Cook: Make Your Own Cream of "Something" Soup!

I don't know about you guys, but I feel like I never have cream of chicken soup when I need it. Or cream of whatever else I might be wanting to use. When I saw this post from Pinterest, I knew it was something I wanted to try. Even if it didn't work, it was worth a try to save money and grocery store trips! 

Oh and did I mention it's way healthier? I love making alternatives to store bought items because I actually know what's in the food I'm eating and feeding to my husband. Store bought cream of "something" soups are always high in sodium and full of other junk we don't need. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup non-fat dried milk 
• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup bouillon (beef, veggie, chicken, whichever you prefer. I used chicken)
• 4 Tablespoons freeze dried minced onions
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1 teaspoon chives

When you're ready to use it, mix 1/3 cup of your dry mix with 1 1/4 cup of water. This is the equivalent of one can of condensed soup. Cook it until it thickens up. 

Directions:

If you have cubed bouillon you'll need to crush it. I love using my mortar and pestle! It's so fun. I used a total of 10 cubes and that was about 1/4 cup.

Crush it well.

Pour all your ingredients into a medium bowl. 

Stir it all up till everything is well mixed. 

Now fill up a jar and you're good to go! I'm going to make a label for it with the recipe for making the actual soup as well as the ingredients for one batch so I always have it handy. As you can see, one batch made over half of a mason jar full. I haven't cooked with it yet but as soon as I do I'll give you an update on how it was! 

Also, I added the parsley and chives just because but they weren't included in the original recipe. 

Can't wait to try it out! Too bad this post just gave me a mini To-Do list! 

1. Make a label for the jar

2. Actually try out the mix

I'll get right on it...

Have you ever made your own version of a cream of "something" soup? Do you prefer to stick with the cans at the store instead?

Till next time,

Catherine

Health Goals

At the risk of doing something that is highly overdone, especially in the beginning of a new year, I figured I should type up some of my current goals for getting healthier. I know I'm in the same boat as many people...this is our year! We're going to finally get healthier. Losing weight is awesome but the main goal is to get healthy and I mean it.

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I've always had extra weight and have always wanted to get rid of it. My weight fluctuates a bit but I feel like overall I've tried to stay fairly healthy. Keyword: tried. I'm usually pretty active and have worked several labor intensive jobs. But it always seemed like I'd eat the worst when I worked the hardest. We (the girls I worked with) were just exhausted all the time that when we finally got a chance to eat we would eat whatever was the fastest because we had to get right back to work! I shouldn't place all the blame on my previous job(s) but trust me, it didn't help. Especially because in our minds, hey, we're working really hard, let's "reward" ourselves with food. Bad thinking!

So now, upon entering the new year, 2013, I'm ready to buckle down. I have no excuses! I've got a great, supportive husband who will eat better with me, cook with me, work out with me and so on. There's a world of motivation and workouts on Pinterest and we belong to a great gym. No more excuses!

I want to:

• Lose weight
• Drop pant sizes
• Lose inches
• Tone up/Strengthen my muscles (I'm no weakling but I want to be stronger)
• Feel more confident
• Be healthier

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How I plan to do it:

• Gym 3 days a week--Couch to 5k program, lots of walking/elliptical, and weight training
• Lighter workout at home 2 days a week--Walking Dead Workout for now
• Eat more salads! Every day would be ideal
• Take daily women's multi-vitamin
• Drink more water--8 glasses + 
• Eat more fruits and vegetables--DAILY
• Eat less wheat products (we only eat whole grain/wheat, but could be limited)
• Continue to avoid processed food, fried food, refined, bleached, enriched, high fructose corn syrup, etc
• Don't eat out or highly limit it, twice monthly max
• Yoga? (I know it's supposed to be great for you but I've never tried...input?)

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All of these things are basically the same for my husband as well. He doesn't need to lose as much as I want to but he wants to be stronger and healthier.

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I decided to write this down on my blog in order to give myself more accountability. I would LOVE any kind of support and motivation from my readers and friends! All the nitty gritty scary details like weight and inches are staying in a secure Excel file on my computer...not brave enough to put that out there! Maybe when (not if! Need to be more positive too) I reach my goals! Maybe.

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My husband and I have talked about it a million times but we really need to buckle down and get serious. We want to live LONG, HEALTHY lives together. I don't ever want to be hampered down by a preventable disease. The decisions we make today effect our health later on in life.

Follow my Health and Fitness board to see some of the cool stuff I've pinned regarding health and fitness! That's where all of my pictures came from for today's post. I try to pin fun workouts and motivation along with other health tips and tidbits.

Are you trying to do any of these things in the new year? How are you going about it? Also, any suggestions for fun home workouts once we complete every episode for The Walking Dead Workout?

Till next time,
Catherine