Suicide makes me mad so stop it.
Stop it. Stop it. Stop it!
What is worth dying for? What is worth killing yourself, your dreams, your future over? What is worth devastating the people who love over? What is worth your life?
What is worth a life? What is worth making a person feel so useless, unloved and isolated over? What is worth forcing despair and humiliation on to someone? What words are worth a life?
When I hear about teens taking their own lives because of words that have been said and judgements that have been made it makes my blood boil. I can't handle it when people of any age use put downs to elevate their own self esteem. I don't understand why cruelness has become so cool and kindness so passe. I can't figure out what the long term pay off to aggression is, how does knowing that you have caused another person to feel as bad as you do make you feel better? How do you, Mean Kid, figure that your harsh words are worth the life of another person?
What's worse than kids being mean to kids is adults allowing, modelling and endorsing the very attitudes that lead to bullying. Go ahead, teach your kids morals, standards and ethics that fall in line with your beliefs but also teach them about respect and kindness. Teach them that cruelty has never turned one heart towards God. Model for them acceptance despite differences. Endorse kindness.
And Kid Who Feels Like Dying, stop it, you're scaring me! Even though you don't feel like it right now, even though you may not know it, you are stronger than this, you are loved more than this. The kid who is making your life hell, the adult who doesn't see you, the taunts that echo in your ears long after they've been said, those things won't last forever. The pain will stop, the loneliness will end. If you feel like dying, wait five minutes ... if you still feel like dying, wait five more minutes. While you're waiting tell someone. Write it down, tweet it, text it, call that one person who is always glad to see you.
Tell someone because suicide is a waste, a tragedy and senseless. It is not an answer, its an unanswerable question. Suicide doesn't fix anything, it breaks hearts. Suicide leaves a gaping hole of hurt, inadequacy and confusion where love used to live. Suicide doesn't end, it echos in the lives of the people who loved and lost.
Tell someone, a friend, a teacher, a parent a pastor. Call the stranger who is always there to help.
Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868
Your life matters.
~Some Random Mother
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Are you 'home'?
"Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got; Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot ... Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name"
These lyrics popped into my head a couple of weeks ago while I was working at my church. We had received a phone call from someone who was new in town and needed some help, so the pastor sent me out to do a little grocery shopping for this family. After I dropped off the groceries I helped the family to run an errand. While we were driving through town they told me the story of how they ended up in our small town.
Life had been rough the last several years and after moving around in between shelters and the homes of family and friends they finally landed here. They hoped to settle in, to have a place where they belonged, where their kids could go to school and make friends, where they could find jobs, community and stability. They hoped to call this place home.
Home is a powerful word. It conjures feelings of warmth, security and acceptance. Home is that place that is waiting for you at the end of a long day, that place that you can snuggle into, relax and let your cares float away. Home is that place you invite friends into and lock enemies out of. Home is for celebrating, relaxing, comforting and dreaming. Or at least it should be.
Not everyone has had an ideal childhood and even as adults home isn't everything you want it to be sometimes. Home can be filled with disappointment, strife, hurt and pressure. It can be that place where you never measure up, where there's never enough. Home can be the last place you want to be. Sometimes, home is anything but a safe place to land.
But sometimes home isn't a building, its a person.
Over the last few days a local radio station has been doing a radiothon for an organization that helps homeless people get the care and the support they need to get back on their feet. As part of the radiothon, they interviewed the people who have been helped by this organization. Person after person told stories of hope, acceptance and respect. They told stories of home because, although they were without four walls to call home, they had found a place, and more importantly, they had found people, who knew them, cared about them and were glad to see them. This is home.
As I listened to the stories I realised that we can be home for each other. Even though we may not share a house, we can share home. We can be a place of acceptance, hope and support for the people in our world. We can celebrate, relax, comfort and dream together. We can be a soft place to land in a world full of stress, pressure and disappointment.
Being 'home' takes so little effort, too. Being 'home' is just caring enough to realize that we each carry stuff through life ... worries, stress, joys and dreams ... and that if we open ourselves to share these loads, we will lighten the burden and partake in the rewards, together. All it takes is a little patience, a little understanding, a warm smile and a listening ear from time to time.
