h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One of my favorite ways to trim the budget is to make soups and stews. They're economical and very nourishing. And nothing tastes better when it's cold outside.

I must have been an Army cook in a past lifetime because it's impossible for me to make a small pot of soup. I always wind up with enough for, well, an army. Fortunately most soups freeze well. That keeps us from having to eat the same meal every day for a week.

I've found that the potatoes in vegetable soup don't freeze as well as the other ingredients, so I usually fix a few separately and add them to our bowls instead of to the pot. And if you add noodles or pasta, be sure to cook them al dente or you'll wind up with mush when they're reheated.

You can make bean soup out of the leftover Christmas ham. Or if you have leftover turkey you can make turkey and rice soup...one of my husband's favorites. You can use a powdered soup base or canned broth for added richness.

One of my favorite things to make is Three Chicken Soup. It takes three days. Day one you stew a chicken. You cut up the chicken and use it for a casserole or for chicken salad sandwiches or whatever. When the broth cools, put it in the refrigerator. ( I have a screened in porch that doubles as a walk-in cooler in the winter.) Day two, you take the fat off of the broth and throw it away. Then you use the broth to stew a second chicken. Use the meat or freeze it or whatever you want to do with it and chill the broth again. Day three you take the fat off of the broth and ........you got it........stew a third chicken. This time you add chopped onions, celery leaves, some thyme, a little fresh parsley. Use the broth for any kind of soup you want. It's so rich and yummy. For noodle soup add a little rubbed sage. Or if you chill it it will set up into a gelatin and can be used to season vegetables, rice, stuffing, potatoes, just about anything. And you'll have enough chicken meat to last you for a long time. I use it for breakfast tacos ( saute the chicken with onion and bell peppers and wrap in a flour tortilla), for stir-frys, for chicken and rice casserole, for chicken pot pies, and for spaghetti sauce.

Home-made soup is the fall-back in our household when a quick, nutritious meal is needed. With a bit of forethought, it takes no more than 15 minutes to prepare and costs pennies.

Living in poor countries taught me not to waste good food and the habit has stuck. Any leftover salad (minus lettuce) is chopped up and goes into a bag in the freezer, along with finely-sliced leaves and stems trimmed from broccoli, cauliflower, celery. Similarly, leftover rice is bagged in the freezer. We love fresh bread rolls, but never eat them all, so the last one gets bagged and frozen.

With those ingredients in the freezer, you have the basics of a rich Vegetable Soup with Herb Bread -- for free. All you need to add is a stock cube, condiments, herbs and a little butter or margarine.