4/28/05 | Campbells Mushroom Soup
[ Currently Eating: Crackers ]
I find there’s a lot of uses for canned cream of mushroom soup, the majority of which are casseroles. So I try to keep a few cans around all the time. Actually, the key is to buy ‘em in bulk (6 for $3?) at CostCo once again because as the bottom of this particular can I’m looking at says, it will last until MARCH 2007. That’s 2 years! Cheap Eats pantry heaven. Plus you can get your Andy Warhol fix having all those soup cans lined up…
Anyhow, I actually like cream of mushroom soup plain as it is, straight up, just add water. Seriously, I don’t even add milk sometimes. I can hear you cringe. But it’s actually really good and surprisingly filling. Here’s a sample:
A Mushroom Soup Lunch
Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup (1 can) — $0.50
French Bread (1 small mini loaf) — $0.25Salt / pepper / water — negligible
Total: $0.75
Put Campbell’s soup in pot. Add water. Bring to boil stirring often, or it will burn on the bottom like no tomorrow. Meanwhile put your bread in the toaster and toast it up. Put soup in a large, no, HUGE bowl. Help yourself to bread. Yum!
Duhrr.. I know, there’s more to it than that. And you don’t want to do that every day. But that’s 75 cents for a pretty good lunch. I actually use crackers (saltines are a favorite)
Mushroom soup gets really useful when you use it as a base for sauces. The stuff is condensed so it’s actually really tasty. (Health-concerned cheap eaters should be concerned that it has a bunch of MSG in it… but that’s another tale.) I’ll be posting some of those recipes later, but you can basically use it to make anything from Turkey A La King to Tuna Casserole to Smothered Chicken. What makes a difference is the amount of dilution and what you use to dilute it (water, milk, chicken stock). It also makes pretty durned fast gravy.
Actually, here’s a “Chicken Bake” right off the can:
Chicken Bake
Campbell’s Mushroom Soup (1 can) — $0.50
2 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breast Halves - $2.00
pepper / water — negligibleTotal: $2.50
I modified this to a half recipe, plus I like more gravy! Place chicken in 2 qt. baking dish, glass is good. Spread soup evenly over the chicken and cover it. You probably want to dilute the soup a bit w/ water and add some black pepper.
Bake the whole shebang for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Take it out. That’s it.
Man. I usually don’t try to pretend I’m a high and mighty food altruist. Let’s just say that the philosophy of Cheap Eats and environmentally friendly vegan idalism do not mix well. But anyhow, I never found anything remotely interesting about Foie Gras, otherwise known as duck (or goose) liver. I hate liver, for one. Sure, I’ve seen the Iron Chefs use bushels of it in cooking. It’s like a race to see who can whip out the liver first.
The Detroit Free Press has a popular column by Matt Helms about Cheap Eats. This article he wrote was on a place in Detroit called “House Of Reuben”. I looked everywhere for a picture of the House of Reuben but couldn’t find one so you’ll have to be content with a borrowed pic of a Reuben Sandwich. Anyhow, I have a soft spot for diners and while sit-down restaurants are always more expensive (because of tip, drinks not coming with meals, etc.) I’m often willing to sacrifice just a teeny bit of dough if it’s a good enough diner setting with good enough food. This one sounds pretty good, though it’s all the way in Michigan. They feature Reuben Sandwiches, as the name implies.
Part 4 : Banquet Pepperoni Pizza Meal
Anyhow, this Pepperoni Pizza was a bit of a bummer. I couldn’t get the cheese to “stretch” like on the box picture and the actual pizza rectangle certainly seemed a bit smaller, maybe the size of one of those squares. More disappointing was the taste. I made this in the oven so I was expecting the crust to be excellent but it had only minor crunch and the pizza sauce was pretty much ketchup. The cheese was OK, but the pepperoni “crumbs” might have been left off in favor of just more pizza.
