Are you sure there is nothing to eat?

So it has been one of those weeks where the budget is tight and I have been trying to use every last scrap of food I can find to avoid going to the store before pay day, plus is has been really cold out so I haven't wanted to leave the house! Please tell me I am not the only person who does this? Anyhow, we had a few somewhat creative meals this week as a result.

Tonight, I literally took the remaining contents of my refrigerator and said, "What can I do with this?" Often, this approach results in some form of soup or stew, which is the magic way of using that one remaining zucchini or half a green pepper. I love making soup! Today however, I wasn't in the mood for my traditional veggie soup and I was missing some of my favorite ingredients. So, I got creative and worked with what I had which was:

1 Parsnip
1/2 bag of Baby Carrots
2 cloves of Garlic
2 Zucchini
5 Strips of Bacon

Huh. Doesn't look like dinner does it? Enter my awesome pantry! From my pantry I added:

2 Cans of Diced Tomatoes
1 Can of full fat Coconut Milk
1 Can Chicken Broth (I used only 1 Cup)
1 Tsp of Salt
1 Tsp Dried Basil

In a soup pot, add sliced parsnip, zucchini, carrots, cans of tomatoes (do not drain, add the juice as well), 2 cloves minced garlic, salt, basil and 1 cup of chicken broth. Bring pot to boil and allow veggies to get soft. At the same time cook bacon, cool and crumble. When veggies are tender, put mixture in a food processor and whirl. Put mixture back into the soup pot on simmer and add 1 can of full fat coconut milk to mixture. Stir in bacon bits or sprinkle on top. This ended up tasting like a creamy tomato and basil soup... but with many other awesome vegetables AND BACON, hiding within it. I was especially excited because my oldest daughter LOVED this soup and she swears that she HATES zucchini. The vegetable ninja strikes again!

In other news, we had a snow day this week. It was a perfect snow day. Lots of packing snow, perfect for building snow men and forts, but warm enough outside that we could enjoy playing.

 






Happy Friday Family Fun Day! Tonight our theme is shapes and colors! Will post details on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend!