[cheap & easy eats] butternut squash and veggie soup; easy mashed potatoes

[laurenhat]

Two recent super-easy foods to add to my recipe list -- both are in the "barely cooking" category, but that's not a bad thing in my book.

butternut squash and veggie soupI bought a big box of Imagine Creamy Butternut Squash Soup (organic, soy based, and tasty) and poured it into a pot. Then I added about half a package of frozen corn and a

Comments

[dancingwolfgrrl]

Butternut squash soup is good with a surprising amount of ginger (which, by the way, it turns out you can buy in jars like garlic if you go to whole foods for it). It's also good with curry spices.

If you want a substantial meal, you can add cooked rice. (If rice scares you - and I didn't learn to cook it until I was 24, so I understand - you can use the frozen kind.)

My belief about mashed potatoes is that it's only worth screwing around with the pot of water if I'm making them for a crowd: the microwave is madly faster if you just want to do one or two. So I don't think that's at all weird :)

[laurenhat]

Oh, rice! Good idea. I got a rice cooker recently and now I not only get more consistently cooked rice, but I can also put it in in the morning and have warm rice waiting when I get home. Yay! This makes the likelihood of my cooking it much higher. :)

[dancingwolfgrrl]

That is an awesome perk!

[moominmolly]

I personally think the microwave is a lot easier for making mashed potatoes. Well -- okay, for some psychological reason I've never bothered to investigate, I'll cut and boil white potatoes to mash them as often as not, but I will only ever make mashed sweet potatoes with the microwave because cutting and boiling would be too much trouble.

btw: mashed sweet potatoes! TOTALLY WORTH IT. Add cinnamon.

[hitchhiker]

I like mashed sweet potatoes with sour cream

[mactavish]

You and deyo need to talk. You're clearly of the same brain.

[laurenhat]

YAY YAMS!! (I mean, sweet potatoes. But I like calling them yams, particularly in combination with "yay".) I had not thought of mashing them and eating them! But I have no idea why not, since microwaving and mashing this is the first step to... YAMBALLS! (Have you been at a party where I've brought yamballs?)

[otherwise_nyc]

These both sound great! And I've been trying to think of/find more super-easy recipes for making and having food at home during the day, since my grad classes are (3 of 4) in the 4:15-6:15 time slot. So I should be eating lunch AT HOME and it should be quick and yummy and nutritious, and not a slice that I pick up at 3pm on my way into school.

[laurenhat]

Yay for super-easy recipes! That's usually what I want by the time I get home late, and I can see how you'd want that for lunch, too.

Classes! Are your classes awesome? I've missed the run-down!

[fennel]

I'm a fan of lima beans with corn, and it seems like they might work in the soup... maybe the spinach would have to go, though.

[laurenhat]

Hmm. I think I used to like lima beans, but for some reason I feel suspicious of them now. I should totally try them again, though. I'm not sure if they would conflict with spinach.

[maebeth]

Broccoli. All foods are enhanced by adding broccoli. Add them to the potato as well.

Personally, I"d add chicken, but... well, I'm guessing you don't do that.

And barley is my favorite grain to be in a soup.

I assume you've heard of the soup for a week theory. You make the plain base--in this case the squash. Then each day you cook a portion and add something different. It can be additive--each day you add one more thing, until it the last day is actually stew.
Or just heat a portion and have a curry with rice and green beans on Tuesday and Corn and potatoes with nutmeg the next. Very different flavor created from the same base.
.

[laurenhat]

I do like broccoli! I was trying to mix things up a bit by adding spinach this time around, but broccoli's my default.

I eat meat. I don't eat chicken, though, usually. :) (Just don't like it much.) And I tend not to cook any meat on my own -- just eat it when other people serve it.

Your soup theory sounds wonderful, but kind of intimidating. Most of my cooking still is not very cooking-like. I have to take things out of boxes and packets that tell me what to do most of the time, and I'm hopeless at guessing what kinds of spices to use on my own. But I like the idea and might have to investigate further to see if I can find recipes.

[laurenhat]

(Also, "barley" sounds sophisticated and intimidating. ;) )