Compare This to The Dollar Menu!

[yellerpup]

I'm so excited! Today I spent 7 hours (8 hours total, including shopping) preparing a hearty split-pea and ham stew (with organic carrots, celery, onions, & garlic), stone ground cornmeal muffins, and washing/polishing apples for 48 people. It was my donation this week to the homeless outreach called Midnight Run.

Total Cost: $39.01 = Cost per meal $ .81!

I used the bones, wings and trimmings (defatted) from last week's duck dinner to make the broth, a whole ham (on sale with a $.55 off coupon) whole milk to make the muffins with Hodgson's Self-Rising Muffin Mix (5# bag), and 1/2 bushel of MacIntosh apples. I'll figure out all the food values before I post the slide show of it on my cooking blog this weekend, but this meal is packed with nutrition and made with absolutely first class ingredients. I knew it would come in under a dollar but WOW! Forgive me for being so impressed with myself-LOL! What a great day! :grouphug:

[elleng]

1. split pea and ham ALWAYS great! Thanks for your work.

[yellerpup]

2. Thanks, elleng!

It is very satisfying. Beats the hell out of online solitaire! :hi:

[Callalily]

3. Yummy! I haven't made

homemade pea soup in a long time. Must add that onto my "list of soups" to make this winter season.

[yellerpup]

6. It turned out to be really delicious

and I couldn't have been more delighted. Beats PB&J on the really chilly nights! It is really hearty and satisfying. :hi:

[beac]

4. Brava, yellerpup!

What a good thing you are doing. I'm sure your menu will be a big hit. :applause:

[yellerpup]

7. Could have been bologna on white bread and packages of

store-bought cookies. I hope they like it and I despair that even if they don't, that's all they get anyway. I do feel good about doing it.

[Denninmi]

5. Very nice of you, and very good budgeting.

With rising food prices, it continues to amaze me that people will often pay SO much for convenience items. I like to see what other people in grocery store lines are buying, but it often freaks me out at the totals. I garden, have birds for eggs, can and preserve, so most of my grocery purchases are the staples I can't produce myself -- milk and other dairy products, pantry staples like flour, sugar, salt, oil, meats, fresh produce out of season and things I can't grow here like pineapples, citrus, etc. I try to cook from scratch as much as possible. That is really key to keeping costs down, as well as buying in season, taking advantages of sales and coupons, buying in bulk if it saves money.

[yellerpup]

8. You are absolutely right and smart to take advantage

of deals and coupons. I grew up milking cows, slopping hogs, and gathering eggs. (Plus other less joyful chores as well, but...) How I would enjoy growing my own veggies and trading butter for dry goods like grandma did when I was a kid. Grandma has always been an inspiration to me. When she retired from the Osage County Board of Elections at 82, they asked her what she would do with her time now that she was retired. She said, "I reckon I'll go down yonder to the senior center and cook for them old people." She never used convenience items and I take my cues from her. You can feed so many more people with real food than you can with today's "food substitute." :hi:

[pengillian101]

9. Well good on YOU!

What a great thing!

"Forgive me for being so impressed with myself-LOL! What a great day! :grouphug:


Indeed a group hug! :grouphug: Thanks for helping - I bet they LOVED their meal.

[yellerpup]

12. I hope they did, pengillian!

This forum is the first place I came to share because I knew my fellow C&Bers would understand--AND give me a HUG! :hug:

[daleanime]

10. Sounds delicious!

Great work!:yourock:

[yellerpup]

14. It was tasty! I used leftover duck fat to saute

the mirepoix. I think I forgot to mention that in the OP. Duck fat is my all time favorite for roasting vegetables and is loaded with calories. Midnight Run clients are not calorie counters or picky eaters and they rarely get a mouthful of bliss, so I punched up the nutrition in as many ways as I could and imagined how surprised they would be when they tasted that first spoonful. That's what made the adventure so much fun for me. :hi:

[Phentex]

11. I'm very impressed!

and not just about the price. What a wonderful thing you've done!



