The Cheapest Dish Ever That's Actually Healthy

Soups are a godsend to just about any budget shopper. You can take the veggies that are on their last legs, you know still good to eat but a little limp, chop 'em up in a broth and voila, a meal!

As for the broth, I like to boil the bones from whole chicken meals. Not only is this essentially 'free' but you also get the added bonus of calcium from the bones. I usually like to make my chicken noodle soup from this broth but yesterday, it occurred to me I had too much broth for the soup. So I saved some for later.

Then I remembered I had left over spinach leaves from the night before and I started to think I could make a stracciatella, an Italian egg soup.

Basically, you take chicken broth seasoned (salt, pepper, thyme, oregano) and cook spinach in it. Then when it's simmering, drop in egg white and some grated parmesan. Let the egg white cook (almost like poaching) and serve with extra cheese. You can add rice or orzo at this point but I opted to leave it out.

Because of the spinach and broth, it was full of calcium and folate among other great vitamins. Because of the egg white, lots of protein. But the real amazing part--it cost me pretty much nothing. The bones and the wilted spinach were pretty much trash but I added an egg and some cheese.....yummy soup! And then I made the yolks from the egg into a custard for dessert.

So I encourage you to look at your veggies before you trash them for being past their prime. They just might make a great soup!