Best Mushroom Cream Soup - Video Recipe

Fungus shouldn't taste this good. Cream and caramelized mushroom blend together perfectly. My rich and earthy Mushroom Cream Soup is meant to be shared on a cold wintry day.

I often find four ounce packages of brown crimini and portabella, along with regular white button mushrooms, at my local 99c only Stores, here in Los Angeles. Sorry to rub it in, but mushrooms are expensive, except in my Cheap$kate Chateau.

Click on any photo to see larger.

The rest of the ingredients are cheap enough. I saute onion along with the  mushrooms, and sweeten the soup with white wine and rich cream.

You can keep this recipe vegan by substituting cream with almond, cashue or soy milk. I'm not up on all the milk alternatives, so use what you like.

I add a couple cups of water to the soup, but you can use a favorite broth for an extra flavorful soup.

Can you keep it low calorie and leave out the rich cream? Heck yeah, it's just as tasty without cream.

But if you are feeling extravagant, and making this for a special occasion, like trying to impress, then go all the way...with extra cream!

Mushroom Cream Soup - VIDEO

Play it here, video runs 3 minute 10 seconds

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients (about 4-6 servings)
3 packages of mushrooms - I got 4 to 5 ounce packages of each: crimini, white button and portabella mushroom. Okay to use one type of mushroom, or any you can find on sale.
1 onion chopped - I used a cheap yellow onion.
1 cup white wine - optional. If you leave it out then just use broth or water instead.
1 cup heavy cream - okay to keep soup light and use low fat milk or a milk substitute. Even okay to leave out cream altogether.
2 cups water - or a favorite broth.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil - to saute onion and mushrooms.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions
Please note that I cooked this soup recipe in a large pot. If you use a standard smaller pot then cooking time for mushrooms may take longer than 5 minutes, more like 10 minutes. Mainly, just cook veggies until soft.

Chop one whole onion. Saute in pot with tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Cook and stir onions until soft, about 5 minutes.

Clean mushrooms if needed. (Wipe off dirt with a soft brush or napkin.)

For crimini or white button mushroom roughly slice. Okay to use pre-sliced mushrooms.

For larger portabella mushrooms whipe off any dirt. Once the portabella mushrooms are cleaned, slice them up. Doesn't matter how small the pieces, as they will end up in a blender or food processor.

Once onions are softened stir in the mushrooms. Cook them another 5 minutes until mushroom pieces are soft. May take longer to soften if you use a small pot - the more pan surface area the quicker everything cooks through.

Salt and pepper to taste any time during sauteing.

Mushrooms and onions will reduce in size considerably. Again if you use a small pot the mushroom may take 10 minutes to soften.

Pour in about a cup or white wine. 

Finally add 2 cups of water or a favorite broth. Mix liquid well. Bring soup up to a low simmer and cover the pot.

Simmer for about 15 minutes. You just want to finish cooking the mushrooms and onions until extra soft.

Now you are ready to finish up the Mushroom Cream Soup. Allow the soup to cool down so you can add it to a blender or food processor. Blending with hot liquid is asking for trouble. Let the soup cool down for at least 5 minutes.

Add soup to a blender and pulse/blend until smooth. It goes pretty quickly. I blended all my soup in about a minute. Okay to work in batches. I blended my soup in two batches.

Finally add blended soup to a pot. Stir in a cup of almond milk, whipping cream, or half and half. Okay to keep the soup light and add regular or low fat milk. You can use any favorite vegan milk substitute, since now all you are doing is a final soup warming up.

For an extra low calorie, and vegan, soup it's okay to leave out cream altogether.

Heat Mushroom Cream Soup until hot, about 15 minutes - that's it. I sometimes like to simmer the soup on low for half an hour or so, just to marry and deepen the flavors of onion and mushroom -- you know how it goes, soup and stew just get better over time. Add more liquid if necessary for any prolonged cooking.

