Introducing The Frugal Friday Recipe Hop

Today I have joined up with a great group of bloggers to bring you the Frugal Friday Recipe Hop. For our first installment, we have decided to go with an Italian theme.

The idea for this series came from a progressive dinner. A progressive dinner is a party in which each successive course is prepared and eaten at the residence of a different host. It's a frugal and fun way to share meals with friends that has been around for decades, perhaps even centuries. Because each person is only responsible for preparing one course of the meal, it can be very frugal for everyone involved. The travel and company of sharing the meal at different residences makes it entertaining and fun. Plus, it's a great way to pick up new recipes, tips, and ideas. 

With the help and expertise of some other fantastic women bloggers, we've decided to host a virtual progressive meal (ours will actually last all day, including breakfast, snacks, and beverages!). Hopefully, you will find this virtual progression to be fun, as well as a great resource for finding new bloggers to follow for frugal recipe ideas. 

I am including the entire daily menu in this post (at the bottom), along with the links for each course. Each blogger has contributed a favorite recipe to share with you. I hope you'll enjoy this very special event. Feel free to leave your hostess feedback as we plan for our next progressive dinner. 

Appetizer:  Spinach and Italian Sausage Soup

The recipe I will be sharing with you is the appetizer. For this I've chosen one of my favorite Italian soup recipes. I actually first tasted this soup while shopping at Sam's Club. They were giving out samples and recipe cards. I thought it was delicious, so I took a recipe card, and recreated it at home that very same week! It was a hit with everyone, and I have been using this recipe to entertain guests for over two years now. My kids even love it. (Well, the 2 year old loved it once she removed every speck of green from her bowl).

Here is the recipe as it is written on the recipe card I received (I have made a few frugal changes to it):

--1lb Fresh Italian Sausage

--1lb. Spinach and Cheese Ravioli or Cheese Tortellini

--2 cups water

--3 cups baby Spinach

--1 can Del Monte Corn (yes it specified brands!)

--1/2 cup onion, diced

--1 1/2 tsp salt

--1 can Diced Tomatoes

--1 can Swanson Chicken Broth

--2 tbsp. Tone's Italian Seasoning

--1 cup Carrots, sliced

--1/2 cup Benefiber (yes, seriously, that was on there)

--1 tbsp. minced garlic

--1 tsp. pepper

Here are the changes I made:

--Scratch the Benefiber, of course (although, if you need more fiber, adding it to your food is not a bad idea!)

--Don't worry about brands. These recipes promote the brands that pay them, but they all taste the same in the end! Go with whatever is cheapest, or whatever is your personal favorite.

--Substitute another pasta for the filled ones. This does take the dairy aspect away (cheese filled pasta), but tonight I tossed in a package of whole wheat spirals that I had gotten for FREE. I saw no need to buy pasta, when I had a different form of pasta sitting in my pantry.

--I do not buy broth. I make my own! Whenever I cook poultry, when I'm done I boil down the bones, and either use the broth right away to make a soup, or I freeze it. Last time I made a Turkey (and turned it into 26 meals), I had some broth left over that I froze. I used that in this soup, so that cost me nothing as well.

--When I first made this, I thought there just totally was not enough broth in it, so I've since pretty much quadrupled the liquids in it. I leave the meat the same, and double the vegetables. There still seems to be plenty of meat in it, and it stretches much farther that way.

Here are my ingredients (minus the can of diced tomatoes). 

Here are the directions:

1) Remove casing from the sausage. Crumble and brown in skillet over medium heat. (I crumbled and browned, in my soup pot because i did not wish to dirty an extra skillet ). ;)

2)In a large pot, combine browned sausage, diced tomatoes, corn, chicken broth, water, seasoning, spinach, carrots, garlic, onions, salt, and pepper. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil.

This is before the pasta was added.

3) Add pasta to the pot and boil for 3 minutes. Then decrease heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.

This is the finished product.

This soup is delicious and hearty, and could be a dinner itself paired up with some breadsticks, or our favorite is buttered crackers.

Now for the price rundown:

--Broth: Homemade=FREE

--Pasta: Used what I had =FREE

--Sausage: On sale at Aldi =$2.69

--Spinach: $1.69 at Aldi

--Corn: 2 for $1 at Fiesta (I used both cans)= $1

--Carrots: 1 lb bag at Fiesta = $0.69 (had already used a few out of it).

--Diced Tomatoes: From Pantry = Maybe $0.50 after coupons (I think even less)

Total (assuming all needed seasonings are on hand): $6.57 

The pot I made would easily feed 8-12 people.

I hope you enjoyed my Spinach and Italian Sausage Soup Appetizer.  

For our next courses, please join us at:

---Side Dish: Visit Saving By Design  for Roasted Garlic Green Beans

Her page will take you to the next course:

---Dinner at Mama's Money Tree  for Lasagna

---Then Dessert at Thrifty Texas Penny for Tiramisu

---And we'll finish off the day with a Mint Iced Tea with Deals from MS Do.

If you have not already, you can visit these pages for the previous courses:

---Breakfast: Visit Dearly Domestic for Pat's Famous Breakfast Casserole

---Lunch: Visit Deals From MS Do for a perfect pizza pie recipe

---Snack: Visit 20SomethingSaver for Yogurt Parfait

Be sure to follow us so that you can keep up with our Frugal Friday Recipe Hops each week!  We hope you had a great time, and we would truly love your feedback.