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Better than Mmm Mmm Good! – Vegetable Soup Recipe

May 1, 2008 By Laura 4 Comments

bowl of soup with spoonful

Yesterday morning, with several tasks on the day’s agenda ahead of me, I decided I was going to make that vegetable soup one way or another! Michael had to be out on a morning job, so to manage schooling the little ones (5 year old triplets) and make my soup, the kids took all of their school work and moved to the breakfast bar from the school room.  It was the perfect set up for us to still be able to work together, communicate and multi-task. So they got to work in their books, taking turns reading the concepts and directions, etc, and I got to chopping! : )

Of course, they were on the distracted side, wanting to watch what I was doing in the kitchen. (Whenever we’re cooking in the kitchen, the kids come like ants to a picnic.) Then {O} says in that sweet, polite little voice:

{O} “What are you cutting up there, Mama?  Are those green peppers?”

(Me) “Yes, they are green peppers, Honey.”

{O}  “Ohhhh.  I sure love green peppers, all cold and crunchyyyy.”

{S}  “Me too!”

{J}  “Me too!”

Next thing I know, we have green peppers and pencils sticking out of little fists all over the place. The room was filled with the chewing sound of crunching vegetables and the scratching of writing pencils on workbooks.  As I kept working on the soup, they kept working in their books, with very frequent breaks to look up and see what I was doing next, and asking questions about what this was, or why I was doing that. I guess they were having a culinary arts class, as they did their reading, writing and math!  They really loved the smell of garlic saute’ing in the pan.

Eventually they got all of their work done, and my soup was really coming together! Both tasks took longer than they would on their own, of course, as I also needed to stop what I was doing sometimes to help them with something one or the other was stuck on, (which was ok of course), but both jobs did get done, which was all that mattered.

Once Michael got back in awhile later, and after a little soup-taste-test from every mouth, big or small, in the house, I had some errands to run.  Later when I got home, it was time to put together the May Baskets. They just took turns putting the goods in each basket, and tied a bow and ‘Happy May Day’ tag on it.  But really, they were far more anxious to eat dinner (as early as it still was), because they just kept asking if it was time for dinner to have that soup yet.

I have to say, it came out way better than I even expected! They eagerly scoffed up one bite after another, injected with the occasional “Mmmm” or “This soup is so good, Mama!”.  After emptying their bowls, and eating up their sandwiches, I offered them graham crackers, which they of course eagerly accepted, and then guess what?  Two of the kids wanted more soup!  Michael had another big bowl too. I had to chuckle, because it turned out {O’s} mouth wanted more, but her belly was quite full already. So she couldn’t quite eat her seconds, but I was happy she enjoyed it enought to want more.

I guess now I should share this new soup recipe of mine, huh?  (I can call it ‘mine’ because it’s an altered version of another recipe, and because I will be making more.)  As good as it was, it is so simple in ingredients and really, I am not always inspired to be in the kitchen cooking. I have to be in the mood I guess.  Of course with a family this size, I am in there quite a bit, whether I am in the mood or not! But I am also very blessed to have a husband who usually rather does enjoy cooking, and is quite helpful in the kitchen.  If we’re in there together, he makes it fun for me, with his humor and sprinkles of loving hugs. (Always when my hands are wet or dirty, or I have sharp knife in my hand – nothing stops the boy. lol)

In giving you the ingredients, I have no real measurements.  I mean, it’s soup!  It’s a montage of ingredients and it depends how liquid-y you want it, or how much stuff you want in it. I just eye-balled it all. (What a funny saying…lol.) So here’s the contents of the soup:

  • Green & red peppers, zucchini, summer squash, and onion, coarsely chopped
  • Minced garlic
  • * Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth (w/ 33% less sodium)  *During Lent, replace with College Inn Vegetable Broth
  • Condensed (Low Sodium if possible) Tomato Soup
  • Salt, Pepper & Basil
  • Just  spray a 4qt+ pan with non-sticking spray, and saute’ chopped onion and minced garlic for 2 minutes over medium-high heat.
  • Add rest of chopped vegetables, and saute/stir until tender-crisp.
  • Pour in broth and condensed soup, stir, and bring to a boil.
  • Reduce heat, cover, and let cook for 10 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
  • Add salt, pepper, and basil to taste.
  • Serve hot & enjoy!    : )

