Feed the Family for 45 cents

It finally arrived: the much-anticipated Leftover Soup Day. Okay, much-anticipated by me as I’m always anxious to see how it turns out, anticipated by Jacob because he hungrily anticipates all food, and to be honest, not really anticipated by Mike at all. In fact, we made it on a night he would be gone for the evening, as a courtesy.

This is not leftover, soup—it is Leftover Soup! (ala Tightwad Gazette) We keep a container in the freezer where we put all the really little bits of leftover food. You know—that spoonful of peas left in the bottom of the serving dish. The cupful of rice. Those last couple roasted potatoes. Not really enough to save, not really enough to make a lunch the next day. Not leftovers you plan, but leftovers that just kind of happen. I always told myself I wasn’t really wasting this food since I was composting it, but it was still edible food going into the compost pail.

So anyway, back to the container. You would be amazed how quickly all those little bits add up! I popped the (rather large) frozen block of mostly-veggies out of the container and placed it in the slow cooker. There were green beans, carrots, parsnips, peas, corn, summer squash, asparagus, rice (lots of rice!), little chunks of roasted potato, a little roast beef, some tomato, and a few chunks of sweet potato that wound up disappearing into the broth, adding nice flavor and color.

I then realized I could not put the lid on the slow cooker. Fortunately, I was not in a rush to get to work so I could wait for the block to thaw. I poured a couple quarts of chicken stock over and waited. By evening, it was soup!

Nice to have something with the soup, but it was late and I’ve come to hate heating up the oven (with $3.95/gallon propane) to bake one little thing. I consulted Mike’s cookbook (yes, he came complete with his very own) and found a recipe for Irish Potato Cakes. Checked the fridge…Yes--leftover mashed potatoes! Not really enough to have saved, but there they were. Due to our rather small party that would be dining that evening, I cut the recipe in half. I was glad I did—it still would have been enough for the whole family!

I had never heard of such a thing, so here is the recipe (in my halved version)

1 cup flour

1 cup mashed potatoes
2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ tablespoon butter (I made a mistake and put a whole tablespoon in, but it all worked out)

¼ cup milk

½ teaspoon caraway seeds (which I omitted)

Blend the dry ingredients together, then blend in the softened butter and the mashed potatoes. The texture is very crumbly.

Add the milk and the dough comes together very quickly. I patted it out to about ½ inch thick and cut circles. “Brown slowly in a small amount of fat in heavy skillet over low heat.” I used my cast iron skillet, and about 2 tablespoons of butter. The ones in the center browned more quickly than the others. I tried to flip them as they were ready.

They puffed up and browned nicely.

Now, what about the 45 cents? I figure that those little bits of food that would have ordinarily been tossed were basically free to me. I make my own chicken stock from chicken bones and vegetable scraps I save in a special bag in the freezer: carrot ends, celery leaves—that sort of thing. Also free to me. The only expense came in those little potato cakes:

1 cup of flour: 20 cents, at 80 cents/lb

3 tablespoons of butter: 19 cents, at $1.99/lb

¼ cup milk: 4 cents, at $2.59/gallon

2 teaspoons baking powder: figured 2 cents for this but I admit, I didn’t calculate that one out!

That’s 45 cents for ingredients. Of course, there was the electricity for the slow cooker and the propane for the stove burner, but that was pretty minimal. The soup was quite tasty, and I will make the potato cakes again. They were quite a bit lighter than you might expect, quick and easy, and finally a way to use up those little bits of leftover mashed potato! There was even enough soup left for lunch another day--leftover leftovers I guess.