50 Cents a Can!

    Okay, I admit it, I succumbed - to a Brand, to a childhood memory, to a good price. 50 cents for a can of Brand Name chicken noodle, vegetable or mushroom soup. Wow! Can't do better than that!  Or can we?

     Wandering in Wally World and there they were.  I always have mushroom soup on hand; it's an essential addition to many recipes I use. And chicken noodle, my mouth began to salivate as childhood memories of my favourite soup stimulated my programmed brain.  Vegetable soup, well maybe I could use it as a base for something else and isn't there supposed to be a full serving of vegetables in that can? Could make a lunch of it...

     Turns out my memory of chicken noodle was better than the soup.  Mushroom is good as a soup if you add more mushrooms so you can see and taste them, and, like I mentioned before, it's a good base. But vegetable, hmmm, not so great.  I tried a can all for myself, had to get that full serving of vegies after all, added only half the water, and well, I can't say I was impressed.  Somehow it just didn't add up - taste-wise or even sale priced-wise.  So glad I only bought a few cans and not a whole flat of 24!

     Has canned soup changed or have I?  It's gotten pretty expensive when you consider the ingredients.  It's still a quick easy lunch but so is homemade soup if you make a big pot and freeze (or can) the leftovers.  And with the homemade soup there's two things canned soup doesn't have - flavour and ingredients you can see and taste. There are a few good canned soups out there, usually over $2 a can and you do not add water - split pea and clam chowder come to mind - but I think in the future I'll save my pantry space for something worth more than the can that holds it.

     After that vegie soup lunch I just had to determine if the "full serving of vegetables" statement was true so I carefully separated the ingredients and yes, it's not a lie. But it's more potato than anything, with a large dollop of alphabet noodles.  Do you think this soup is worth the sale price of 50 cents?

Left to right, top row - potatoes, 1/2 cup alphabet noodles, peas

bottom row - carrots, beans, corn

Note:  vegies aren't piled up.  They're in a single layer.