:toast:

[yellerpup]

15. I had a ball doing it!

Hubby took me out last night because I was too tired to cook dinner for us afterwards and I ran into a friend who is a physical therapist (specialty: Hands!) and got a great hand massage. I feel perfectly refreshed today. I had thought that I would do this every week, but now I realize that my arthritic hands are going to cut me back to doing this once in three or four weeks. On a practical level and being of modest circumstances, I can't afford to give forty bucks a week to charity. Everything helps, though, and I will continue. Actually, I can't wait until next time! :hi:

[tigereye]

18. nice job!

:thumbsup: And it sounded like fun, too!

[yellerpup]

21. Thanks, tigereye.

Satisfying in every way. :hi:

[Blues Heron]

13. Nice job yellerpup!

Way to go!

[yellerpup]

16. Thanks Blues Heron!

It was work AND fun, not to mention tremendously rewarding. :hi:

[yellerpup]

17. SLIDE SHOW POSTED

on Vicki's Menu.

http://www.vickismenu.com/vickismenu/?p=336

Including nutritional information in the text.

[Inchworm]

19. Cool! Thanks Yellerpup

Even I can do that! hehe

I'm gathering winter meal ideas and soups are on the top of my list.

:yourock:

[yellerpup]

20. Thank you, inchworm.

It's a good soup, but you are right. Anyone can do it, which is kind of the point of my whole blog! :hi:

[pengillian101]

22. I use a very similar recipe.

My neighbor sometimes buys a ham and she and her Iraq Veteran Daughter, who arrived home safely, ask me to make this. It's the least I can do.

January 28, 2010
Split Pea Soup updated

1969 Betty Crocker’s cookbook Split Pea Soup

(*my variations in parenthesis.) Easily doubled recipe – it freezes well.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups dried split peas (*one plastic bag is 2 cups).
2 quarts water (*that is 8 cups and I add chicken bouillon
to that 8 cups of water so it is chicken broth. Or just
start out with 8 cups of chicken broth)

1 lb smoked ham shank or ham hocks or 1 ham bone (*I start
with a real bone-in ham. There will be more than enough
ham for your soup, and the leftover extremely tender ham is
wonderful for sandwiches, etc.)

1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup) (*I use a
lot more onion and you don’t need to chop anything so
fine.)

1 cup finely chopped celery (*my celery usually is beyond
usable before I use it, so I normally skip it)

1 sprig parsley (*I use dried parsley)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 medium carrots, thinly sliced (*my very original Betty
Crocker recipe didn’t call for carrots – but my notes say I
always added 1-1/2 cup of sliced carrots). They will cook
down.

(* IMPORTANT * my little additions – a bit of chopped garlic in a jar, 1/4 tsp thyme, a bay leaf or two, and a generous pinch of
cayenne pepper.)

DIRECTIONS

In large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat peas and water (*bouillon) to
boiling; boil 2 minutes.

Remove from heat; cover and let stand 1 hour.

Add bone-in ham, onion, celery, parsley and pepper; heat to
boiling. (*add carrots and my additions – chopped garlic in a jar, 1/4 tsp thyme, a bay leaf or two, and a generous pinch of
cayenne pepper.)

Reduce heat; cover and simmer (*at least) 1-1/2 hours.

Remove ham and bone.

(*If you want a really creamy variation, use a hand blender in the pot before adding the ham back in. Or if you don’t have a hand blender, put the soup through a regular food processor or blender Personally, I like the un-creamy version best.)

Trim meat from bone and add to soup (*if you use a whole ham with bone, save out about 1/2 the ham for other uses.

[yellerpup]

23. That looks really delicious.

I just made mine up as I went along using what I had on hand and 'guess-timating' the amounts. I'm glad you posted a recipe for one family as few folks have need of three gallons of soup!
:hi:

[pengillian101]

24. Yup, me also.

Experiment until it is just to your liking!

[yellerpup]

26. I just can't manage not to get in a few

creative licks when it comes to cooking. I'm more careful in baking to follow recipes, but for cooking anything goes! :hi:

[pengillian101]

25. on Vicki's Menu.

http://www.vickismenu.com/vickismenu/?p=336

Now how fun is that!

[yellerpup]

27. Tremendous amount of fun!

We all spend a huge amount of time thinking about food, working to make money for food, planning meals, and bringing meals to the table, so if might as well be fun! Thanks for the kick and for visiting the site. I am touched by the support I get from my friends here in C&B! :hug: