EASY, Frugal Replacement for Canned Cream of Soup

Have you ever read the ingredients on a can of Campbell's Cream of....Soup?  I hadn't until today...Wow!  Lately I have been paying more attention to WHERE my food comes from and WHAT unnecessary ingredients are in it, in other words, what words can I pronounce??  According to the Campbell's Food Service website, a can of Cream of Chicken Soup consists of:

Chicken Stock, Water, Vegetable Oil, Modified Food Starch, Wheat Flour, Cream (Milk), Contains Less Than 2% Of: Salt, Dehydrated Cooked Chicken, Soy Protein Concentrate, Monosodium Glutamate, Chicken Fat, Yeast Extract, Flavoring, Beta Carotene for Color, Chicken Flavor, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil, Butter (Milk).

I started by trying to figure out what some of the ingredients were that didn't sound like stuff I eat!

Modified food starch is a chemically altered food ingredient made from starch. Because many starches may contain gluten or have been contaminated with gluten, be on the look out for this ingredient in many of the foods sold today if you are eliminating gluten from your diet.

How It's Made

There are numerous ways that food starch can be modified; the method varies based on the starch itself and on what it will be used for. These are some methods of producing a modified starch:

• Treating it with acid
• Roasting it
• Treating it with sodium hydroxide
• Treating it with potassium hydroxide
• Adding a positive electrical charge
• Treating it with emulsifiers
• Treating it with starch ether 

What the hell??  Okay....moving along...Next...

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer commonly added to Chinese food, canned vegetables, soups and processed meats. Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified MSG as a food ingredient that's "generally recognized as safe," the use of MSG remains controversial. For this reason, when MSG is added to food, the FDA requires that it be listed on the label. 

According to the truth in labeling, the risks associated with ingestion of (or even contact with) monosodium glutamate and other ingredients that contain MSG are simple and straightforward:

Brain damage

Endocrine disorders (obesity and reproductive disorders)

Behavior disorders

Adverse reactions      

            Neurodegenerative disease

Next.... 

Chicken Fat ...Umm....YUCK!!!  I throw all of that away when I cook and debone chicken!!

Next...

A known side effect of ingesting beta carotene is a yellow or orange discoloration of the skin. Commonly, this discoloration is found in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/528786-can-beta-carotene-change-your-skin-color/#ixzz1yG4ZymL5

Ummm...now I'm gonna turn orange (like Snookie) for eating soup??  OMGosh!

 

Okay, I'm done!  There are almost 20 ingredients in that can of soup, which I use to add to various recipes, so that would mean my casserole has around 5,967 (may be an exaggeration) ingredients?!?  This led me to wonder if I could just make it myself.  Literally seconds after typing "Cream of Chicken Soup Recipe" into my search engine, I had a 3 minute recipe for it.  I just made the equivalent of 5 cans of the stuff to throw in the freezer while I was heating up leftover chicken and rice for my (and the dogs') lunch.  I boiled a chicken Sunday to use for the dogs meals as well as some chicken and rice that I had been craving.  I always add the ingredients along with the chicken so I can use the stock simply because...I'm cheap, not to mention homemade chicken broth tastes SO much better!  I ended up getting 4, 3-cup containers of chicken stock and 5 "cans" (1.5 cups each) of Cream of Chicken Soup just by using what would have been thrown away from my boiled chicken.  I wanted to share my cheap and easy recipe with you...well, technically I adapted it from a recipe on milehimama's website.  Anyway, let me know what you think!  

Cream of Chicken Soup
Put 2 T butter in a pan.  Melt it.
Add 2 T of flour.  Stir it around until the flour is absorbed and it is starting to clump, about 1 minute.
Add 1 C of chicken broth/milk mixture.  A note about this:  I made a larger quantity than what this recipe makes so I ended up using 4 parts chicken stock to 1 part milk.  This is to your liking.  I did add a little more water as it thickened, but I think that's because it is in my nature to deviate from recipes! :) Whisk it in and heat until smooth. If you stir in a little liquid at a time, letting the flour absorb it, it helps to keep lumps from forming.  Cook and stir about 3 minutes, until smooth and heated through.  The longer you cook the thicker it will get.  Salt to taste.  You can add chicken bits if you like.  DONE!  How many ingredients did that use??  Butter, flour, water, stock, milk?  5??  We could even break the stock down farther but it would still be less than half AND they would be REAL food ingredients!  