You want to be where you can see, our troubles are all the same;
You want to be where everybody knows your name
These lyrics popped into my head a couple of weeks ago while I was working at my church. We had received a phone call from someone who was new in town and needed some help, so the pastor sent me out to do a little grocery shopping for this family. After I dropped off the groceries I helped the family to run an errand. While we were driving through town they told me the story of how they ended up in our small town.
Life had been rough the last several years and after moving around in between shelters and the homes of family and friends they finally landed here. They hoped to settle in, to have a place where they belonged, where their kids could go to school and make friends, where they could find jobs, community and stability. They hoped to call this place home.
Home is a powerful word. It conjures feelings of warmth, security and acceptance. Home is that place that is waiting for you at the end of a long day, that place that you can snuggle into, relax and let your cares float away. Home is that place you invite friends into and lock enemies out of. Home is for celebrating, relaxing, comforting and dreaming. Or at least it should be.
Not everyone has had an ideal childhood and even as adults home isn't everything you want it to be sometimes. Home can be filled with disappointment, strife, hurt and pressure. It can be that place where you never measure up, where there's never enough. Home can be the last place you want to be. Sometimes, home is anything but a safe place to land.
But sometimes home isn't a building, its a person.
Over the last few days a local radio station has been doing a radiothon for an organization that helps homeless people get the care and the support they need to get back on their feet. As part of the radiothon, they interviewed the people who have been helped by this organization. Person after person told stories of hope, acceptance and respect. They told stories of home because, although they were without four walls to call home, they had found a place, and more importantly, they had found people, who knew them, cared about them and were glad to see them. This is home.
As I listened to the stories I realised that we can be home for each other. Even though we may not share a house, we can share home. We can be a place of acceptance, hope and support for the people in our world. We can celebrate, relax, comfort and dream together. We can be a soft place to land in a world full of stress, pressure and disappointment.
Being 'home' takes so little effort, too. Being 'home' is just caring enough to realize that we each carry stuff through life ... worries, stress, joys and dreams ... and that if we open ourselves to share these loads, we will lighten the burden and partake in the rewards, together. All it takes is a little patience, a little understanding, a warm smile and a listening ear from time to time.
You want to be where you can see, our troubles are all the same;
You want to be where everybody knows your name
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Don't Dis the SwaggerWagon
We are a two vehicle family. We have Alice, our minivan and then there's Emmet, our jeep. Emmet is fun, rugged and sporty, in a rusty-12 year old sort of way. Emmet barrels down dirt roads, races through fields, cuts through snow drifts and can tow his weight in freight and he has a wicked stereo system. Emmet is a party on wheels.
Alice is practical. She has seating for seven, 13 cup holders, tons of storage and a DVD player. She has an excellent safety rating, gets great mileage and she's comfortable to drive. She has hauled us to family gatherings, to the lake and half way across the country. We depend on her to get us to the grocery store, to school and to doctor's appointments. She is sensible, no nonsense, all business.
Living in a small town has allowed me to conduct a very unscientific experiment over the past month or so. I drive the same route between schools every day, several times a day. I also tend to go to the same stores in our area around the same time each week, so I have made a point of alternating between Alice and Emmet when I've been running errands. I wanted to see if people drove or behaved differently around minivans verse something more sporty and less 'mommy.'
The bottom line? They do, drivers respond differently based on the vehicle and their preconceived notions about the type of person who drives that type of vehicle. To keep my 'research' as balanced as possible, I have driven above the speed limit and below the speed limit in each vehicle. I have driven very cautiously and less cautiously and I have been courteous and ignorant in each vehicle. I even took note of a few of the vehicles I see frequently and watched how they responded to me in each vehicle.
When I was driving Emmet, I just did my thing, ran my errands and most people stayed out of my way. No one cut me off, stole my parking spot or gave me the stink eye for passing them. No one tried to 'race me off the line' when the light turned green or gave me the finger for coming to a full stop at a stop sign. All of these things and more happen when I drive Alice.
It seems people take one look at a minivan, think 'Soccer Mom' and drive uber aggressively to get in front of the Mom-mobile. I can't count the number of times people have tried to cut me off, beat me off the line and box me out of changing lanes when I'm driving Alice but they don't know Alice's secret, at least not until its too late. Alice is fast, like really, really fast.
There is little in life that is sweeter than pulling up to a red light, beside some idiot in a sport scar who has just driven like a moron to cut you off. He sits there in his sporty red coupe, sizing you up, scoffing at your minivan, pitying you for your sad, sad life. You are a mom. Your van in full of kids, groceries and dog hair. There are smudgey hand prints on your doors, an unknown substance smeared across your passenger window and Veggie Tales blaring from your mediocre sound system.
