My friend Maggie recently Facebooked that her four-year-old daughter loved her lentil soup so much that she “could just lay in it”. Now if that’s not a compelling reason to make a recipe, I don’t know what is.

Here is the recipe she gave me:
2 Cups rinsed Red Lentils
2 Boxes Swanson Chicken Broth
½ Onion chopped
2 small-med carrots diced
1 celery Stalk chopped
½ baking potato
1 minced garlic clove
1 tsp+ Cumin
½ tsp of coriander
2 tbs Olive oil

Sautee Onions/garlic in olive oil in pot. Add celery/carrots/broth. Bring to a boil. Add lentils, spices & potatoes & cook over med heat for 30 with lid on. *I add ½ a potato because I like it thick, but no other recipe calls for it . I mash all the veggies while still in the pot before I serve.

So that’s what I did. My only regret is that I used organic chicken “Better Than Bouillon”, since that’s what we had on hand. And the soup came out ridiculously salty. I’m pretty sure I would make this again, but just use free-range, low-sodium broth instead.

Then I decided I needed to adventure into a side dish to round out the meal. Enter Stewed Apples with Butternut Squash from 5 Ingredient Fix. Very simple. VERY tasty. You should go ahead and make this for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

And that makes two more for my beautiful, new whole foods favorite recipes binder.

I’m knee-deep in film editing for the 2011 Bastien and Hadley Movie Release and absolutely could not resist pulling out these gems for your viewing pleasure.
May your feet find that much happiness today.

One of my new year resolutions, if you will remember, was scheduling one-on-one time with each kid, each month. Last weekend marked the start.

On Saturday I took my love Bastien to a puppet show as part of a fascinating children’s theater series at Brighton High School.

On Sunday I took my love Hadley to a national cheer and dance team competition at The Palace.

Hey, culture takes on many forms.

For the most part, both dates were filled with more calm time than we usually spend together. Well, apart from the crazy loud music at the competition, but that came with the territory.

Also, what both kids really wanted more than anything was to sit on my lap the whole time. I found that interesting. And flattering.

Best of all, the kid left at home each day got some QT with Jim. I feel like we all needed this. Even though both kids lamented being left behind and being without their sibling at the event. Well, there’s always something to complain about I guess.

And so it has begun. Bastien’s illustrious career as an esteemed hockey player. Currently his biggest impression of hockey is that there is fighting. I am beginning to worry that it is his only impression. In fact, he lives to play hockey fifteen times a day, only so he can pretend to have massive brawls on the kitchen floor (more evidence of this to come). So even though it appears in this video that THE GIANT BOY SKATING NEXT TO HIM SHOULD BE PICKING ON SOMEONE HIS OWN SIZE, make no mistake: a hockey legend cannot begin without his first hit. And as far as Bastien’s concerned, the sooner, the better.

On such a cold day, it was too hard to decide between two such cozy soups. Plus I wanted to be sure my kids ate something. Plus I’ve been meaning for years to try out a Deceptively Delicious recipe. So, check, check and check!
For the pea soup, I was a little grossed out that the dried peas came with a “ham flavoring” packet that showed no sign of any real ham in it. So I tossed it out and added real ham instead. Plus I’ve learned from Jim that water never makes a good soup base (though the recipe would have you believe otherwise). So I used some organic free range chicken broth in its place. And, I’m glad to report: yum!
For the chicken noodle, I was sadly unable to find any alphabet noodles, but the kids were happy enough to pick bow ties in their staid. And I did feel a little sneaky adding in puréed sweet potato and cauliflower. But not really since it involved a lengthy getting-to-know-you with the food processor, of which both kids were privy.
So on all accounts this week was a big success. And now I have two huge containers of soup in the fridge to lunch on for a while. And with two recipes down in just one week, maybe, just maybe, I’ll give myself a week off.