It may not be a gourmet soup, but it got 4 gold spoons in my family!

six bowls of soup

 

Filed Under: Recipes, Soups Tagged With: food photography, mmm mmm good, recipes, soup, soup recipe, vegetable soup, vegetable soup recipe

I want to make Vegetable Soup!

April 29, 2008 By Laura Leave a Comment

garden vegetables on white

It’s been good soup-kind-of-days, don’t you think?  At least it has been in these New England parts. Rainy, gray, and cold.  Well, cold compared to the first real spell of spring weather we were so spoiled with last week, anyway.  So not only does it just sound good to me, but my maternal instinct just wants to make some homemade vegetables soup for my kids and husband. To make something so healthy and hearty, and serve it to them, knowing that it warms their bodies and is so good for them, just makes me sigh a good kind of sigh. The kids just love to eat anyway.  It’s like a little celebration every time.  Watching them enjoy anything I make for them though, gathered together, with their chatting, smiles and laughter, (that too often show more in their mouths than I really need to see), puts a smile in my heart.  And sometimes, they even tell me how they can ‘taste the love’ in it. (We say that a lot around here–when something was made with love for someone else.)  So maybe it’s the thought of my family, that is giving me this silly but persistent urge, to make Vegetable Soup.  I had everything ready to go today, but never got to the chopping.

Remember how I had 2 crafts I wanted to do?  We haven’t quite gotten to either of those yet either.  Yesterday got away, and today we had 2 appointments that somehow ate up our day too. Our days are not usually so hectic, but some days just don’t go as planned, and we’ve learned to just roll with it. It doesn’t happen much. We did make some projects progress though: Tonight the kids chose their designs for their t-shirt craft coming up.  (Which got them all the more excited about it!) But both of those projects I had planned will have to wait a little longer, because I realized tonight that May Day is in 2 days!  Michael thinks the kids would get a real kick out the old tradition of making surprise May Day Baskets for some unsuspecting older folks, and leaving them on their doorsteps. So since everything we do takes more time than it seems it would, I suspect that will be our main project tomorrow.

Oh yeah….and making the homemade Vegetable Soup.  With love, of course.

 

Filed Under: Recipes, Soups, The Big Picture Tagged With: plans-to-make-soup

Update on the 6 Tiny Potted Plants

April 26, 2008 By Laura 1 Comment

tiny potted plants

Here’s a quick little update on our 6 Tiny Potted Plants!  As you can see above, the plants are coming along nicely! There is a labeled photo below for reference. The first to sprout were mine and {JM’s}, which would be the Hollyhock.  Daddy and O’s Rudbeckia started to come up next, and then we had several days of nothing from {A’s} and {S’s} Delphinium.  We started to worry a little, when finally we spotted some wee little sprouts.

I think what we have discovered is very consistent results between the alike species, in terms of growth rates.  They have been really fun to watch grow these past several days.  The next time I post about them again, it may be because it is time to transplant them outdoors in our flower beds.  I can’t wait to see the colorful flowers among the greens.

tiny potted plants

The hostas (below) are coming up beautifully!  Just look how tall and green they’ve become! They aren’t pathetic little nubs anymore! They are starting to open, and it won’t be long before they really start filling out those beds. We need to put some mulch out there, and some railroad ties will be going along the back there, behind them.  But I am enjoying them as they are, already.  I didn’t take photos of the tulips, because I didn’t get over to there, but the buds have sprung up from the center of the leaves.

