Day 39 – Keeping Vampires and Germs Away

D is on the road to recovery, but his immune system has taken a hit with this virus.  And I’m, admittedly, paranoid with all the illness we’ve had recently.  I was determined that we were going to eat healthy to help keep the germs away.

I found a recipe online for a crockpot sausage, white bean and spinach soup.  It promised to be easy, and it looked tasty.  It has garlic, spinach, chicken broth….all the makings of a dish to keep viruses at bay.  I used this recipe as the base, but tweaked a bit for our tastes:  https://wishesndishes.com/crock-pot-sausage-spinach-white-bean-soup/ All credit goes to Ashley, writer of the wishesndishes blog.

My tweaks:  I used turkey smoked sausage and omitted the celery and carrots.  Otherwise, I followed as is…..four cloves of garlic and all.  I’ve got to tell you, I smelled garlic all day long.  I like garlic, but I thought the smell was intense in my house.  Not only are we killing germs, we may be killing vampires.

I knew my youngest would give me a fit about this.  If it ain’t chicken nuggets, hot dogs or pizza, he ain’t havin’ it.  It kills me.  Seriously, it hurts my heart to see him turn his nose up at dishes without an open mind to try them.  Pet peeve of mine.  My oldest, however, will try nearly anything.  So to find a way to give everyone something that met their approval, I served the soup with ham sandwiches (ham is on my little man’s approved foods list) and a baked sweet potato.  I had marshmallows, brown sugar, and cinnamon on the table for everyone to top the potatoes as they wished.

Y’all, I don’t say this often….or maybe never at all, but I killed it with dinner tonight.  Check it out.

This was SO good!  Of course, my youngest was in tears before he left the table because I was making him try everything….eh.  Cry me a river.  My oldest had two bowls of soup and told me, “It’s alright,” which in teenager talk is total winning.

So dinner is a winner and I’m doing my part to keep the vampires and the germs away.

Oops, I Did It Again – Day 162

Okay, so it’s not really day 162. It’s actually day 163, but I didn’t get to update on day 162 so we are going to pretend to go back in time. No. Time traveling is not today’s first.  But I was simply too tired to type so here I am …. again….catching up.  Still, it’s June and I’ve only missed a handful of days updating this blog so, eh.

So yesterday’s first was trying a new soup.  I am a soup girl.  I’m one of those anomalies that can eat soup anytime of year and in any weather.  So, yes, it’s June.  And yes, it was 90 degrees yesterday.  And yes, I ate soup.  Warm, nurture your soul kind of soup.  Lemon chicken orzo.  It just makes me feel all warm and cozy typing the name of it.

This soup had very little lemony flavor….more like an aftertaste of a hint of lemon.  Of course, that could be because this chick also loves lemonade and had to get some freshly squeezed added to my order.  Drinking a lemonade with your meal, perhaps….maybe…..by some chance may interfere with one’s ability to taste a subtle lemon flavor.  But no matter, it was delish.  The soup had bits of onion, kale, and carrot.  The broth was light and clear.  The orzo added the needed texture to the soup.

And I ate it with a baguette.  Mmmm….. Lemon orzo chicken soup, a fresh baguette, and freshly squeezed lemonade.  Heaven on a tray.  Why is it some people view soups as only winter meals?  This meal could make anyone a soup-lover in the summer.