In a Hurry Curry Chicken and Rice Soup

I know what most of you are probably thinking: Another chicken soup recipe? 

Yes, another AMAZING chicken soup recipe! This one spices things up. When it's cold outside, I tend to crave soup. However, I also crave spices that are native to the Middle East. I feel like they really warm up my whole body. For this recipe, I usually use some chicken stock from my recipe below, or a box of low sodium stock. I then add some simple items that many of us will already find in our kitchens. I love this recipe because it is a great way to use up leftover chicken. You can even use a steam bag of rice that can often be found on sale for $1 in the freezer section of your grocery store. This tip will cut your cook time down to just 15 minutes! 

I made this recipe for the first time about a month ago and froze the leftovers for a second meal. If you choose to make a big batch and freeze some as well, I recommend that you add 1/3 cup of chicken broth when reheating, since the soup tends to thicken up the second time around.

Tonight my husband and I will be having this soup with some freshly baked bread. This is literally the 5^th time I have tried to make a simple loaf of bread, and so far it is the only time it actually came out right! I found the recipe on one of my favorite frugal sites that is based out of the Chicago area. Definitely check it out if you are a bread baking beginner. 

Keep Warm and Enjoy! 

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 precooked chicken breast (if you only have uncooked, poach a chicken breast in some broth) - chopped or shredded into bite-size pieces
• 2 medium carrots, sliced diagonally into 1-inch pieces
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken stock 
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 small onion, very thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder (I use a common yellow Madras)
• 1/3 cup uncooked rice - Jasmine tends to work best
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Directions

Heat the butter in a heavy bottom soup pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion and carrot and cook until they begin to soften, 5 minutes. Add the curry powder and cook for 1 minute. Add the rice and broth. Increase the heat to medium, cover and simmer until the rice is slightly overcooked, about 20 minutes.

Puree the rice and broth mixture with an immersion blender until mostly smooth (or use a potato masher if you want to leave some of the rice whole). Add in your chicken pieces and the chopped dill. Serve the soup with lemon wedges.

 

Info on this Bread

Keep it Local

Any chance I get to eat local and seasonal foods, I seize it! This is no easy challenge as I sit on my couch, admiring my view of sleet and snow that is currently accumulating on my driveway. 

However, what I have learned is that the best way to eat seasonally, is to eat locally and support your local merchants. In Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, there is a great company that helps every family do just that.

Artizone is a business that gathers great local ingredients and delivers them to your door. The best part is that if you take a second to follow them on Twitter or Facebook, yo can learn about great deals, giveaways and even freebies that they have on a regular basis. As a frugal writer by trade and chef by fantasy, this company is a bit of Nirvana!

Take a moment to peruse the colorful, culinary aisles of their site and follow them on Facebook and Twitter. Need a little inspiration? You can even check out my recipe for Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables. Make this juicy, warming dish and use your leftovers in the stock recipe posted below. 

Have a happy family dinner!

Super Savory Chicken Stock

While most people reserve cold Saturday or Sunday mornings for sleeping in, one of my favorite winter AM activities might surprise you.  I love to wake up and grab some chicken out of the fridge or freezer, collect the vegetables and herbs that we didn’t use during the week and make a satisfying stock. 

There are two things that I love most about making my own stock. The first is knowing exactly what is going into the food that I am eating. I personally don’t care for stocks that seem to be more about salt than chicken flavor. The other thing I really enjoy is saving money by using extra carrots or stalks of celery that are left from dinners during the week. 

My stock style, if you will, is not that of a disciplined French chef.  It is more along the lines of following the philosophy of making the most of what you already have. In fact, three of my biggest flavor boosters in this recipe might surprise you. First, I use a bit of chicken bouillon. Why just add salt? Instead of adding only one dimension, take the opportunity to add depth to your broth.  Personally, I love a product called Better than Bouillon. Once opened, you store it in the refrigerator, and I think it brings the best chicken flavor.

My second flavor boosting tip is to use the leftover stems of your leafy herbs. In this recipe, I add the stems from a bunch of parsley.  This allows your broth to get that subtle herbaceous flavor, without making taste like a freshly mowed lawn.  

Finally, you have to add at least a couple of pieces of whole, raw chicken meat. Even when I am using a leftover carcass from a roasted chicken, I always throw in a couple of drumsticks that I got on sale at the store. To me, that extra bit of protein and fat in the meat is what gives the stock a well-rounded flavor.

Check back in a few days when I will have a link to my recipe for Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken. It will be posted on one of my favorite sites to order fresh and organic groceries, Artizone.com.  This is a family friendly recipe that you can make and then use the leftovers to turn into a super stock!

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

    3 ½ pounds chicken parts (or bones from 1 roasted chicken, plus 2-3 drumsticks)

    2 cups coarsely chopped celery

    1 cup peeled and chopped carrots

    1 large onion quartered

    3 garlic cloves peeled

    5 black peppercorns

    1 dried bay leaf

    3 fresh thyme sprigs

    1 bunch fresh Italian parsley - stems only

    2 chicken bouillon cubes or one tablespoon of Better than Bouillon

Directions

    Rinse the chicken pieces under cold water and place in a stockpot. Add the celery, carrots, onions, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme, parsley and bouillon. Add about 1 gallon of cold water or enough to cover the ingredients by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, for just a moment. Turn the heat to low and let simmer (bubbling very lightly,) partially covered, for 3 to 4 hours. Periodically, check the stock for fat. Skim the surface occasionally to remove fat and other impurities. Pass the stock through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean saucepan before serving or freezing.

