Chickeny Ricey (schlop-it-together) Soup

There are lots of meals I make once and then never make again. Not because we didn't like them, but because we may never have that exact combination of 'stuff' in the house at the same time - right when I happen to get that idea. This was one of those that turned out to be really good! But I don't know if it will ever come around again.

So I list it here as an example of a cheap family dinner - but also as an example of a way to be creative. I hope you rarely use my recipes exactly as written. I hope you use your own creativity and your own family's tastes, and whatever happens to be in your own fridge - so that you can create quick, tasty meals for your family, too!

This was one of those nights that it was already after 6pm and I had not thought about dinner at all. Of course, everyone is hungry, and I'm beginning to hear that from some of them.

So I went to the pantry and looked. It's kinda a blank stare as you see all kinds of cans and packages of not-necessarily related things.

"Oh, that would be good, but I don't have _____. Well, what about _______? That sounds good. No, that will take too long. Hmm..."

So here are the two things I pulled out: a can of chicken & sausage gumbo soup and a package of chicken-flavored rice side-dish thingy. Hey - they both have chicken in them, and there's a little bit of rice in the gumbo anyway, maybe they'll go together.

I cooked up the chicken side-dish thingy according to it's directions in one pot on the stove while heating up the soup in another pan on the stove. When the rice thingy was done, I dumped it into the pot of soup and stirred. It was pretty thick, so I added a full soup can of water. I had some frozen smoked sausage links that are the size of large hot dogs, so cut 3 of them up into 1/4-1/2 inch slices and dumped them in. That's it. The addition of the rice, sausages, and water increased the amount, so that there was plenty for all 5 of us. There was even about one serving left for someone's lunch the next day.

I think that can of soup is about $1.50 at Aldi. The rice thing is under $2, and the 3 sausages were part of a large package that I probably got for $3-$4. So they were certainly under $1. You do the math (because I hate math - haha). We served essentially 6 people for under $5. This night I didn't make anything to go with the soup (I was in a hurry, remember?), so I just tossed some saltine crackers on the table to go with the soup. Some crumbled them up into the soup, some dipped, and some didn't eat any crackers. Everyone told me how great the soup was and ate til they were full! What a deal.

What un-related things have you put together to make a meal? How have you been creative with a can of soup?