Over the years, I've protected plenty of exceptional subjects for Thrift Week. I've looked at the seven top objects in a preferred own family budget; explored seven diverse matters you could do to assist the environment; cited seven vital net sites and seven crucial books for the ecofrugal; and taken a tour of my place thrift stores. And as 2017 became drawing to a near and I become casting approximately for an concept for this 12 months's Thrift Week, I began demanding that perhaps I'd simply run out of thoughts.
However, it eventually occurred to me that there's one perennial topic I never grow tired of discussing in this blog's pages: food. I've got far more articles devoted to food than any other subject, currently numbering 219 out of the nearly 1,000 articles on the site. Over the years, I've shared (virtually, at least) hundreds of meals with you guys, including all my Fruit and Veggie of the Month picks from the past five years and numerous recipes of Brian's own invention, from his hearty bluefish chowder to his granola bread and butternut squash pizza.
So I decided perhaps the correct manner to cope with Thrift Week this 12 months is probably to cover seven of our favorite ecofrugal recipes. Brian has agreed to make a distinct dish every night time time, as wished, so I can get pictures of them, and I'll gift you with the actual recipes if I can.
As it happens, however, he didn't want to do whatever special this night, because one among our ecofrugal staples became already sitting in the refrigerator. Last weekend, he'd whipped up a big batch of our favorite Mushroom-Barley Soup, and we nevertheless had some left over. So I ate a bowlful of this for lunch, marking the start of my Week of Ecofrugal Eating.
Those of you who have been round once I did the One Harvest challenge once more in 2013 have heard me factor out this recipe in advance than. It become one of the ecofrugal homemade food I matched up in competition to the food programs supplied via manner of One Harvest to peer which became more fee-powerful, and it helped contribute to our ecofrugal menu's triumph within the venture. (The fees for the 2 have been basically identical, but this is due to the fact ours modified into made in large part with natural additives; if you purchased everything as cheaply as possible, our menu might have been the clear winner.)
You can find a recipe for mushroom-barley soup in just about any vegetarian cookbook, but the one we use comes from Vegetariana by Nava Atlas—a whimsical collection in which recipes are interspersed with drawings, quotations, and interesting facts about food. In a comment on the 2013 post, I was asked for the recipe, so at the risk of copyright infringement, I'll repeat it here:
Chop 1 large onion and 2 large celery stalks, and slice 1 large carrot. Put into a large soup pot with 3/4 c. raw barley, 2 bay leaves, 2 Tbsp. margarine, 1 tsp. dried dill, 1 tsp. seasoned salt, 1/2 tsp. dried summer savory, salt and pepper to taste, and 6 c. vegetable stock or water. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, over moderately low heat for 30 minutes. Coarsely chop 10-12 oz. white mushrooms and add to pot. Simmer 20 minutes more, or until veggies are tender. Stir in enough low-fat milk or soy milk (or use skim milk, as we do) to achieve a slightly thick consistency. Let stand 30 minutes off the heat before serving. Serves 6 to 8. This soup will thicken quite a bit if refrigerated; when reheating, add more milk or stock as needed and adjust the seasoning.
The soup is hearty, nourishing, and appealing, packed with veggies and complete grains?All the stuff medical doctors (well, maximum of them, except) need you to consume more of. And, the usage of the additives from our close by shops, it handiest charges $2.71 in line with pot:
- 10 oz. organic mushrooms: $1.56 ($2.49 per pound at the Whole Earth Center)
- 3/4 c. barley: $.50 ($1 per bag at Stop & Shop)
- 2 onions: about $.20 ($1.49 for a 2-pound bag at H-Mart)
- 1 organic carrot: about $.15 ($1.75 per pound at the Whole Earth Center)
- celery, garlic, and spices: roughly $.30
- veggie stock: free, because we make our own from vegetable scraps we store in the freezer
However, in the week to come, I will try, and we'll see if some of our other ecofrugal favorites can top this recipe for value, or at least come close. Stay tuned for the next day's menu.
