Here’s our menu for Day 4 of the All You Grocery Challenge:

Breakfast: I had about two bites of an Atkins granola bar that I got in the mail through a free sample sign-up. I didn’t finish it because it tasted rancid to me, even though it was months away from its best-by date. Blech!

Lunch:

Jai was going to be out at jobs during the early afternoon, so I packed him a lunch of leftover steak, carrots, and a banana:

Meanwhile, I had leftover steak & mashed potatoes with orange juice:

Dinner: Remember the pan of chicken that I made on Sunday? Well, I had a bunch of nice stock left over from it that I wanted to put to use. Since my decision to make soup was fairly last-minute, I didn’t have time to defrost any meat, so it seemed like a veggie soup would be the best way to go; and so I decided I would make a potato soup. Yes, more potatoes – what can I say, I’ve been doing a good job of using them up recently!

We didn’t have much milk left – I’ll pick some more up today – so I decided to Google “Vegan potato soup” to see if I could find a recipe that wouldn’t require milk. Sure enough, I found this recipe for Vegan Potato-Leek Soup and decided to modify it to fit what I had on hand. First, I sauteed garlic in a little olive oil, and then added four potatoes with the skins still on. I then added the leftover stock, which I had made by covering Sunday night’s chicken with two cups of water, one stock cube, wine, olive oil, garlic, seasonings, finely chopped carrots, and celery. I then added just enough water to cover the potatoes – there was a lot of stock, so I didn’t need too much water – and then added another stock cube and brought it to a boil. At this point I reduced the heat to simmer and cooked until the potatoes were fully done and could be easily broken up with a spoon. Then I poured the soup into my food processor a little at a time and blended until smooth, returning it to a low heat to keep warm until the next part of dinner was finished: Biscuits.

I had originally wanted to make bread bowls for the soup, but I ran out of time; so I decided to make biscuits instead. I wanted to try this recipe for drop biscuits because it looked quick and easy. I had never tried making biscuits this way before, and I got a little worried because the dough did not look very appetizing. However, they turned out just fine – the flavor of these is like cornbread, unlike the traditional sort of biscuit that I’m used to, but still good.

I was surprised by how good the soup was. Since it was an experiment, I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, and the recipe sounds very plain – but it’s actually very nice. I’m not usually a big soup fan, but I thought this was delicious and I would definitely make it again. And this recipe is certainly frugal!

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