Free Sprouts Deals

I signed up for the e-mail newsletter at Sprouts. It's kind of neat because each month they e-mail us a coupon for a free item. Last month we got muesli breakfast breads. A few months before we got lip balm. One time we got lemonade. This month we got "pho" soup base and sour cream. The sour cream we turned into veggie dip by mixing it with ranch dressing powdered mix. I wasn't sure what to do with the "pho" soup base. I was going to use it as broth in split pea soup until I smelled it and realized the flavor wasn't going to blend well. It had more of a gypsy stew smell to it (cinnamon, clove, pepper, etc) so I concocted this simple recipe. You can use fresh ingredients, frozen, or canned, your choice. It was fairly inexpensive too. Pretty much all the ingredients are on sale this time of year. As a bonus, we cooked it in the crockpot so I put the cut ingredients in a bowl, then had the kids spoon or pour them into the crockpot. There's no risk of burns because we "cook" cold, then I put it in the warmer after.

1 box "pho" soup base
1/2 onion chopped*
1 red bell pepper chopped*
1 sweet potato or yam diced
1.5 cups or 1 can kidney beans (although I think garbanzo would be good too)
spinach (about a cup)
1 cup diced ham

Put all items in a crockpot, turn to high for about 4-5 hours and dinner is done! We made some cornbread and everyone enjoyed! Okay, one person in particular under the age of 5 only ate the sweet potatoes and cornbread ; )

*instead of cutting pepper and onion, you can sub frozen "bell pepper stir fry". I've found it at Frys, but not Walmart.