A great cream of …., well, anything soup. Just add the anything and water when it’s time to eat. This is a bulk mix recipe to prep before needed to have on hand in your panty.

4 c. Powdered Milk

1 & ½ c. Corn Starch

1 c. Powdered Butter

½ c. Chicken Granules

4 tsp Dried Onion Flakes

2 tsp Dried Thyme

2 tsp Garlic Powder

2 tsp Dried Sweet Basil

1 tsp Pepper

Mix all dried ingredients together in a large bowl with a whisk. Place 1/3 c. of dried mix into a vacuum seal bag of the appropriate size along with a small tag labeling (I normally put this inside the bag) the contents including the following instructions. (1 packet = 1 can, mix yields around 8 packets.)

Cream Of Anything Soup

Mix the packet with 1 c. water, whisk together briskly and then add heat, continue to whisk until powders are dissolved, add ½ -1 c. of vegetables or meat (or a mixture of both), bringing the mixture to a brief boil before reducing it to a simmer until vegetables are at the desired consistency.

Without reliable refrigeration and with limited storage space on the sailboat I decided to try my hand at dry ingredient meal prepping to continue to see what ingredients I am eating and save money as I had when meal prepping with a full freezer. Though my stock of freeze dried vegetables and fruits are pretty large, I still buy fresh produce. I wish I could say that I always use my produce before it starts looking on the sad side, but that would be a lie. This soup mix is a great way to eat up some limp vegetables in a tasty way, and is great with nothing added but water for when your provisions are getting thin. My favorite way to serve it is over rice, even better if we recently caught a fish to serve along with it.

Packed in a little vacuum sealed packet it takes up much less space than a can, and I don’t have to worry about can losing it’s label or getting rusty and dented. The waste is very small as we wash and reuse the bags and only need to toss the small strip of the bag that I cut off. Living on a boat is a damp life, so I double protect all of the food in watertight containers that I have found fit perfectly under my settee. If you don’t live on a boat and your kitchen isn’t plagued with condensation you could even keep this in a bulk container on your pantry shelf and just take a 1/3 c. scoop as needed. It’s great to have a recipe staple that is tasty, inexpensive, and compact for the flavor punch.