftovers is Thanksgiving. I can eat Thanksgiving leftovers 2-3 times before I get bored (It’s monday after thanksgiving now and I’m just about done, LOL).

Sometimes though, all it takes is repurposing those leftovers to make me excited for them again.

One of my favorite things to do after eating Thanksgiving dinner, is to make turkey broth with the turkey carcass.

It’s so super simple and it makes a TON of healthy, nutritious bone broth!

That was a good thing this year since all of us ended up sick shortly after Thanksgiving! I had enough to make my family a big pot of soup, and I also gave some to my SIL who has sickness in her household right now as well.

This year I made my typical traditional turkey soup, with one exception.

My MIL made the world’s most amazing gravy this year. It’s ALWAYS good, but this year it was beyond good. I wanted a creamier soup than broth, so I used some of the gravy (we had a massive amount leftover) to thicken the soup to the consistency I wanted.

It also acted as an amazing flavor base for the soup!

Top your soup with some cranberry and you have a warm comforting bowl of Thanksgiving with very little effort!

We utilized a lot of the goodies given to us by GoodCook during our Thanksgiving dinner. Be sure to check out the GoodCook website for all of your kitchenware needs!

Here’s my basic recipe, but feel free to throw in whatever sounds good to you!

Ingredients:

One turkey carcass
veggies of your choice (I used carrots, celery and onion) for soup and also for making the broth
2 tablespoons butter
turkey meat
precooked rice (cold)
salt & pepper
Savory spice mix (I just learned of this mix this year. I found it at Target. It’s my new fave!)
Leftover homemade gravy (must have been thickened with flour)

Directions:

Place your turkey carcass in a big stock pot. I usually add some cut up carrots, celery and onion to this as well. Add in some seasonings to taste.
Let your turkey broth simmer as long as possible (I probably let mine simmer about 8 hours, but should have gone a bit longer). You could even try to do this in a crockpot if your turkey fit.
Strain the solids from your broth. At this point, you can let your broth cool if you intend to store it. Otherwise set aside.
In a deep pot, melt your butter and then sautee your veggies (the diced ones) until they are softened.
Add as much gravy as you want and create a sort of roux with the veggies and the gravy.
Pour your broth in a bit at a time, stirring to incorporate the gravy.
Let simmer until veggies are soft. Add leftover turkey and cook until heated through.
Place cold rice in bowls and pour soup over the rice.
Top with cranberry sauce if you desire!

It’s a great way to change up the Thanksgiving leftovers, and you should have plenty of turkey broth leftover to make this soup a few times this winter!

Enjoy!

Be sure to check out all these other awesome Thanksgiving leftover recipes as well!

25 Delicious Soups & Stew Recipes

What does fall mean to you?

To me it means chilly mornings and chilly evenings and…hot afternoons.

I’m in Texas 😉

Fall doesn’t mean much here in Texas, but we still love it.

It’s a time to finally walk out of our house and take more than 10 steps without falling over from heat exhaustion.

It’s a time to spend more than 30 minutes outside at a time without needing a gallon of water to avoid dehydration.

We love fall around here y’all!

We also love soups and stews!

Here is a round up of soups and stews from around the web (the banner says 20…this is more like 22, but you forgive me right?).

First though…here is a Clam Chowder Recipe I posted just the other day on A Southern Mom:

Be sure to give it a try! I know you’ll love it!

Let me know if you try any of these yummy soups or stews and what you think!

Leave a comment letting me know your FAVORITE fall soup or stew!

My Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

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Follow FFF on Pinterest!This might seem like an ODD time of year to post a recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup.

It’s July after all, and hot soup is the last thing on our minds most days.

Until that summer cold comes along and knocks us out.

We moved last month and the mixture of moving, swimming, going on playdates, etc made for excellent “getting sick” conditions in my family. In fact, my husband is STILL battling his cold.

So last week, I set to work on making a big huge pot of my yummy Homemade Chicken Noodle soup!

This soup is fabulous. The secret is a bit of a shortcut I stumbled on by accident a couple of years ago.

You START with an already cooked rotisserie chicken from the supermarket.

Now you don’t HAVE to go this route. You can just purchase your own whole chicken, but I really do recommend you roast it and season it first. Something about that already cooked chicken makes this broth AMAZING.

