I was torturing myself over the half-a-container of sour cream that wouldn't last another week languishing in the fridge after being delicious on enchiladas. It's such a little thing to worry about, but I didn't want it to go to waste. Fortunately, I am still in the mood for soup, and sour cream is a star in this broccoli chowder that I love to make from Eating Well.

Soup really hit the spot for my dinners last week, and I am seriously looking forward to this different soup in the same spirit this week.

Planning!

Ordinarily, I follow this recipe to the letter, but this week I made two medium-sized changes: I made it vegetarian with water instead of stock because I didn't see the value in buying a box of chicken stock (I blew my dough on salmon this week!). And, I used monterey jack cheese, because I also had it in the fridge from last week's enchiladas! Value, value, value! 

Here's the nutritional breakdown from Fitbit...

Groceries I had on hand...

• onion
• carrot
• celery
• garlic
• olive oil
• monterey jack
• sour cream
• flour
• mustard powder
• cayenne

Groceries I had to buy...

• potato (.51lb @ $1.29/lb = $.66)
• broccoli (.66lb @ $1.99/lb = $1.31)

Total monies spent for the entire recipe: $1.97

Total monies spent for each of these 6 dinners....

$.33 per meal... (makes up for that salmon, doesn't it???)

Cooking!

This was my most time-intensive cook of the week, and it still took less than an hour from start to finish. I chopped each "next round" of veggies while the previous round cooked, then used my stick blender to half-blend the soup before adding the dairy to melt and mellow. Just like that, it was ready to stash in the fridge!

I always forget how much I love this soup. Licking the spoon today was the beginning of a beautiful week.