hostas

Below are photos of the type of shrubs that are along the head of our driveway.  For some reason, I thought they were called Junipers.  It may be that the man we bought this house and property from years ago, told us that – because I surely would not have known what type of bush/ground cover they were all those years ago (or much cared back then!) But that is why I am posting them. Not too long ago, in the last couple of years anyway, when I referred to them as Junipers to someone, they informed me that that’s not what they are. (I think it may have been my mother-in-law?).  But they weren’t sure what they were, exactly. So if anyone does know what they are, please e-mail me or comment. At some point at least some of them are going to need to be removed, and I would like to find out the best way to transplant elsewhere in the yard, if possible.  But in researching that info, it would be helpful if I knew what they were!  Don’t you think?

shrubbery
shrubbery

That’s all for now.  We’ve got some fun crafty projects coming up, so I’m sure I’ll be posting again real soon.

 

Filed Under: Elementary Homeschooling, Elementary Homeschooling SCIENCE, Gardening, Homeschooling, The Homestead Tagged With: homeschooling, homeschooling-elementary-science, hostas, potted-plants

Earth Day

April 23, 2008 By Laura 1 Comment

  earth day neighborhood trash clean up

As most of you probably know, Tuesday April 22 was Earth Day.  We knew this day represented an opportunity that was full of teachable moments.

The first thing we decided to do about Earth Day, was go out and clean up our neighborhood.  Daddy even made the kids each their own poker sticks!… so they didn’t have to pick things up with their hands too much.  They were so excited to get out there, and get to work!

earth-day_1 earth-day_4 earth-day_3 earth-day_2

While we had noticed unsightly trash on the roadsides before, once we got to cleaning it up, it amazed us just how much there was around, sticking out of leaf piles and strewn about here and there.  What my husband and I really smiled about, was hearing the rumblings between the kids, about how they just couldn’t believe people would throw trash on the ground, and ruin God’s beautiful Creation.  {S} said to me at one point, as he proudly brought more ugly findings to the barrel, “Mama, God is really happy with us, for cleaning up His world. Right?”  And I confirmed his thoughts.

earth-day_5 earth-day_6

 

The kids were so into it, as we all worked together, making a difference in our neighborhood.  They were obviously enjoying every bit of it, but I really cracked up when I happened to notice that everyone had their own yucky expression on their faces, as they worked.  Even us grown ups!  It was a yucky job, and just hard to comprehend the mess around.

Our barrel filled up with little things pretty quickly, and towards the end we found some larger items that barely fit on top:  a huge gas can, a full unopened jug of tiki torch fluid (?), a real estate sign, and if you can believe it……

earth-day_7

…..a bike we had noticed in the woods for many days. It was in pretty decent shape too.  (We later called the police to come pick it up as found property.)

We all walked back home with the sense of a job well done, and enjoyed the cleaner view around us as we did.  The kids didn’t want to stop cleaning up, but our barrel was full, and we had other projects (and work of our own) on our day’s agenda.  We promised them we would head out again soon.

 

earth-day_8

When we got home, we talked about other ways we can care for the gifts and blessings of the amazing and beautiful world God has given us.  We discussed the importance of turning off lights when we leave a room, not letting the water run as we brush our teeth, recycling everything we can, trying not to buy more than we really need to meet our needs, and how there is always more ways to contribute to what is best for our global environment.

Then the little ones colored an Earth Day page.  We all got a hardy chuckle out of {O’s} picture, with all of the skin going on there. (See below, middle). I mean, talk about really relying on your natural resources!!  All we could see was shoes on the girl!  But {O} cleared up our  in-accurate assumptions (with a tad of disgust with us), and assured us that the girl did indeed have clothing on behind the globe. She said she had on “a tank top and shorts, or something”.  (Phew! )

earth-day_9

We are going to start trying to use the blank backs of most of our coloring pages from now on, starting with these.  We aren’t the greenest family around, although we are greener than some. : )  In researching about other ways we can do better, it was nice to realize we are doing many things right.  But we also noticed areas where we can do better, and more.

To wrap up our Earth Day projects, we had Devotion & Cocoa.  Family Devotion is something we do every day, and I plan to post about this wonderful bit of our day that we all look so forward to, and the books we use for it.  But the cocoa was a bonus treat today!

