As I mentioned when I started this site, I’m going to focus a lot on how a single person can eat real food (single by choice, circumstance, or because your family’s away for the night—doesn’t matter). I’ve heard plenty of my single friends claim that “cooking for one” and buying real food for one person is hard because they don’t buy in bulk and therefore miss out on savings, or because buying ingredients to cook for just themselves ends up costing more than buying takeout or prepackaged food. Sometime that’s true, sometimes it’s not. I’ve not done price comparisons yet, but I’ll admit my bias up front: If I have to spend more on food, then I do. I believe my health is worth it. If it means I buy less of something else, then so be it. Americans spend too little on food, and people think they have a “right” to cheap food. Well, look around, and you can see what “cheap food” is doing to us. I’d rather spend more money on food and less on health care. Plus, it’s much more enjoyable to eat well.

So as I go along my real food journey and discover ways to make eating like this easier (and sometimes cheaper), I’m going to pass them along…hence this post.

Here’s how this recipe happened. When I buy ground beef, which is often since it’s an inexpensive way to eat healthy meat—the key is to be buying healthy meat, NOT factory-farmed meat (vote with your dollars!)—I buy packages that are around 1lb each. I’ll thaw a package, shape the meat into four equal burgers (if the package was closer to 1.25 lbs, I’ll do five burgers; if it was closer to .75 lbs, I’ll do three, etc) and cook them all together in a covered dish in the oven with some salt & pepper. They cook up nice & yummy in their juices. The covered dish, once cooled, can then be stored in the fridge, the burgers remaining in the juices, which I add to whatever I’m making. I’ve then got four servings of beef cooked & ready to be used over the next couple of days.

This recipe came about because one day I was at a loss as to how I wanted to eat one of the burgers for lunch. I had tomato sauce in the fridge, and had already put it over a patty before as a “sauce,” with spices. So I decided to use more tomato sauce as a sort of soup, add spices and the meat. Voila! I was pleasantly enough surprised at the outcome that I told my roommate about it. You see, there is a certain soup that she and I both love…as in, I-don’t-mind-paying-$3.50-per-can love, and eating the entire can at once is a given (it supposedly has two servings in a can…pshaw! It’s too good to not eat it all!). This wonderful soup is Amy’s Organic Cream of Tomato soup…if you’ve ever tried it, you know of what I speak.

So when I tossed these ingredients together a couple of weeks ago and ended up with a concoction that reminded me of Amy’s, well, I knew I had a winner. A winner in this house, anyway. I honestly don’t recall what’s in Amy’s soup, and I’m not actually trying to recreate it. This recipe just reminds me a lot of Amy’s, and it’s much cheaper*.

Fast & Easy Beef & Tomato Soup

INGREDIENTS:

• Tomato sauce, preferably organic and low sodium
• Parsley
• Oregano
• Basil
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Sea salt & pepper
• Cooked, cut up beef patty

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Add tomato sauce to pot. How much? Well, that’s totally up to you. I usually do about 2/3 of a can, and put the rest of the can into a jar to store in the fridge. This way, two cans of tomato sauce equals about three servings for me. Use however much you want to use:
2. Add all spices (basil, oregano, parsley, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder). How much? Again, up to you. I have not ever measured; I just dump in what seems to be enough:
   The first time you try this, go lightly at first and add just a little bit of each. Cook it a bit, taste it, then add more if you want. There isn’t any set rule. As you can see from this pic, I used dried herbs, but when I have fresh, I’ll use those instead. Also, notice I did not add any garlic or onion powder; the tomato sauce I used this time already had both of those in it, as well as salt, so I only added a bit of sea salt for the added minerals. Be sure to check the label of whatever brand you use. You could also use fresh garlic and sauteed onions if you wanted to, but remember, the key to this recipe is that it’s simple and fast.
   Stir it all up:
   
3. Cut up a pre-cooked beef patty. I cut the meat into bite-sized chunks so that the end result is less like spaghetti sauce. Notice I also have a bit of the fat on there, too; I always add that in:
   
4. Add the beef to the tomato sauce mixture, and stir well:
   
5. Warm it over medium heat until it’s as hot as you like. If I am using a beef patty that just came out of the fridge, I’ll heat the soup longer so that the meat is heated through. When I make this using a just-cooked beef patty, I add the beef at the end after the soup has fully warmed. Letting it all warm together for a bit longer also allows the flavors to mingle nicely. I’d say give it about 15-20 minutes to warm.
6. Pour into a bowl, and enjoy!

I usually eat mine with a slice of my homemade bread covered in pastured butter, a salad, a slice of raw milk cheese…use whatever else you’ve got on hand. It’s also good on its own with a glass of raw milk!

So there ya go. Super easy, super fast, super delicious…and you control everything in it.

*I can get organic tomato sauce at around $1.50/can, so that means about $1 per serving (3 servings from 2 cans). Where I am, the beef I usually get costs around $4 per package (I budget for that much, which is why my package sizes will vary from 3/4 of a pound to 1 1/2 pounds). So if I get four patties out of a package, that’s $1 per serving. Added to the tomato sauce & herbs, a serving of my simple soup is $2 plus a few pennies for the herbs…much better than $3.50 for a can of Amy’s, and mine includes protein!

This post is part of Fight Back Friday for February 12, 2010.