Lobster Egg Roll from Dollar Tree - Cheap$kate Video Review

It's a hid and seek time in my latest Cheap$kate Review for a Dollar Tree Lobster Egg Roll. A Cheap$kate Dining Review video is at the end of this blog post, so be sure to watch it and see how the Lobster Egg Roll rates from 1 to 9, 9 being best.

My latest Deal of the Day is a Lobster Egg Roll by Imperial Garden and a Product of the USA. They are showing up in the refrigerated food section of my local Dollar Tree store.

First off, I sought and could not find any lobster. I did run across a little fake crab though. And I mean very little. But there is a subtle seafood flavor to the filling.

The filling is mainly shredded and sauteed cabbage, which is fine really, most egg rolls are. The cabbage is plentiful and quite tasty. It's cooked soft and seasoned well. Other ingredients include: onion, carrot, garlic and celery. Sesame oil and mirin add extra flavors.

Click on any photo to see larger.

But if lobster is listed as the second or third ingredient, then I was hoping (against my better judgment) that there would be a small piece of lobster or two thrown in. All I tasted was a few minuscule flakes of fake krab. And I tested 3 of these Lobster Egg Rolls.

A small flake of fake crab, or krab.

I am a fan of fake Krab and use it in a tasty Mexican-style Black Bean & Seafood Ceviche and a sushi California Roll. Fake crab, or Krab (pictured below,) is ground and processed white fish, made to look and taste like real crab (click here to read about it) and costs just 2 to 4 bucks per pound, compared to expensive real crab prices.

And I did an autopsy on the Lobster Egg Roll, and put on my reading glasses, too, in search of lobster. If it was there I couldn't see any. Maybe it's ground so small that it just blends in with all the sauteed veggies?

What this Egg Roll lacks in Lobster, it at least makes up in quantity. This is an extra large Egg Roll the size of a fast food burrito, at about 6 inches long, so most will be satisfied and stuffed.

It's a relief that the crunchy wonton skin of the egg roll wrap is tasty - it has that deep-fried-in-oil lusciousness.  Now because I microwaved the Egg Roll the wrap was a little mushy. Next time I would let it reach room temperature and either heat it up in a frying pan or bake it, according to the package directions.

You get a small packet of sweet and sour sauce. It is very good with a mainly pineapple juice flavor with just a little sour vinegar. It goes well with the sauteed veggies and egg roll wrapper.

I thought I would take a chance with a Lobster Egg Roll from the Dollar Tree -- oh, well, I should have know better. Next time I'll just stay with regular pork or veggie egg rolls.

As a basic Egg Roll for a buck, this is an okay Deal of the Day. Where it fails is the non-existent lobster and very little fake crab.

I'm giving this Deal of the Day a double rating. That is, one rating for the seafood filling and another rating for the veggie stuffing - it's a 2fer!

So on the 99 Cent Chef's Cheap$kate Dining Scale of 1 to 9, 9 being best, I give Imperial Garden Lobster Egg Roll a...? Hmmm,just watch the video below to see how it rates!

Lobster Egg Roll - VIDEO

Play it here, video runs 2 minutes 57 seconds

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Loaded Tuna Salad - Video Recipe

I'm called "The Tuna Mouse" at home because of how quickly a Loaded Tuna Salad just seems to vanish!

The extra briny olives give color and the salty taste goes well with sweet bread and butter pickles. Mixed into canned tuna, for a rich flavor, are chopped eggs and mayo.

It's one delicious concoction that fits snuggly into pita bread or bread roll, fills a pitted half slice of ripe avocado, or scooped on a green salad. All all the ingredients I find easily at 99c only Stores and the Dollar Tree!

Click on any photo to see larger.

The addition of green olives makes this Loaded Tuna Salad extra unique. It's quite easy to find them at my local 99c only Store and Dollar Tree markets. You can use the plain type or ones with pimentoes.

Eggs are still cheap these days, I get an eight-count container at my local Dollar Tree. I use one whole boiled egg, chopped. This ingredient is optional and okay to leave out.