Variations:
Cream of mushroom – cook up some chopped mushrooms in the butter, then sprinkle with the flour and proceed.  I'm making this sometime this week as well.
Cream of celery – soften finely chopped celery in the butter, then proceed.


I APOLOGIZE FOR THE FORMATTING!  BLOGGER IS LOSING ITS MIND!!

Just How Brave ARE You??

How experimental are you when it comes to what you eat?  I will pretty much try any fruits/veggies/non-once-breathing things.  Having said that, I HATE curry.  It is gross!  I won't even try it anymore!  Ugh!  The exception to fruit would have to be Durian...if Andrew Zimmer gags and spits it out, yeah, no way am I going to be able to choke it down!  Anyway, I've tried over half of them and of the 45 left, I would not eat only 15 of them.  Hey, I'll try almost anything once!!

The Very Good Taste Omnivore's 100 List

Rules:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat (I hate curry)
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal (I hate curry)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (I don’t wanna die!!)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

My Score:  55

Restaurant Review: GrEAT Mongolian Grill

Hubby and I decided to have a date night a while back.  We went and tried a new restaurant that I ran across online through Groupon (although I didn't buy the deal...just remembered the place).  GrEAT Mongolian Grill is located in Cary @ Harrison Pointe Shopping Center.  I now understand why the reviews mentioned that it was never crowded....it's on the back of the center.  I would have never known it was there.  I am SO glad we found it!  Hubby has never liked Mongolian food, but he knows that I love it and we def don't go often.

It was awesome!  The food was fantastic, especially the Sesame Mushroom sauce.  Our service was amazing!  First the food...there was a large buffet right in the middle of the restaurant.  You took 2 bowls:  1 large for Veggies and 1 small for proteins.  They had everything from bean sprouts to zucchini to noodles...probably about 30 different veggie-type things.  For proteins it ranged from tofu to shrimp to steak to calamari...maybe 12ish of those.  My first creation had a little of LOTS of things:  noodles, scallions, onions, mushrooms, carrot, zucchini, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, Napa cabbage, broccoli, shrimp, beef, and chicken.  I'm sure I left something out!  At the end of the bar, there are about 7 containers with things such as sesame seeds, garlic, pepper, etc.  I added some of that as well.  They also use a "stick" system to choose your sauce.  Each sauce is written on a sign with a color beside it.  You place the corresponding stick in your food.  You also choose a chili pepper stick.  Green in mild, 2 greens - medium, 1 red hot, 2 reds very hot!  I chose the Sesame Mushroom sauce out of other sauces such as teriyaki, sweet Asian chile, and a few others.  I went with medium for my heat...and I'm glad I did!  Anyway, once you have done this, you give it to the chefs at the humungous grill.  They ask if you would like steamed or fried rice and give you a number.  Back at the table you stick your number card on the little stand on each table.  The waitress brings it to you when it's ready.  Hubby had a very similar creation.  He order white sauce to go on his...he says he could put it on gravel and it would be yummy!

My first taste

Oh, we started with Endamame.  It was good...just your average with s little sea salt.  It was cooked good, but honestly, I buy it by the large bag in the freezer section @ Trader Joe's for $1.69.  I like it just as well.  It was $3.99 here...I'm glad I got it but don't know if I would get it again because I'm cheap!!

My App

 Rebecca was our server.  She was AWESOME!  She was friendly from the beginning but after we had been there a few times, she warmed up even more.  We ended up exchanging email info before we left!  She hooked us up too!  The prices are:  1 trip - 9.99, unlimited is 11.99.  If you want to bring your unlimited leftovers home, it's 4.69 extra.  Normally this is a small take out box and she brought us a large.  I went up and fixed a bowl 4 different ways, skipping the rice.  I took probably 3-4 bites out of each.  The rest was brought home.  We have a GOOD 4 meals leftover!  Oh, and she laughed at me because I told her that their water was some of the best I had ever had.  She said they had a filtering system in place..well...it was GOOD water!  :)

Our bill was right at $35.  We left Rebecca a $15 tip.  It was a fantastic experience!!