You might not have a need to make this homemade Chicken Noodle Soup this summer, but bookmark it for the fall. Because you’ll want to make it (sick or not) once the weather cools off!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

Broth

Rotisserie Chicken
1 Onion cut into chunks
2 carrots cut into large chunks
4 stalks of celery cut into chunks
About 6 cups of water (more if your chicken is pretty big. You want the water to cover the chicken just about)
4 chicken bouillon cubes (optional, it does make the broth a lot saltier…we like it that way though!)
salt & pepper to taste
poultry seasoning (I usually do about a heaping tablespoon. I use Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Seasoning Blends ~ Poultry Magic, 2-Ounce Bottle)

Soup

Chicken picked off rotisserie chicken
diced onion
diced carrot
diced celery
Amish Kitchen Wide Egg Noodles (you can use any noodles, these just make the soup extra special to me)

Directions:

Go ahead and pick the chicken off the rotisserie chicken and set it aside. I like to cut it into bite sized chunks.
Fill your pot with all of the ingredients for the broth and bring to a boil.
Bring down to a simmer and let simmer until the chicken carcass falls apart easily.
Using a large colander, go ahead and strain your broth into another pot. Be careful, you can easily burn yourself.
You can either throw away what remains or find some way to make use of it. (I typically pick out any chicken that fell off the bones and use that in the soup and then throw the rest away).
Now you’ll want to put your diced veggies into the soup. Use as much as you want. Depending on how you want your broth to veggie ratio to be. If I’m sick with a sore throat, I tend to want minimal veggies/more broth. If I am looking to be filled up, I use more veggies.
Simmer until the veggies are soft, then add in chicken and noodles. Bring to a boil and then let simmer once again until noodles are soft.
You might want to season a bit more at this point. You can control the salt in this soup by adding more or less, but chicken soup is always slightly on the salty side so keep that in mind for maximum flavor.
Serve!

I hope you enjoy this fabulous soup. I know I do!

My Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Ingredients

Broth
Rotisserie Chicken
1 Onion cut into chunks
2 carrots cut into large chunks
4 stalks of celery cut into chunks
About 6 cups of water (more if your chicken is pretty big)
4 chicken bouillon cubes
salt & pepper to taste
poultry seasoning (I usually do about a heaping tablespoon. I use Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Seasoning Blends ~ Poultry Magic, 2-Ounce Bottle)
Soup
Chicken picked off rotisserie chicken
diced onion
diced carrot
diced celery
Amish Kitchen Wide Egg Noodles (you can use any noodles, these just make the soup extra special to me)

Instructions

Go ahead and pick the chicken off the rotisserie chicken and set it aside. I like to cut it into bite sized chunks.
Fill your pot with all of the ingredients for the broth and bring to a boil.
Bring down to a simmer and let simmer until the chicken carcass falls apart easily.
Using a large colander, go ahead and strain your broth into another pot. Be careful, you can easily burn yourself.
You can either throw away what remains or find some way to make use of it. (I typically pick out any chicken that fell off the bones and use that in the soup and then throw the rest away).
Now you’ll want to put your diced veggies into the soup. Use as much as you want. Depending on how you want your broth to veggie ratio to be. If I’m sick with a sore throat, I tend to want minimal veggies/more broth. If I am looking to be filled up, I use more veggies.
Simmer until the veggies are soft, then add in chicken and noodles. Bring to a boil and then let simmer once again until noodles are soft.
You might want to season a bit more at this point. You can control the salt in this soup by adding more or less, but chicken soup is always slightly on the salty side so keep that in mind for maximum flavor.
Serve!

3.2.1251

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup – A Southern Mom

Have you been avoiding recipes with Cream of Chicken soup because you don’t like to use the nasty canned stuff? No more!

This homemade cream of chicken soup is fantastic and easy . Made with ingredients you already have on hand!

Italian Sausage Soup: A Hearty & Wholesome Soup You’ll Love

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I’m a big fan of soups.

I like my soups hearty with a bit of meat, a bit of veggies and a bit of starch.

This soup has it all.

Sausage, potatoes, beans, onions, spinach…mmmm good!

The best part about this soup? It’s totally a one pot meal!

The second best part about this soup? It includes BACON!