How sad to be you, he thinks as he slicks his hair back and adjusts his mirrored aviator glasses while one hand rests at the top of the steer wheel. He's cool and he knows it. The opposite light turns yellow and he revs his engine in anticipation. The second before your light turns green, you look over at him, smile and wave and that's the last you see of him as he becomes a spec in your rear view mirror.
You are driving Alice and she can beat nearly every muscle car off the line, every time because she has the heart of a race car in the body of a minivan. She is fast, really, really fast.
I know I've posted this before but seriously, I think its my theme song ... Don't dis the swagger wagon.
Stereotypes are devices for saving a biased person the trouble of learning
~Unknown
Alice is practical. She has seating for seven, 13 cup holders, tons of storage and a DVD player. She has an excellent safety rating, gets great mileage and she's comfortable to drive. She has hauled us to family gatherings, to the lake and half way across the country. We depend on her to get us to the grocery store, to school and to doctor's appointments. She is sensible, no nonsense, all business.
Living in a small town has allowed me to conduct a very unscientific experiment over the past month or so. I drive the same route between schools every day, several times a day. I also tend to go to the same stores in our area around the same time each week, so I have made a point of alternating between Alice and Emmet when I've been running errands. I wanted to see if people drove or behaved differently around minivans verse something more sporty and less 'mommy.'
The bottom line? They do, drivers respond differently based on the vehicle and their preconceived notions about the type of person who drives that type of vehicle. To keep my 'research' as balanced as possible, I have driven above the speed limit and below the speed limit in each vehicle. I have driven very cautiously and less cautiously and I have been courteous and ignorant in each vehicle. I even took note of a few of the vehicles I see frequently and watched how they responded to me in each vehicle.
When I was driving Emmet, I just did my thing, ran my errands and most people stayed out of my way. No one cut me off, stole my parking spot or gave me the stink eye for passing them. No one tried to 'race me off the line' when the light turned green or gave me the finger for coming to a full stop at a stop sign. All of these things and more happen when I drive Alice.
It seems people take one look at a minivan, think 'Soccer Mom' and drive uber aggressively to get in front of the Mom-mobile. I can't count the number of times people have tried to cut me off, beat me off the line and box me out of changing lanes when I'm driving Alice but they don't know Alice's secret, at least not until its too late. Alice is fast, like really, really fast.
There is little in life that is sweeter than pulling up to a red light, beside some idiot in a sport scar who has just driven like a moron to cut you off. He sits there in his sporty red coupe, sizing you up, scoffing at your minivan, pitying you for your sad, sad life. You are a mom. Your van in full of kids, groceries and dog hair. There are smudgey hand prints on your doors, an unknown substance smeared across your passenger window and Veggie Tales blaring from your mediocre sound system.
How sad to be you, he thinks as he slicks his hair back and adjusts his mirrored aviator glasses while one hand rests at the top of the steer wheel. He's cool and he knows it. The opposite light turns yellow and he revs his engine in anticipation. The second before your light turns green, you look over at him, smile and wave and that's the last you see of him as he becomes a spec in your rear view mirror.
You are driving Alice and she can beat nearly every muscle car off the line, every time because she has the heart of a race car in the body of a minivan. She is fast, really, really fast.
I know I've posted this before but seriously, I think its my theme song ... Don't dis the swagger wagon.
Stereotypes are devices for saving a biased person the trouble of learning
~Unknown
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
A Few Random Answers
I am having a Crisis of Congestion this week and after three days of a head cold and two nights of next to no sleep my mind is foggy and writing something coherent seems beyond my capabilities so ... here's my cop out post.
I am going to answer a few of the questions I am most frequently asked ...
Do your kids or husband mind that you tell everyone everything about your life?
Well, the short answer is 'no.'
I don't tell everything. I think carefully about the stories I share because although I want to be open and honest I also want to protect the people in my world. My first obligation is to keep my own family healthy and cared for, helping other people, making people laugh or think about the way they see the world is secondary. I set boundaries on what and how much to share and I often talk with Mr. Awesome about these boundaries, making sure he is comfortable with all of this.
How/why did you give your family pseudonyms?
