Mushroom and Rice Soup

When it was time for lunch today, I decided to look into the fridge to find ingredients to make something. I immediately saw the box with about four mushrooms and the container of leftover rice. Then I started thinking.  How about a mushroom and rice soup with an Asian flair.

I put a can of beef broth in a pan and brought it to a boil. I sliced the mushrooms and added them to the broth along with a bit of soy sauce. I let this combination simmer a few minutes until the mushroom was cooked.  I added the leftover rice and brought it back to a fast simmer to heat it through. I poured the soup into a deep bowl and added a bit of hoison sauce and garlic chile sauce. It was a quick, easy and low calorie, low fat lunch. And oh, so yummy!

How Single People Can Use an Extra Freezer

There are people I know that wonder why I, a lady who lives alone, has an extra freezer. I cook more at home than some folks do but food doesn't come packaged for singles or if it does, it costs way more.  Recipes make more than one serving.

Yesterday, I was shopping in our local Wal-Mart store and spotted ground pork in one pound packages for a dollar. Well, its been a long time since I've seen meat that cheap! Being the bargain shopper I try to be, my mind started thinking of ways I could use ground pork. I remembered that there are recipes that call for ground pork and ground beef. Then I figured it would work well in chili and I could make pork cutlets. A recipe for homemade breakfast sausage shouldn't be hard to find. So I loaded up with 8 pounds!

A quick Google search landed this recipe for sausage on www.cooks.com.

HOMEMADE SAUSAGE WITH SAGE Printed from COOKS.COM Read more about it at www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,161,150187-251196,00.html Content Copyright © 2012 Cooks.com - All rights reserved. 2 lbs. lean ground pork 1 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. sage 1 cumin pepper 1/4 tsp. ginger 1 bay leaf Combine all ingredients in large bowl; mix well, shape into 12 or 15 patties. Brown for 8 minutes on each side in skillet. May wrap patties in foil and broil over charcoal. I quickly made this recipe and rolled it into some waxed paper and put in in the freezer.  In a couple hours, I will unwrap it, cut it into sausage patties and store in a freezer bag. When its time to cook sausage, I'll just need to take out what I need and reclose the bag. So easy! Then I made patties with three more pounds. I put them each into a sandwich bag, sealed them up and put the bags into a freezer bag. Now, I can take out the number I need when I need them. I'm thinking I can grill them in the George Foreman as a pork steak or bread them and make a chicken fried cutlet. Who knows, I may come up with more ideas as time passes! With the remaining packages, I just divided them and put roughly a half-pound of meat in a sandwich bag then into the freezer bag. This is the meat that I will use in recipes. That's meats for lots of meals for a mere $8!