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Homemade Beef Broth (& Stew!)

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I hope everyone is staying warm wherever you are! Here in southern Arizona, we’re finally starting to get a little bit of chill in the air! Don’t get me wrong, it’s still 90 degrees mid-day. But the mornings and evenings are nice and chilly!

I’m pretending it’s colder than it really is by making yummy (and cheap!) cold-weather comfort food! And I’m doing it by using up leftovers! We’ve been doing GREAT this month using our money envelopes for groceries! I plan to stay consistent with the money envelopes for the time being because it’s really helped squash excess food spending! I’ve been in the process of a huge budget overhaul so a cheaper grocery budget is in our future! I’m glad I’m working my way back into a more frugal grocery lifestyle!

One night, I made a roast in my trusty crock-pot. I took the roast bones and put them in a pot of water on the stove and simmered them for a couple hours while I cleaned everything up and got the kids ready for bed. By the end of the night, I had wonderful homemade beef broth (with some chunks of beef that had been stuck on the bone).

A couple days later, I used up the broth and some of the leftover roast by making a simple homemade beef stew. I only used veggies I already had on hand:  potatoes, celery, and carrot – I would’ve loved some onion, too, but we were out. I used onion powder for flavor and it worked just fine.

Considering how picky my kids’ palates can be, they both absolutely LOVE soup of any kind! They both gobbled up everything in their bowls and asked for seconds! That’s a WIN in my book!

The best part is that we had an easy, yummy, homemade meal that cost us no money at all because it was made entirely from food we already had on-hand! I LOVE repurposing food from previous meals so we get every single penny’s worth! Score!

What are you eating this weekend? What are your favorite cold-weather comfort foods?


7 Comments

  • Reply Ruby |

    Love this post! It’s perfect timing too, as it is getting colder up where I am (Canada). It is totally soup and stew weather! I’m currently making roasted pumpkin soup, with veggie broth I made from my frozen kitchen scraps. I also like making pork bone soup with pork bones, cabbage, potato and carrots (all pretty cheap ingredients). Your stew looks delicious!

  • Reply Kate |

    We also just made roasted acorn squash soup, using broth from chicken scraps. The squash was truly free, it grew in our garden from some rogue seeds from the last year’s compost! (Sadly,it crowded out my watermelons.)

  • Reply Mindy |

    And probably healthier than if you had purchased the stew at the store (i.e. less sodium, etc.). Good for you! Glad to hear the envelopes are working for you. I hate the setbacks you’ve faced of late, especially the family health issues, but have faith that you WILL get through this.

  • Reply dh |

    That’s great!!!

    If you roast a chicken (or even buy a roasted chicken) you can do the same! We always keep carrots / potatoes / onion / garlic on hand, plus I keep an assortment of frozen green veggies in the freezer.

    You can “fill out” the chicken soup with either rice or pasta … your girls would probably really enjoy some alphabet pasta!

  • Reply dh |

    This is just an example … if you cook up some alphabet pasta (or macaroni, or noodles) to go with your soup, you can cook twice the amount you need for two meals. Serve half with the soup, and keep the other half for a day or two later to serve with a steak/chicken breast/ham/whatever.

    We LOVE soup! I made it at least once a week, and it usually lasts for two dinners.

  • Reply cwaltz |

    Our house loves chili during cold weather and we stretch it by soaking kidney beans and adding them to our chili. We’ll make enough of it to freeze some for lunch for hubby to take to work.

  • Reply Laura |

    Soup is our usual Sunday dinner in the fall and winter. Last night I made Zuppa Toscana

So, what do you think ?