To our surprise and delight,  the Scripture and discussion in our Devotion book was Earth Day themed!  It really helped review and round out all of the lessons of our day, and had a beautiful closing prayer I thought I would share with you.  We hope you had a wonderful and Happy Earth Day too!

Creator of all, thank you for the beautiful world You made. Help me to live in a way that shows love and respect for You and for Your creation.  Amen.

 

 

Filed Under: Homeschooling, The Big Picture Tagged With: Earth Day, earth-day-activity-ideas, earth-day-trash-clean-up, erth-day-for-kids, homeschooling-earth-day

Rumpledoodles Cookies – Recipe

April 21, 2008 By Laura 2 Comments

roo-lumpy-heffalump

Heffalump Rumpledoodles.  These things are quite possibly the tastiest little crumpets on the face of the earth!

We first heard of Rumpledoodles when the little one’s Auntie gave them this charming Winnie the Pooh DVD movie titled Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, for their 3rd birthday.  In the movie, the Hundred Acre Wood gang decide to go out and hunt the much feared, and never-seen Heffalumps they have been hearing out in the woods.  Roo went off on his own hunt, and has a run-in with a baby Heffalump, when he is suddenly ‘tagged you’re it!’.  The adorable little Heffalump, named “Lumpy”, and Little Roo, (who is pretty adorable himself, I might add), become fast friends.  Soon, Lumpy’s tummy is growling, as it is right around his snack time, and he becomes sad and misses his Mommy.  He then mentions his favorite snack, Rumpledoodles, to his new friend, Roo.  Of course, Roo asks what we all wanted to know:  “What are Rumpledoodles?”, to which Lumpy replies, in his cute little voice, sprinkled with a British accent, “They’re like biscuits, but only bettah! “

At some point the movie ran into the credits, and we discovered there were downloadables available, including the Rumpledoodle Recipe!  Naturally, {A} was all over that! Ever since she was little, she has always wanted to ‘help’ us in the kitchen. Today, she just loves to be in there, whipping up this or that.  Her real love for creating in the kitchen on her own, really began to flourish a few years ago, when we decided that some baking would be an excellent way to enhance her math skills, and truly grasp the concept of dry and liquid measurements, as well as fractions, which she was studying in math at the time. (It worked.) Of course in the process, as her love for baking and cooking has only grown, she has learned quite a few lessons in the kitchen, such as the need to follow directions carefully (and what can happen when you don’t : ), various math and science lessons, and of course, home economics.

So this past weekend, she was itching to make another batch of Rumpledoodles, since she had made a batch last week, and they went so fast. I have to admit, that might be mostly my fault, as I have a very hard time eating just one. Or…3. : )  They are just so-darn-good!  So it was only right of me to let her make more, along with my intention of exercising some self-control this time around.  But this time, she wanted me to take photos, as last week when she asked me, I was off to a job when she was baking.  Of course, no one has to ask me twice, to photograph anything.  In fact, usually, no one has to ask me at all. : )  So I happily obliged.

ingredients-for-rumpledoodles

girl-making-rumpledoodles

making-rumpledoodles

Sneaking some coconut.  It seems a tradition of hers, at this point of the process.

girl-making-rumpledoodle-cookies   rumpledoodle-cookie-dough-on-pan

rumpledoodles-coming-out-of-oven

They smell so good!  Almost time to……oh yeah, control myself.

Want to make some yourself? You can get the recipe right here! Just save this image below, and print it!
(Because trust us….you’re going to need it again. 😉 

 

rumpledoodles-cookies-recipe

 

Your kids will have fun making them by following this fun recipe, certainly will love eating them, and you might rather enjoy it all yourself.

rumpledoodles-cookies

 

Filed Under: Baking, Recipes, Treats Tagged With: cookie recipe, homeschooling-elementary-math, homeschooling-home-economics, rumpledoodles, rumpledoodles-cookies-recipe

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