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1. Here's an idea for lunch: homemade vegetable soup and biscuits. Cut up potatoes, carrots, onion, celery, cabbage, garlic minced, canned crushed tomatoes. *Add cooked barley, lima beans, and lentils (a few tablespoons of each), frozen peas and corn. Water too and salt/pepper. The secret is to let it simmer a while after the veggies are tender, to combine the flavors. We make a big pot and freeze some for later. So it's then a fast food lunch or a meatless dinner. *when cooking barley, lima beans, lentils for other dishes, I set some aside and freeze it to use in this vegetable soup. That makes the cooking process faster when doing the soup. I've found if I plan ahead and think ahead, we make a lot of from-scratch-meals go together faster. Such as keeping homemade bisquick in the fridge so I can make biscuits in a flash, we add 1/3 of whole wheat flour to the homemade bisquick (more than a third seems to make the biscuits too heavy but at least we have a bit more fiber/nutrition going!! but also, I add a bit more baking powder to help lift the heavier flour)
   

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2. I am 67 years old. I grew up on a farm. My mom made 5 loaves of bread every other day to feed 13 of us - she and dad, my uncle Art, and 10 kids. Then I married a guy who loved to cook. He served in the US Army in several countries, and learned to cook in every one. He did most of our cooking, and we ate well on very little money - he was great with stir-fry, and made the best soups. I can relate to your recipes here for making wonderful foods inexpensively. It's been fun to read your recipes and think back to watching mom toss the beef bones and vegetables into the soup pot, or watch Jim salvage the skin and bones from several chickens, add noodles and vegetables and make mouth-watering soups. The one food I no longer even consider cooking, though, is beans. Two simple reasons. Beans take a long time to cook, and Bush makes beans right. I rather spend a couple bucks and buy a few cans of theirs. They are inexpensive and there are so many kinds and they are great. So now when I want to have one of my favorite meals - beans and cornbread (we ate a LOT of that in college), I just open a can of Bush beans, whip up some cornbread and sit down to eat. Sometimes - just just have to go with the flow. :) THanks for the memories. Lynn
   

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