Frozen Soup

Probably every other day, we have soup for lunch. Soups are great because they are very nutritious with lots of vegetables, everything is well cooked and edible for my toddler, they are nice and warm in the winter, and they can be a quick and easy meal when taken from frozen. 

Typically, when I make soup, I make a big pot of it. We eat part of it that day, and the rest I freeze in washed yogurt containers. I find that one yogurt container works well for one meal for the three of us.

When I freeze it, I put a label on it with the name of the soup and the date. Then I can use the older soups first and eat a variety- not the same kind every time. I also have to leave an inch of space at the top of the container so that when the soup expands when it freezes, it doesn't bulge up the lid.

To thaw it, sometimes I'll leave it on the counter for the morning and heat it up, or  I'll put it in the pot and let it heat (covered with a lid) on low all morning. Sometimes I'll take it directly from freezer to heating it up to eat right away. To get it out of the container, I rinse the outside under running warm water. This loosens it from the sides of the container. I put the soup in my pot then I rinse out the container with just a little water and put that water in the pot. Then when I heat my soup up, that little bit of water can steam the soup to melt it.

Here are my frozen soups stacked up in my freezer. Borscht, vegetable and bean soups freeze really well. But I have to remember not to add rice or pasta to the parts I want to freeze. They really expand with all the reheating and come out mushy. So if I want to add it, I put it in just the part we're going to eat right away.

Sometimes I will make biscuits to eat with the soup. Or we can just have crackers or toast.