Creamy vegan curry soup

This soup has become a fast favorite in our house. Creamy and tasty. It goes really well with my curry chicken salad wraps. 

Ingredients:

-carrots

-celery

-onion

-lentils

-quinoa 

-coconut milk

-veggie stock or veggie bullion cube

-pepper

-cumin

-curry

How to make it:

Cook one rough diced onion, 3 rough diced carrots and 3 rough diced celery stalks in ~4 cups of stock overnight in a crockpot. In the morning, cool and purée this mixture. Return to the crockpot. Add 1/2 cup quinoa and 1/2 cup of lentils (rinse and sort). Add 1 can of coconut milk, about 2 cups of diced carrots. Add some pepper, 1 tsp cumin and 2 tsp curry powder (or as much as you want to taste). Cook in the crockpot until lentils, quinoa and carrots are fully cooked. 

You can garnish with cilantro, vegan sour cream, Greek yogurt... You can also add garlic into the soup, if your husband isn't allergic like mine. 

Lactation cookies

Want a delicious lactation cookie recipe? This is it. I've made many batches of these cookies. They are delicious and have all of the good stuff that is supposed to help you make the magic milk. These cookies freeze really well. Here is my lactation cookie recipe:

Lactation cookies:

3/4 cup butter

1/2 cup coconut oil 

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/3 cup molasses

3 eggs

2 tbsp flax meal mixed with 4 tbsp water - let stand 5 min

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour (also works with 1 cup almond flour and 1 cup oat flour) 

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 cups oats (1 cup each: steel cut, quick cooking & Quaker breakfast with flax seeds)

4 tbsp brewers yeast

Mix-ins (1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1 cup chocolate chips for double chocolate) 

(1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup chocolate chips, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice for oatmeal raisin)

Mix butter, oil, eggs, sugar, vanilla, molasses, and flax until creamed. Add dry ingredients (except oats and mix-ins). Add oats. Add mix-ins. 

Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for 15 min at 350F. Makes ~4 dozen cookies

Homemade beef stew

Juniper's favorite food is stew. We sometimes use moose or elk. I like adding turnip or rutabaga 

Beef stew: 

0.8 kg/ 1.75 lbs beef stew pieces ($8)

1/4 cup flour (pennies from a large bag)

2 carrots - peeled and chopped ($1.70/ bag of 10/ $0.35)

2 stalks celery - chopped ($1.70/ bag of 8/ $0.43)

1/3 cabbage - chopped into large pieces ($2.50 for whole cabbage/ $1)

10 mushrooms - cut in 1/2 ($1)

1/2 bag baby potatoes (16) - cut in 1/4 ($3.99 for whole bag/ $2)

2 large parsnips - chopped into large pieces ($2) 

1 onion - cut into large chunks ($3/ bag of 6/ $0.50)

2 Knorr homestyle beef stock (~$2) + 4 cups water

Or 1 tetra pack of beef stock or 4 cups homemade stock

2 bay leaves

Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper

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~$17.00 for 8-10 servings or $1.75/ serving

Instructions: 

Toss the beef pieces with flour, salt and pepper

Cut all veggies and put in bottom of crockpot

Add seasonings

Add beef to top (do not mix)

Cook 4 hours on high

Time to prep: less than 15 minutes

Notes: 

This recipe is a lot more veggies than beef. You can do 2 lbs of beef or less veggies.

Add some chopped garlic as seasoning, if your husband isn't allergic like mine. 

Add some flour mixed with cold water at the end if not thick enough and let cook another 20-30 min. 

You can cook on the stove too. Brown the flour covered beef in a pot. Add the veggies and stock and stir. Bring to a boil and then simmer until veggies are soft. 

Freezes great. 

Homemade turkey noodle soup

Turkey and chicken noodle soup are huge favorites in our house. I make this all the time in the winter on chilly days. I love the way our house smells. Yummy. 

Turkey stock:

-Turkey backs (<$2)

-1 peeled and chopped onion (~$3/bag of 6 or $0.50)

-4 unpeeled and chopped carrots (~$3/bag of 20 or $0.60)

-4 ribs of celery chopped (~$2.50/bag of 20 organic celery ribs or $0.50)

-broccoli stalks chopped ($2 for broccoli, I normally throw the stalks out so $0)

-4 small parsnips unpeeled and chopped ($4/bag of 25 or $0.65)

-2 bay leaves ($1/ bag of 20, so pennies)

-salt and white pepper

-parsley and thyme from the garden

-7-8 cups of water

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Total: ~$4.25

Instructions for stock:

Put everything in the crockpot on low overnight. 

Prep time: Less than 15 min with toddler interruptions 

For soup:

-keep meat from the turkey

-strain stock and discard veggies and herbs

-you will end up with about 7 cups of stock

Add:

-1/2 chopped onion (~$0.25)

-2 peeled and chopped carrots (~$0.25)

-2 celery stocks chopped (~$0.25)

-1/4 cup small pasta ($2/bag of 2 cups or $0.25)

-additional seasoning

Instructions:

-add all ingredients back to the crockpot (except pasta)

-cook on high for 2 hours or until veggies are soft

-add pasta and cook ~15-30 min

Prep time: 10 min

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Total for soup: <$6

Notes:

I buy turkey or chicken backs at my grocery store. You can easily use the scraps from Thanksgiving or a roast chicken too. Or even bone in poultry. 

If you are going to freeze, don't add noodles. 

Top left: stock cooking

Top right: stock strained

Bottom left: turkey

Bottom right: yummy soup

Cheap & Healthy

There seems to be a lot of discussions on my online mommy boards about cheap, easy and healthy meals for your family. I grew up without a lot of packaged foods. Both of my parents grew up fairly poor with moms who grew huge gardens. Making things from scratch was just how you did things back then. I believe that when you are disconnected from your food source, you eat poorly. Making your food from scratch (as much as possible) brings you back to a relationship with your food which equals eating healthier. Plus, it saves you tons of money. Which means you can buy the more expensive wine. ;)

I will be posting some of my family's favorite recipes and some meal plans along with budgets. No one in my house is dieting or has major allergies. I am a sahm with a full-time working husband. We have one 18 mo toddler who eats everything.