Store It Foods

Here’s a tantalizing recipe for vegetable soup that can be ready in less than half an hour! It’s a great meal for an evening if you’re short on time, and depending on the size of your family, makes enough to reheat for the rest of the week! In addition to the ingredients, you’ll need one of your Presto pressure cookers.

Ingredients:

6 cups diced potatoes
3 cups carrot rounds
2 cups sliced onions
2 cups sliced celery
3 tbsp. minced garlic
12 oz. tomato paste
2 tbsp. oregano
2 tbsp. parsley
¼ cup olive oil
6 cups water (more if desired)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Chop all your ingredients and add them to your pressure cooker, then add the spices, water, and oil.  Make sure you have enough water to cook the veggies!  Fasten your pressure cooker lid, and place the rocker on top.  Set your stovetop burner to high heat, wait until the cooker is rocking and steaming.  Once the pressure cooker is rocking, let it cook for about 15 minutes, then cut the heat and let it cool down.  After the pressure cooker has decompressed, simply open and enjoy!

A stock pot can be one of the most versatile items you have in your kitchen.　 As the name implies, it is perfect for producing soup stocks, but it can also be used for preparing soups and stews, cooking pasta, boiling corn on the cob, braising meats, making marinara sauces and much more.　 Larger than your customary pots and pans, it is this larger size that lends it its versatility.

Since soup stock is generally prepared for use in future meals, many recipes suggest separating the large batch that results into smaller portions.　 Some of these could be refrigerated for more immediate use, and others frozen for use at more distant meal times.　 One home chef recommends that the freezing take place in ice cube trays with the frozen cubes being taken out and stored in plastic freezer bags for space saving convenience.　 Freezing, however, need not be the only option.　 Canning is also a possibility.

Of course, canning, if chosen, needs to be done properly.　 Water bath and steam canners work, but they may not work safely.　 The best choice, when it comes to the canning of　such non-acidic foods as meats and many vegetables, is pressure canning.　 This effectively destroys those organisms which cannot be totally eliminated when relying solely upon boiling water methods.

 Despite my hectic work schedule, I try to make time to prepare a home-cooked dinner at least three times a week. It’s relaxing and invigorating to indulge in the delicious scents of sizzling meat or sautéing mushrooms. I’ve also found that cooking my own food is much healthier than dining out or buying pre-packaged “instant meals.” Not to mention the obvious taste discrepancies.

My only real downfall in the kitchen is a propensity to cook too much food. It’s actually not much of a problem at all because I can always save the leftovers in some food storage containers. Then, later in the week when I’m too worn out to cook a meal from scratch, I can peruse the storage containers and sample an entrée for the second time around.