How to Save Money with Soups

Eating produce with every meal is a great way to further stretch your food dollars. Frugal grocery shopping and meal planning often requires that you try something new. Quick vegetable and fruit soups that do not require much preparation time are a healthy way to help you loose weight and add a new low cost side item to your healthy grocery list.

Cook book

Visit your local thrift store, library sale, or www.amazon.com. Look for cookbooks with a great variety of recipes. A great example is the Joy of Cooking. This is a quality recipe book. This book has updates every year, and the recipes from earlier editions are just as tasty as the updated version. The recipes are tested, before the recipes are released. There is a vegetarian version of The Joy of Cooking. Other great lines of cookbooks are Weight Watchers, Cooking Light, Deceptively Delicious, and Betty Crocker

Plan

Get to know your cookbook. For example look in the soup section. The great thing about all soups is that they usually require a small amount of meat, or the meat reduced, or omitted. Pick a few recipes that you do like. Take note of the ingredients you already have in your pantry. After seeing what is on sale, select the recipes that offer the best value for your budget. Below is an example of a tasty frugal soup recipe.

Potato and Kale Soup

Boil 6 to 8 cups of water and add a bit of salt to the water. Add 1 to 2 potatoes for each person you will be serving. Dice the potatoes into large chunks. Then boil the potatoes until done. In a separate pan brown 1 pound of Italian sausage that has been squeezed out of the casing, or use a few strips of bacon. Add onions and a few cloves of garlic stir until the onions turn light brown. Add the contents of the pan to the pot with the potatoes. Pour in one cup of milk or cream to the pot of potatoes. Add 2 handfuls of chopped kale two minutes before serving. This soup is great with or without meat.

Finding a few sweet or spicy soup recipe ideas are practical way to create meals for less money. Experiment with new recipes often, to find several healthy soups that your family enjoys. Use these ideas above to help keep you on track with your food budget.