Weekly Menu: Potato Soup and Bread Bowls

February 9, 2009 by Chelsea
Filed under Recipes

3077661105_8115d1874d_m Weekly Menu: Potato Soup and Bread Bowls Here is our menu for the coming week. You can read here about how planning a menu saves us time and money.

Monday: Stirfry
Tuesday: Potato soup and bread bowls*
Wednesday: Lentil/Rice Casserole
Thursday: Homemade Hamburger Helper
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Tim’s cooking Valentine’s Dinner with pork
Sunday: Roast, potatoes

We will splurge and go over our grocery budget a little bit this week to buy some ribs/roast/pork chops that Marsh has on sale for $0.99/lb. The pork comes in a 10-12 lb package and should give us many meals. We will use some of the pork for a fancy Valentine’s Dinner and then have some on Sunday when we are having some guests over. Even though we’ll go over a little on our groceries, we won’t be dining out on Valentine’s Day which will save us some money.

We may soon be raising our grocery budget by $20/month. Tim’s been burning a lot of calories at the gym lately and his appetite has grown. I also have a growing appetite as the baby gets larger and I want to make sure I’m eating as healthy as I can for the baby.

*Potato Soup
2-3 cups chicken broth
2 cups chopped potatoes
1 cup celery (opt)
1/4 cup onion
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
2 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cheese
1 can corn, drained (opt)
1/4 cup shredded carrots (opt)
1/4 cup crumbled, cooked bacon (opt)
salt & pepper to taste

Combine the broth, potatoes, celery, carrots and onion in large pot and boil 20-30 min or until veggies are tender. In separate pan combine flour and butter and mix together 2-3 minutes over med heat until mixture darkens. Stir frequently to make sure it doesn’t burn. Add milk and continue to mix for 3-5 minutes until mixture thickens. Add milk mixture to broth and vegetables. Add cheese, corn, bacon, salt and pepper and heat through. The soup will continue to thicken as it sits.

This soup is very forgiving and you can interchange many of the optional ingredients.

*Bread Bowls
6 cups flour (I use 1/2 wheat, 1/2 white)
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons yeast (or 2 pkgs)
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
1/3 cup oil

Mix yeast, sugar and water and let rise until bubbly (5-10 min). Mix with other ingredients (dough should be a little stiff). Divide dough into 6 balls. Let balls rise until twice in size, about 45 min. Bake at 400 for 12-15 min.