Lentil and Spinach Soup

We've been under the weather here this week. The weather today is cold and windy. I really wanted some yummy soup. I turned to my trusty taste.com.au and searched for spinach soup. I came up with a Lemon, lentil and spinach soup and a Middle Eastern-style lentil & spinach soup. I had some ingredients but not quite all in the fridge and pantry so I mixed the recipes together and the result was delish! So yummy it has inspired me back to the blog after a very long break to record the success. If I don't write it down it will be lost forever.

Megan's Spinach and Lentil Soup

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 large brown onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
  
• 2L (8 cups) water
• 2 large Massel vegetable stock cubes
• 325g (1 1/2 cups) red split lentils
• 4 cubes frozen chopped spinach
• 1 tbs garam masala

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add carrot and celery and cook for about a minute. Throw in the potato and add the water and stock cubes. Increase the heat to high. Bring to the boil.

Add the lentils and stir until well combined. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until the spinach defrosts and just wilts. Add the garam masala and cumin, and stir until well combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

We served ours with organic sourdough bread.

Wannabe Soule Mama

For Christmas I gave myself The Creative Family by SouleMama. I love it! I want our family to be allowed to exercise our creativity, and I want us to show gratitude. I have a jumble of ideas going around in my head, things we can do in our family.

The first project was to reorganise the crafty, colouring things so they stay organised and are easy for small people to tidy up, with guidance and nagging of course. I reclaimed a quarter of a cupboard in our dining area and using some cheap plastic food containers sorted the pencils from the textas. I went to work with my trusty labeller so we know where to put things back. We've given the system a couple of workouts and it is easy! Things go back where they should! I wish I had batteries in the camera to document it.

In the process of organising I culled our crayon collection, leaving only some chubbies. I am working on Soule Mama's principle that children only need a few good quality art supplies, the same supplies that the grown-ups use. The assortment of broken mismatched crayons were put aside for our next project.

Yesterday we recycled the old crayons into these. I enlisted my big girls and we set about removing the paper wrappers from the broken crayons, then we sorted them into colours. I put them in a tupperware silicon mould that is mini "booby cakes". I'm not sure of the proper name of the shape but they do indeed look like boobies.

Our first batch was a mixture of colours: yellow and black, like bumblebees and purple and brown, like um... purple and brown? They weren't so great looking so in the next batch we kept to like colours, shades of red, shades of green. They are spectacular.

Anyway, normal service will no doubt be resumed shortly when I'm back at paid work and the craziness of schedules returns.

Love and light

The beginning of my new year is tinged with sadness and worry. Sending love and light to those who need it. We will get through this.

Photo by Kimberlyfaye

I'm not sending Christmas cards again this year....

But I am going to join in Miscmum's Christmas Card Challenge.

I will donate unused postage to Oxfam for each of you leaves a comment on my blog. I would promise to send you an ecard like miscmum is doing, but anyone who knows me well will understand that, despite good intentions, it will probably not happen! So comment away, and know that I will be sending love and light your way this Christmas and some money to those less fortunate.

Gee, where did that last month go?

I've been meaning to make a few posts, but more urgent things seem to have overtaken me. Now I finally sit down and realise it has been a whole month since I last made the time.

Thanks for your concern about the headache. It's gone now although my eyesight is still a bit dodgy at times. Crams, I have contemplated it being food issues for a while. I'm still working up to an elimination diet. I'm scared..... it seems so hard:(

In the last week, Amelie has received a prize at her first school presentation night, Juliet has sung and danced with all her might at her daycare Christmas concert, and Euan has started crawling and grown 2 teeth. In the next week we have a preschool concert for Juliet, a couple of Christmas parties, followed closely by my birthday and a visit from my sister and her new baby. Lots to look forward to, gotta love this time of year!

Ouchy-wah-wah

Have you ever had a headache that lasts a week? It really hurts. I went to the Dr this morning. He thinks it is a migraine. I thought migraines were more acute, and shorter. He gave me some ibuprofen and told me to get lots of rest this weekend. And to keep my fluids up... I guess he doesn't mean wine;-)

Hoping for a respite soon, and a renewal of the blogging enthusiasm!

Liberating

My lovely cousin came to help me last week. She generously gave me a day of her time and energy to help me purge my kitchen of clutter. I learned the following lessons about myself:

1. Owning many, many plastic containers does not make me organised. It just makes the tupperware drawer hard to close.
2. I do not need every single dinnerset I've owned since I left home 15 years ago. And if I am having 56 guests for dinner we will be using disposable plates and cups!
3. If I own it, it should be useful and used.

The giveaways were loaded up and taken away for me, to be found new homes for the needy and op-shop bargain hunters.

By the end of the day (yes, it took that long!) I was exhausted, and suffering a bit emotionally for parting with my stuff. Since then I have started to appreciate the space I now have. Less definitely is more....