Doctoring Up Canned Soup: 10 Things I Learned from Being Sick–with Eureka Update

I’ve had a bad head cold the last 10 days or so.  My husband had it too, but his went away a lot faster.  I’ve always said to have meals in the freezer to use when you are sick.  Well, here’s what happened.

We used up the freezer meals pretty quickly.  I didn’t have as many in there as I’d thought. The next phase was the soup phase.  Mr. Pennies, MP, bought chunky soup in bulk at Sam’s Club. He decided to bulk up the chunky soup even more.  My favorite way was to add a bag of frozen vegetables to chunky beef soup. My second favorite was chunky chicken noodle soup to which he added a can of white tuna, yes tuna. It’s amazing how much chunk white tuna tastes like chicken when bathed in chicken broth. Tuna was what we  had on hand.  No I would not serve either of these to guests, but when you’re sick it’s good enough. We didn’t like having soup every night, so MP made spaghetti one night that we ate twice alternating with the soup. Well, he heated leftover frozen meat sauce and boiled up some linguini for it. Another night he made hamburgers, frozen mixed vegetables, and a box mix of tabouleh.  All quick and easy, but I appreciated it as I was wiped out.

Now for the fails. MP put leftover linguini into a beef vegetable soup. It looked like and tasted like bad canned chop suey. Actually canned chop suey would have been better.  I think the main problem was the vegetables that came with the soup.  Without some frozen veggies added, the vegetables all tasted alike:  bland and mushy. Possibly a different kind of pasta, one with more tooth  would have been better. The other fail was not quite as bad.  He took the chunky chicken soup and added leftover tabouleh. If you like brown rice, you will probably like tabouleh. The tabouleh added great flavor and plenty of extra protein.  After all, tabouleh is bulgar wheat, a whole grain. It was really good in the soup, but the soup needed more vegetables.  It only comes with carrots, nice big rounds of carrots, that somehow are not overcooked and still taste like carrots.

What I Learned

1.  Heat and eat soup is good to keep on hand for when you are sick.
2.  Frozen cooked dinners are good to have on hand for when you are sick.
3.  Tuna can taste like chicken when it’s in chicken broth.
4.  Tabouleh is a great addition to soup for extra protein, flavor, and fiber.
5.  A bag of frozen mixed vegetables can add flavor, texture, fiber, vitamins, and freshness to soup.
6.  Try to alternate soup with frozen meals or take-out. (We had take-out one night.)
7.  I wish MP had bought some regular chicken noodle soup and chicken rice soup as well. After all chicken broth is supposed to be good for a cold.
8.  I wish I’d remembered to add some frozen spinach leaves to the soups. I always keep some in the freezer, but I was so out of it that I didn’t think of it.  That would have added lots of flavor and vitamins.
9.  Keep some cooked chicken in the freezer to add to canned soup.
10. Keep a list of what’s in the freezer!

Eureka! Update
The more I think about it, it would be smart to keep chicken broth around and just add frozen cooked chicken pieces (or frozen cooked roast beef), a few frozen spinach leaves (crumble while still frozen), and a bag of mixed frozen vegetables.  Voila!  Fairly healthy soup!  You could throw in some cous cous since it’s really quick cooking pasta.  Now why didn’t I think of that while I was sick?  Because my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton.  I’m going to have to put this healthy soup “recipe” on the inside of my cabinet door. where I’ll see it all the time.  Hopefully that will do the trick!  And yes, this Eureka! moment came to me as my head is finally starting to clear.

Really good soup is made from scratch of course. And you can freeze it to thaw when you might be sick.

Click here for the recipe for my favorite soup: Spicy Sausage, Kale, & Potato Soup. It’s super healthy and oh so tasty! It heals the body and warms the soul.