So… with the hot weather I’ve been really lazy about making
dinners and since turning on the oven or stove is just about the worst idea I
can imagine, we’ve been eating out a lot wayyyy too much.
Alas, last night, the wind showed up and the weather cooled,
which meant it was the perfect time to use up all my fresh veggies that were
close to going bad.
I call it “Fridge Soup,” however, admittedly, its not the most appetizing
name, so for aesthetic purposes I’ll call it “Rice-A-Roni Summer Soup.” This
recipe has a couple staple ingredients, but the rest is up to you, just use
whatever you have in your fridge. It’s low-cal, super filling, and simply
amazing with a couple slices of buttered French bread. Enjoy!
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| Rice-A-Roni Summer Soup |
**Note: This recipe made enough for 3 meals for 2 people—I
froze what wasn’t eaten, more on that later.
The Staples:
1 box of Chicken or Beef Flavored Rice-A Roni (I actually
used the Trader Joes kind)
2 tbls butter
1 Qt. of Low Sodium Chicken Broth
1.5 Qt. of Water
1 Chicken Bullion Cube
Roughly 6-8 cloves of garlic
1 tsp Thyme
Salt & Pepper
4 Bay Leaves
The Optionals:
The rest of the ingredients are totally up to you! I used
EVERY veggie I could find, I figured, the more the merrier! Here’s what I used:
1 lb Ground Turkey (Ground Beef is great in this recipe too)
2 Carrots Chopped
½ Red Onion
1 Zucchini Chopped
1 Orange Bell Pepper Chopped
1/2 cup Chopped Green Onions
1 Orange Bell Pepper Chopped
1/2 cup Chopped Green Onions
Some Cauliflower
Some Broccoli
Some Frozen Corn
Some Frozen Peas
A Big handful of Chopped Cabbage
Some more Garlic (because I’m a SUPER fan)
A few dashes of Cayenne Pepper
The Process:
1. In a GIANT pot I browned my ground turkey using a touch of
olive oil on the bottom. Once that’s cooked, transfer to a bowl—but keep the
pot on the heated stove.
2. Put the butter in the bottom of the pot. Once melted, put
the rice contents of the Rice-A-Roni into the Pot and brown (just like it says
on the package). Once the vermicelli starts to brown, add your Chicken Broth,
Water, Bullion Cube, and Rice-A-Roni Flavor Packet. Stir.
3. Add Thyme, Bay Leaves, Pepper (I advise not adding salt
until after it’s close to being done cooking, as there is a lot of salty
flavors in the broth, bullion and flavor packet.)
4. Add back your ground meat and throw in any veggies you can
find in your fridge.
5. Bring to Boil. Let mixture boil at a low rumble for about
20-25 minutes, until you can see that the rice is fully cooked.
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| Soup in zip-lock, on paper towel, on cookie sheet, ready for freezing. |
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| Yay! Frozen Soup! |
Freezing:
I love eating this soup fresh, but I think I love it after
it’s been frozen even more. The flavors all meld together and rice takes on the
broth flavor even more. It’s jut delish! I am generally cooking for 2 people,
so I like to use the quart size freezer bags.
With the help of a friend, ladle the soup into the ziplock
bag until it’s a little less than half full (see how positive that was?). Then
fold over the top to get as much of the air out of the bag as possible without
spilling the contents and zip ‘er up.
I like to lay them flat to freeze, so that once frozen, I
can stand them up like books and they take up a lot less of my freezer.
Before placing the bags in the freezer I also layer them
with paper towels so that if any water/condensation gets on the outside of the
bags they don’t freeze together. Note: Putting the bags on a cookie sheet, then
taking them to the freezer makes your life a whole heck of a lot easier.
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| It's just SO Pretty! |
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