You can use a little chopped pickle, or just go with pickle relish, which I always have a half-used jar left over from hot dogs, way back on a refrigerator shelf.

I also add finely chopped onion to my Loaded Tuna Salad, but leave it out if you don't care for the taste of raw onion.

Mustard and Mayo are cheap if you have a Dollar Tree or 99c only Store in the 'hood. Hey, even Grey Poupon shows up on my 99c only Store shelves every once in a while. Okay to use any favorite mayo, including Miracle Whip or vegan mayo.

The main ingredient, canned tuna, is a cheap$kate staple in my kitchen pantry. I usually get "Chunk Light" tuna in water. I use two small cans for this recipe. "Solid" canned tuna is more expensive because it is a solid hunk of tuna and almost twice as much the amount as "Chunk."

Make sure not to mistakenly get tuna in oil, unless you like it that way. Also, drain the tuna of water, so Tuna Salad doesn't get all soggy and mushy.

The basic recipe is good for other canned fish like salmon, or chicken, too. So get out the can opener and twist off a few condiment jar lids and mix up my tasty and Loaded Tuna Salad.

Loaded Tuna Salad - VIDEO

Play here, video runs 1 minute 36 seconds

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients

• 1 can of solid tuna in water - about 6 ounces, or 2 cans of "chunk" tuna. Drained.
• 1 boiled egg - peeled and chopped.
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion - red, white, green or yellow onion.
• 1 tablespoon green olives chopped or sliced - with or without pimento.
• 1 tablespoon sweet relish - okay to use chopped pickle.
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise - add more or less to your taste.
• 1 teaspoon regular or dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper to taste - I find canned tuna salty enough, so I usually leave out salt.

Directions
Set aside 1 boiled egg (15 minutes at low boil) to cool.

 Fine-chop onion. Roughly chop green olives and a pickle (if you don't have pickle relish.

To a bowl add drained tuna, along with peeled and chopped boiled egg, chopped pickle (relish,) green olives and onion.

Add one tablespoon of mayo at a time to reach desired creaminess. As you mix all ingredients and taste. I like a little black pepper to season my Loaded Tuna Salad. I find there is enough salt from canned tuna.

Serve in pita or regular bread. Delicious as an appetizer with crackers or add a scoop to an avocado half, or fave salad.

How about a Loaded Tuna Melt? Just add a slice of cheese to Tuna Sandwich, and brown it with melted butter in a stove top pan, just like you would a regular Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

It's okay to leave out some ingredients. The main ones are tuna, mayo and pickle relish.

Lazybones shortcut

Donuts! Donuts! Donuts!

I've died and gone to Donut Heaven this summer. From the Donut Man to my local donut shop, DK's, in Santa Monica, I've been indulging a lot lately.

For a couple of summer months my fave donut is from Donut Man, and my kind neighbor drives out to Glendora once a year to bring back a few boxes. I always get 3 Peach Donuts.

And each donut is huge, loaded with fresh peeled and sliced peaches. At $4.50 per donut, these are not cheap, but each one weights 3/4 of a pound and last time I counted there were 10 peach slices per donut. And the pastry donut part is humongous as well.

The pastry is a yeast-style, so it's light, airy and has a sweet sugar glaze. 

For a neighborhood dunker I've been going to DK's Donuts in Santa Monica lately. It's on the way to my favorite movie house, the Aero, so I've been known to make a late night stop. 

They are located in a mini-mall of course, and in the alley behind the store is an angel wings/donut halo mural pictured at top of this blog post. So go there for your own halo selfie.

And they have the most unique donut around, the Original Ube Purple Yam Donut. It looks unusual, but really tastes like any regular donut. 

It's a heavy cake donut and sweet. The purple color is from a Japanese yam, but the donut doesn't taste like a yam, really. Most of DK's donuts are about $3 each.

But the prettiest donut in town is right there as well, an Edible Flower Donut, made with an orchid flower.