I keep our pantry and freezer stocked with essentials that you can use to whip up dinner in a flash. Especially in the fall and winter months where you end up making soups and other dishes with ease. I add fresh ingredients and balance the meal like in my sweet potato minestrone soup.
Buying in bulk, eating seasonally can help whip up unique dinners. Using different grains, beans, or spices will transform any dish. An easy meal like my minestrone soup can be supplemented with fresh greens, herbs, garlic etc.
Other options are that you can swap the sweet potato with butternut squash, the white beans with chickpeas, a whole grain instead of pasta and kale instead of spinach. Swapping any ingredients will give you a completely new dish.Β The beauty of soups and stews is that you can improvise withΒ what you have on hand already.
Soup is to me the ultimate budget-friendly pantry meal. You can make it for a family or you can have a week of healthy, hearty winter lunches for work. Bonus is that you will also end up skipping the excess of sodium from the canned or cafe versions. Yay! For me this winter, that is key to my weight loss goals.
Also again the budget aspect, less meal prep, less money spent at the store, more time and money in my future haha.
Don’t forget to check out my Cauliflower Soup with Herbed Goat Cheese. Another delicious, rich and creamy soup for this chilly season.
What are you cooking up lately? Anyone else making chillis and soups like crazy? I’ve also been stocking up on ground meat and storing it in my freezer for coming up with quick meals on the weekends. Generally they defrost fast and you can make meatballs, pasta sauce,Β chillis, stuffed pasta, hamburgers, you name it!
Leftovers will keep for a week.
I always want to buy in bulk but I live alone and am always so busy it’s easy for fresh in season stuff to go bad. With fruit I almost always just have to freeze it and make smoothies.
Yum! I do that too, big batches of berries.
I love this recipe! I’m putting it on the list for the weekend!
thanks!
Now this is a soup I’d love to try. Yummy. I love sweet potatoes and minestrone.
Thanks Valerie!
Hmmm, I think I really like the idea of sweet potato being in minestrone. This could really work for me!
Sweet potato anything sounds good in my books. Will have to make this soon.