A Month of Frugal Recipes Day 1: Creamy Corn Chowder

I promised a month’s worth of recipes from the stockpile and for your budget and this is my first recipe!  The recipe was Creamy Corn Chowder and I found it on Our Best Bites.  All of these ingredients were things that I already had “on hand”  I actually stockpiled Hormel bacon pieces (the ones that come in a jar) awhile ago because I had coupons that tripled and got an amazing deal on them plus they have a long shelf life.  It ends up being way cheaper than bacon and I have used it in many different recipes.  I almost always have a bag of potatoes on hand, too.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. butter (I used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter)
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. water
2 1/2 c. milk (I used skim milk and it worked just fine)
2 regular-sized chicken bouillon cubes, 1 Knorr chicken bouillon cube, or 2 tsp. chicken base
1/2 lb. bacon (optional, I’m going to use crumbled bacon pieces)
1 onion, minced
2 red potatoes, diced into small cubes
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can corn, drained
Salt and pepper to taste
A few dashes of hot sauce (like Tabasco or Cholula)

Fry bacon until crisp (if you’re using the bacon pieces, you can obviously skip this step!). In the meantime, melt butter over low heat in a soup pot. When melted, add flour to make a roux and whisk until it comes together in a little ball. Add water and whisk until completely combined and there are no lumps. Add milk and chicken base or bouillon and bring to a simmer. Add potatoes, onions, and garlic, and simmer (but don’t boil!), stirring very frequently, for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add crumbled bacon and corn and heat through. Add a few drops of hot sauce and then salt to taste.

Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with extra bacon and/or cheese if you want.

WW points – On the Our Best Bites site, it lists this as being 3 points per serving, but when I put all of the ingredients into the Recipe Builder on WW.com, it came out to 8 points per serving (for 4 servings).   The bulk of that was from the bacon pieces, so you could cut down the points by cutting that.  You would need to add additional points if you add cheese.

This recipe was a hit with my family (even my two year old who has recently decided he doesn’t like anything before he even tries it!).

If you have a favorite frugal recipe or recipe from your stockpile that you’d like to share this month, e-mail me about being a guest blogger!