Category Archives: soup

what to do with leftover baby infant cereal and food

Posted on 08/31/2013 | 1 comment

After my little one has already turned one, I realized that I have an abundance of baby cereal and jarred food that I have gotten over the last few months. He is not too keen on eating it anymore so I had to think what I could use it in but of course it has to be disguised or no one will eat it. Here is a list of possibilities that we personally use in using up your leftover baby foods.

use it to thicken soups—instead of using mashed potato flakes we use a box of baby rice cereal
use it to thicken gravies–instead of using cornstarch we use baby rice cereal
do some muffin or bread making—we use baby banana food in place of mashed bananas when making these
make smoothies we use jarred banana instead of cut up fresh bananas
buy baby applesauce, the only baby food, I believe, that tastes almost like regular adult food and serve to older children
use applesauce in place of oils in bread, muffin, and cake recipes
use any fruit to add to your waffle or pancake recipes for added flavor and nutrition

1 Comment

Posted in In my kitchen, soup

Tagged baby cereal, baby food, kitchen, substitute, thickener

Potato bacon chowder soup and mess free crackers

Posted on 06/06/2013 | 12 comments

We all need more hours in our day. Preparing and serving meals takes up much of that time. Soup is a great time saving meal, that is enjoyed by all. I love having a big pot of soup simmering on the stove all day, served with a nice fresh loaf of homemade bread–unfortunately today was not a homemade bread making day, so we served it with crackers, still just as good. You can modify this depending upon the size of family you are serving. This makes one large pot, enough for our dinner plus lunch the next day.

Start by peeling and dicing 10 lbs of potatoes.

When your hand has fallen off, from peeling and dicing all of those:)its time to move on.

Add a package of bacon bits to your pot, you can also fry up a package of bacon, but I am looking at the ease right now.

You can then add some diced onions, I didnt have any on hand, but did have some dehydrated ones that will do the trick. We added 2 Tablespoons, or you can dice up a whole onion, depending upon what your likes are.

Fill your pot almost up to the top with water and add some chicken bouillon to taste. I added about 6 Tablespoons, but you can add however much your family enjoys.

Cook on medium heat until all your potatoes are tender.

Then it is time for your thickener. I like to use instant potato flakes, baby rice cereal(yes if you have lots of leftovers from babies like we do) or today I am using leftover mashed potatoes that I have previously frozen.

Place it in your pot and slowly stir away. It should start to thicken in the next few minutes. Start by adding about 1/3 of the box of instant potato flakes, baby cereal or 2 cups of mashed potatoes. Then as the soup thickens you can add more depending upon how your family likes it.

After it is all heated and thickened, add a 16 oz container of sour cream and stir. Don’t boil the soup any longer or the sour cream will separate.

Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with green onions.

Here are the “lower half” children’s soup

Our children really like saltine crackers crushed into their soups. But with 6 little ones all crushing crackers at the table, it can get very messy real quick.

Here is what we do to solve that. Take a package of crackers.

Let your children help crush the crackers inside the package. Be careful not to break the wrapper.

Pour on top of the soup

Is this cool enough to eat yet Mom?

12 Comments

Posted in In my kitchen, soup

Tagged kitchen, mess free, soup, tidbit

Kid friendly homemade tomato soup

Posted on 06/01/2013 | 8 comments

Around our home, even though we try and teach our children to eat what we serve them. We occasionally get the “What’s this green stuff in my soup?”, or the “I don’t like diced tomatoes.” I have come up with a way to enjoy homemade tomato soup that everyone likes.

In a large stock pot over medium heat combine the following

1 can of tomato juice
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of salt
4 teaspoons of raw sugar (or any kind of sweetener)

While that is heating, in a saucepan, melt 5 Tablespoons of butter.

After the butter has melted, add 4 Tablespoons of flour.

Continue stirring over medium high heat until you get a thick paste. Careful to stay with this as it will burn quickly.

After the tomato juice mixture has reached the boiling point, you can add your butter/flour mixture and stir continuously to thicken and remove any lumps. Turn down the temperature to a simmer.

Next you need to add your milk. If you have 3 cups on hand you can add that to your soup. I like to use powdered milk as it is very cheap for things like this. But I need to make some up.

In a large pitcher measure out the desired amount of milk powder