Sold? I thought you would be. 😉

Italian Sausage Soup

Source: Tablespoon.com**(see note)

Ingredients:

2 slices bacon
2 large russet potatoes cut into chunky cubes (about a 1/2 inch size cube)
1/2 lb Italian Sausage, casing removed (my sausage was Chicken Italian Sausage. It had mozzarella in it, which might have made my soup just a tad bit more awesome)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes***
1 carton low sodium chicken broth (32 oz)
4 cups spinach
1 can cannelloni beans (15-19 oz) washed and drained
1 cup half and half (I didn’t have half and half. So I did half a cup heavy cream and half a cup of milk. Worked fine)

Directions:

In a large deep pot, cook your bacon until crisp. Remove from pan and don’t eat it! Seriously…don’t. Crumble it and set it aside.
Crumble sausage and cook until browned in the same pot. Remove from pan and set aside. (you might want to drain your sausage. I didn’t, and as you can tell from the picture above, the soup had a bit of grease in it. Which is not a huge deal, but next time I’ll be sure to drain and pat down the sausage after cooking)
Now throw your onions, potatoes, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes into the same pot. Pour the chicken broth on top and bring to a boil.
After bringing the pot to a boil, take the temperature down to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes.
Add crumbled bacon, sausage, spinach and beans to the pot and cook for 10 more minutes or until potatoes are cooked through (took me about 15 minutes)
Just before serving, add half and half and cook just until heated through.

**Note: the original recipe asks for a lot more liquid than my version and also subs in kale for spinach. I like my version better, but feel free to check out the original as well!
***The kids weren’t HUGE fans of this soup. I eyeballed the red pepper flakes and might have put a bit more than 1/4 teaspoon in. It was a bit hot. It was fine for me and my husband, but if you have kiddos eating it, you might want to cut back or just put the red pepper flakes on your individual bowl instead of in the community pot.

This soup was so yummy and comforting and even better the next day!

Check out all the frugal recipes here on Family Friendly Frugality.

Slow Cooker Eat-Those-Vegetables Soup

I love soup. I don’t love veggies as much as I should though. Throw some veggies in a soup though? I’ll eat practically any variety. Something about veggies in soup just makes me feel good and wholesome. Not sure what it is.

This slow cooker Vegetable Soup is ridiculously easy and VERY tasty. It’s also incredibly versatile. I hesitate to even suggest ingredients, because really…any veggies will do.

I do brown my veggies for a bit in a pot with some olive oil, but it’s not totally necessary. I just love the flavor it adds to the finished soup.

Ingredients:

Veggies of your choice (I used 1/2 eggplant, 1 zucchini, 1 squash, 1 onion & 2 carrots); cut them all the same size. I like them on the smaller side.
6 cups beef broth (or you can sub vegetable stock, but I like the flavor of the beef)
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
3 fresh bay leaves
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
Salt & Pepper to taste
Olive oil for browning (drizzle)

Directions:

Once your veggies are all chopped up, you’ll want to heat some olive oil in a pot on the stove. Brown your veggies in batches and salt and pepper each batch. You aren’t looking for them to be fully cooked, just get a nice brown color on them.
Throw the veggies into the slow cooker.
Pour your beef broth into the pot you browned the veggies in and scrape the bottom to get all the yummy goodness into the broth.
Meanwhile, dump your diced tomatoes into your slow cooker on top of your veggies.
Pour the broth on top of the veggies.
Add the bay leaves and italian seasoning.
Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours. Taste the broth about an hour before you intend to serve it and salt and pepper as needed.

Enjoy!

Be sure to check out all the Frugal Recipes available on Family Friendly Frugality!

I’ll be linking this recipe up to the Slow Cooker Squad’s Monday Linky!

If you enjoyed this recipe, I’d LOVE if you pinned it!

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Fun & Frugal Bean & Pasta Soup

So I have definitely been on a new recipe kick lately. I am trying to eat healthier and lose weight and to be honest…I’ve never tried to lose weight AND clip coupons at the same time. Losing weight for me has always resulted in higher grocery bills. Not because healthy food is more expensive, it’s really not. Mainly because to keep things interesting and to stay on track, I have to have a wider, more interesting selection of food available to me.

This generally results in higher grocery bills, which in the past I just chalked up to getting healthier. Well, this time around…I wanted to do it right.

I don’t want to raise our grocery budget to accommodate losing weight.

That makes it seem like weight loss and health are short term goals and eventually we’ll go back to where we were. We’re not going to do that. So in addition to making our new menu lifestyle changes, we also have to make a new budget lifestyle changes. This means changing the way I shop (a little) and changing the way I cook (a lot).

Everyone has those fall back recipes that they make when ideas escape them and they just want dinner to be as quick and painless as possible. Unfortunately for me, my go to recipes don’t exactly fit into my new lifestyle. So I need to find new go to recipes. The stakes are high for these test recipes though. Rather then JUST being healthy or JUST being frugal…they have to be both…and so much more.