Crazy for Coupons….Not for Crap

It’s a funny thing to be confronted by friends, family and perfect strangers about something as simple as your method of grocery shopping. However, an excited cashier or a testy customer in my checkout line has become a common occurrence when I go shopping. Over time, I have noticed that about 80% of people think my calculated strategy of shopping is a good thing, 10% get REALLY excited and the final 10% act like I am stealing money out of their wallets.  
 

I am guessing that the 10% of shoppers and cashiers, who perceive me to be a criminal, developed this opinion based on shows that depict couponers as people with mass stockpiles of processed foods, cat treats and air fresheners.  For some, I’m sure this hobby goes beyond saving money and becomes more of an addiction.  So to clear the air, I am not an Extreme Hoarder, for lack of a better way of putting it. I do not have a room in my house dedicated to storing tubes of toothpaste. 

Every week, I go to the store and buy the same products as other shoppers.  The difference is, I am often buying enough of a certain product to last two to three months.  This is because the average item goes on sale every 12 weeks.  Given that I am part of a relatively small household, a three month supply of toilet paper or pasta does not take up an outrageous amount of space.  One investment that my husband and I did make was a chest freezer that is housed in our garage.  It is great for storing frozen meat, fish and vegetables, as well as meals that can be made in bulk and frozen. 

On a weekly basis I make three stops. I pick up items at Target, CVS and either Whole Foods or Jewel-Osco.  Every other week, I order fresh organic produce and meat from a local butcher, using a site with great promotional codes called Artizone.com. Like other shoppers, I purchase the basics, fresh produce, proteins, paper products, cleaning products, pet items and toiletries.  I have a set budget of $25.00 to $30.00 for the week. I try to buy organic when I can, as well as grass-fed and hormone-free meats.  My typical cost before coupons is between $90.00 and $120.00.  After combining manufacturer coupons, store coupons, sales and Catalina promotions, I almost always stick to my $25.00 budget. 

I will be honest. There is time that must be invested. However, it is not the 40 couponing work week that some may assume. I spend about an hour every week researching, printing and clipping my coupons. I then spend between an hour and a half and two hours traveling to the stores and shopping.  I have found that if you invest the time to get organized, the process at the store runs relatively smoothly.

This adventure in saving money as also had some added bonuses. I have learned to be more patient and less cynical about people (something that I have struggled with!) I have learned that not everybody will appreciate your smile or “thank you,” but it is worth the effort to be polite. For the first time since high school, I can do math in my head!  I have learned that just because something is free, does not mean that it is a good deal for me.  Finally, I have learned that no matter where you are in life, you can afford to be happier, healthier and even help others to do the same.

Some of my favorite sites for saving:

TheKrazyCouponLady.com

Coupons.com

Smartsource.com

Redplum.com

Coupons.target.com

Wholefoodsmarket.com/coupons/

  

Less Paper...More Fun

                I have a confession to make. Since becoming a more budget-conscious buyer, one of my favorite categories to stock up on is paper products.  I love that after only a few months of clipping coupons, I have a seemingly endless supply of paper towels. I am easily able to clean up every mess made by my puppies and even my “handy” husband.  While it has been great to have the grab-and-go convenience of paper towels, napkins and wipes, I was recently reminded by my mother that I did not grow up in a paper product loving household.

             As a child, I remember frequenting estate sales and outdoor markets with my parents. My mother has always hand that keen eye to pick a diamond out of a pile of well….junk. She used to find fun sets of napkins and napkin rings; bring them home, clean them up and mix and match.  Then we would get to choose which napkin or napkin ring was ours. Before sitting down to dinner, we would grab our designated napkin out of a bowl that sat on the kitchen counter and place it at our spot.  When dinner was finished (if our napkin wasn’t too dirty) we folded it back up, secured it with our napkin ring and placed it back in the bowl.  If our napkin was dirty, it went into the laundry basket.  At the end of the week, my mother would collect the napkins from the bowl and throw them in the wash with the rest of the laundry.

          While we always had paper towels around the house, as a child, I reached for a clean, cloth rag before paper to wipe up a spill or clean a counter top.  In my childhood home, we had two, medium-sized plastic bins filled with rags.  One was labeled Clean Rags and the Other Dirty Rags. They were actually labeled in Spanish as well (part of my mother’s diligent work to raise a bilingual child.) When something needed wiping or dusting, a rag was used. If the rag was very wet, it was rinsed out in the sink right away, if it was only a bit dirty, it was thrown in the dirty rag bin and washed a later with the rest of the laundry. In many cases, the rags were more absorbent and efficient than paper towels.

        Thinking back, my family was being green prior to a time when it was the “it” thing to do. Also, my mother got to have fun with our table settings and gave us an exciting choice and sense of responsibility. I have now issued myself a challenge to see if I can consume a bit less of my beloved paper products. In my recent trips to HomeGoods, Marshall’s and Dollar Tree I have picked up some fun and funky napkins and rings.  I have even used some decorative crafting materials I had leftover from the holidays to customize my rings.  

        Over the next month, I am going to take this frugal challenge.  I am even going to use my Sunday paper (after I am done clipping coupons) to clean the windows.  While I will most likely still grab a paper towel to clean up a mess that my puppy made, I encourage you to take the challenge as well and get the whole family involved. Customizing a napkin ring with your child can be both fun and provide a sense of ownership and responsibility in a small and simple way. There is something special about that first family meal with that extra personal and eco-friendly touch!