Now that it's fall I get to rotate in my favorite soup recipes. I like soups for dinner for several reasons. You can prepare most well in advance and let them simmer all day, you can prepare some in 20 minutes for a quick hearty meal, it is very easy to adjust amounts for extra dinner guests, most soups have plenty of veggies and not very much meat, I usually have the ingredients for several soups on hand, soups are very inexpensive, and soup tastes wonderful on a cold evening. I have a system for going through them. Just for fun I named it the Dinner Spinner. I might have stolen that idea from somewhere else. Here's how it works:
Take a soup from Column A, add in a bread product from Column B (generally made from scratch at my house), and throw in a side from Column C if you're feeling adventurous. Easy peasy!
Column A:
(* marks a vegetarian soup)
Tortellini soup*
Tortilla soup
Cheeseburger soup
Baked potato soup*
Black bean chili*
White chicken chili
Bean and ham soup
Chicken noodle soup
Split pea soup
Vegetable beef stew
Zucchini soup*
Broccoli cheese soup*
Tomato basil soup*
Minestrone with pasta*
Column B:
Apple muffins
Cornbread
Pumpkin bread
Whole wheat bread
Tortilla chips
Zucchini bread
Homemade foccacia
Cranberry orange muffins
Rolls
Breadsticks
French bread
Blueberry muffins
Mini grilled cheese sandwiches
Column C:
Raw veggies and dip
Homemade applesauce
Fresh fruit
Green salad
Spinach salad
Canned pears
Apple cider
Fruit salad
Steamed vegetables
Crystal light drink
Of course, certain items from Columns A and B go better together than others, but they can also be combined in a lot of different ways. I use my dinner spinner two days a week in fall and winter, occasionally adding in a new soup or bread. I especially like to cook this way when we have late night soccer practice or early evening activities. Then I can prepare the soup and bread earlier in the day, but still have a nice meal when everyone comes home. Tonight the dinner spinner yielded cheeseburger soup (with ground turkey instead of beef), apple muffins, and raw veggies. Winner, winner, dinner spinner!
What's your favorite fall soup??
Should I post a fashion Friday post this week?
9 comments:
Love the dinner spinner idea!
Ummmm. . .Yum! Love me some soup. My favorite lately has been split pea. I know that's at the top of some people's hate list, but my hubby loves it and even my kids will eat it. That's a winner for sure in my book. Is your tomato basil soup cream based or broth based? It sounds delicious--would love the recipe.
Yum! I'm printing this up and adding some of my own. I love the idea!
And yes to Fashion Friday!
I love this! I think you should give your recipes! I need to cook more breads. Jillian Michaels.com just sent me a pumpkin muffin recipe I am going to try.
I need that tomato basil recipe. This is a fun idea!
I agree with you, soups during cold times are awesome idea. MIght be that's why in RU we eat a LOT of soups. I wanna try sometime soup in a bread bowl, I've heard about it only here in stats and ever since always wanted to try...
I like your dinner spinner idea :)
Dinner spinner, what a great idea! Do you actually have a spinner for it? If so, I think we need a tutorial or at the very least a picture! I love your tortellini soup, and well just soups in general. I like to do a soup once a week during the fall/winter and really look forward to the cold rainy days just for that reason!
Thanks for keeping me motivated to cook!
Oh, I am so doing this! What a fabulous idea. Thanks, Aim. Miss you! Hope your neck feels better soon. If I was there I would make you some soup and bread with... Crystal Light drink??? :)
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