Healthy
Tasty
Frugal
Kid Friendly
Adult Friendly
NOT Diet Food

This next recipe fills all of the above criteria and more. My picky picky son even ate most of this soup! If that’s not a testimonial for this yummy soup…I’m not sure what else is? So without further ado…

Fun & Frugal Bean & Pasta Soup

adapted from Taste Of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 cup small pasta (we used macaroni, but if you can find alphabet pasta…I’d totally use that if your kids will be eating with you!)
2 celery ribs thinly sliced
2 carrots peeled and sliced thin
1 medium onion diced
1 garlic clove minced
1 tbspn olive oil
2 cups water
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes (undrained)
1 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1 tspn dried basil
1/2 tspn dried rosemary
1/4 tspn salt
1/8 tspn pepper
1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans rinsed and drained
2 cups fresh spinach (I used one cup because I wanted the kids to eat it!)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan (I actually left this out because I forgot…you totally don’t need it)

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile add olive oil to a deep pan or pot. Add celery, carrots, onion and garlic and sautee until nice and soft.

Add water, chicken broth, tomatoes, basil, rosemary, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and let simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, chop spinach

Add beans & spinach and let simmer about 5 minutes longer.

Add pasta* just before serving. Top with parm if desired.

*If you aren’t going to eat this all in one sitting…it’s up to you if you add all the pasta to the soup right away or if you store it separately and add pasta as you heat it up. I poured all the pasta in because I don’t mind my pasta being mushy. You might not feel the same!

Enjoy!

Nutrition Info: 1 1/2 cups= 218 calories/ 5 g fat/ 35 g carbs/ 7 g fiber /9 g protein 5 Points Plus on Weight Watchers

I wish I had gotten pics of the kids eating this. Lizzie ate it so fast that we thought maybe she spilled her soup. Noah LOVED the broth and the macaroni. He still shied away from the veggies, but I’m convinced some nutrition leached into the broth during cooking!

Ask the Readers: Are you enjoying all the recipes lately? Anything you’d like to see? Please let me know!

Turkey Soup Recipe

What exactly is your plan for the bones of your leftover turkey? I know what I always do… make turkey soup! My version is super easy, fast and frugal!

Turkey Soup

1 picked over turkey
Veggies…whatever you like (we use carrots, onions, potatoes, okra…seriously whatever you like)
1/2 cup rice
salt
pepper
leftover turkey

Put turkey in a really big pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then lower down to a simmer for about 2 hours. Push the turkey down as it starts to tenderize (is that the right word for it?) and break down.

When the turkey is pretty much just floating bones, drain the stock into a colendar. Throw out all the bones (you can keep the meat if any meat is leftover) and put the stock back on the stove.

Season with salt and pepper and add all the veggies and turkey in. Simmer until the veggies are nice and soft. Add rice about 15 minutes before you intend to eat.

Enjoy!

Super easy, super frugal!

What do you do with your leftover turkey?

My name is Heather and I am a frugal mommy saving money! Want to learn a bit more about Family Friendly Frugality? First subscribe to FREE daily emails. Next, learn more about our frugal blog by reading our about me post or read the popular series Our Story. Or jump in head first and learn how to reduce the family grocery budget, play the drugstore game, or catch up on the hottest frugality finds!

Comforting Potato Soup!

So yesterday I was checking out one of my favorite frugal recipe blogs $5 Dinners.

I came across this super simple recipe for Potato Soup and had to try it. I’ve made potato soup in the past and it was a total failure. This is amazing. I highly encourage you to try it! Super cheap, easy and quick.

I changed things up just a tad, so here’s my version.

Adapted from Connie’s Potato Soup For 10
Connie from Smockity Frocks on $5 Dinners

Ingredients:

10 potatoes
1 lb sausage (I used Jimmy Dean Sage)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 onion (diced)
1 cup cheddar
2 cups cooked broccoli (frozen or fresh, just make sure it’s steamed to be pretty soft)

Directions:

Peel and cut potatoes into small cubes
Put potatoes into a pot and cover with water (just a bit over the potatoes)
Set to boil
Meanwhile, brown onion and sausage seperately
When potatoes are soft…DO NOT DRAIN. Add sausage, onions, cheese, cream of mushroom soup and broccoli
Let simmer until you are ready to eat! It will naturally thicken

Let me tell you, this is even better the next day. I meant to take a picture of my bowl, but I couldn’t stop eating it long enough!

Perfect for a chilly fall day and to get rid of those potatoes sitting on your counter! My husband ate an enormous bowl and my daughter even ate it! My kids are NOT soup eaters (I might have told her it was cheese soup LOL)