It's COLD out! When it's cold and dreary like this, I like to make a BIG pot of my Confetti Bean Soup. Well, I did, and when there are only two people to eat it, there are LOADS of leftovers. Usually, I just divide up the soup among a bunch of 1-quart containers and either freeze them or put them in the fridge and eat on it until it's gone.
Well, I made the soup, we ate the soup, and I looked in the refrigerator - FULL. No problem! I checked the freezers - FULL. Hmmmmmm... This was quite the dilemma. What to do, what to do?
CAN IT!
Now, I had never, ever, canned bean soup before, so I was wading into unknown waters. I was confident it was possible to pressure can it, but I just didn't know the headspace, pressure, or time required. I rummaged through my shelf of canning books, and in the third one I pulled out, there was a recipe for 10-bean soup that's similar to mine.
It's just the normal pressure canning process with these specifics:
1" headspace
10 lbs pressure
90 minutes
I ended up with SEVEN quarts (a full capacity load for the canner) of soup, plus almost another quart I stuck in the refrigerator. Now the guys won't get tired of eating bean soup every day for a week, and I can have it whenever it strikes my fancy, with no real effort (say hello to Mr. Microwave!).
And now I have to find some shelf space in the pantry...oh me.
Perhaps you need to see how long you can go without grocery shopping and use up all that stuff filling the refrigerator, freezer and pantry. Consider it a challenge to see how cheap you can eat for the next month.
ReplyDelete