The 'why' is to protect their privacy and to give the kids a little deniability as they get older. ;-) The 'how' came about pretty easily. I just thought about each of them, who they are and what they represent in my life. Anyone who knows my kids knows how each name fits them perfectly.
Mr. Awesome became Mr. Awesome out of sarcasm, actually. He was being less than awesome one evening and out of irritation I called him 'Mr. Awesome' and it kind of stuck. The more I called him Mr. Awesome the more awesome he became or the more I recognized all the ways he truly is awesome, either way I think calling him Mr. Awesome has seriously improved our relationship.
What are your favourite posts?
For funny anecdotes nothing is funnier to me than Hunter Girl!
On the more serious side, my favourite posts are the ones where I got to just talk about my family, everything good and sweet and wonderful about this crazy bunch. The two posts that come to mind first, though are The Things I Love About Them and They Belong to Me.
Why don't you turn your blog into a book?
From your mouth to the publishing gods ears!
Writing a book is no easy thing, I should know, I've been trying to write one for the better part of nine years! It is my dream to write books and to speak to groups of parents and teachers about the things I write about here, hope, encouragement and intentional relationships with the kids in your circle of influence. Writing is my dream, my goal, but my family is my reality and my first priority. I do write everyday but it is a balancing act right now, one I am still trying to get the hang of.
Stay tuned ... I'm hoping to churn something out soon!
Thanks for reading, for taking an interest and asking questions. If you have more questions send them to somerandommother@gmail.com and take a moment to check out my new 'tab' Around the Web ... I've done a couple of radio interviews lately ... the links are on that page.
Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn't know you had, and dealing with fears you didn't know existed. ~Linda Wooten
I am going to answer a few of the questions I am most frequently asked ...
Do your kids or husband mind that you tell everyone everything about your life?
Well, the short answer is 'no.'
I don't tell everything. I think carefully about the stories I share because although I want to be open and honest I also want to protect the people in my world. My first obligation is to keep my own family healthy and cared for, helping other people, making people laugh or think about the way they see the world is secondary. I set boundaries on what and how much to share and I often talk with Mr. Awesome about these boundaries, making sure he is comfortable with all of this.
How/why did you give your family pseudonyms?
The 'why' is to protect their privacy and to give the kids a little deniability as they get older. ;-) The 'how' came about pretty easily. I just thought about each of them, who they are and what they represent in my life. Anyone who knows my kids knows how each name fits them perfectly.
Mr. Awesome became Mr. Awesome out of sarcasm, actually. He was being less than awesome one evening and out of irritation I called him 'Mr. Awesome' and it kind of stuck. The more I called him Mr. Awesome the more awesome he became or the more I recognized all the ways he truly is awesome, either way I think calling him Mr. Awesome has seriously improved our relationship.
What are your favourite posts?
For funny anecdotes nothing is funnier to me than Hunter Girl!
On the more serious side, my favourite posts are the ones where I got to just talk about my family, everything good and sweet and wonderful about this crazy bunch. The two posts that come to mind first, though are The Things I Love About Them and They Belong to Me.
Why don't you turn your blog into a book?
From your mouth to the publishing gods ears!
Writing a book is no easy thing, I should know, I've been trying to write one for the better part of nine years! It is my dream to write books and to speak to groups of parents and teachers about the things I write about here, hope, encouragement and intentional relationships with the kids in your circle of influence. Writing is my dream, my goal, but my family is my reality and my first priority. I do write everyday but it is a balancing act right now, one I am still trying to get the hang of.
Stay tuned ... I'm hoping to churn something out soon!
Thanks for reading, for taking an interest and asking questions. If you have more questions send them to somerandommother@gmail.com and take a moment to check out my new 'tab' Around the Web ... I've done a couple of radio interviews lately ... the links are on that page.
Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn't know you had, and dealing with fears you didn't know existed. ~Linda Wooten
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Vote Anyway!
This one is just for my Manitoba peeps, today ...
VOTE!
You've got plans, have to work or it's your one day off ... Vote Anyway.
Your kid is sick, your laundry is piling up or your favourite show is on ... Vote Anyway.
You have a doctor's appointment, business lunch, errands to run or a class tonight ... Vote Anyway.
Despite the apathy, cynicism, broken promises and disappointments ... Vote Anyway.
So you don't know the parties, platforms or the players ... click here to find out The Who, click here, here or here to see The Big Picture and then ... Vote Anyway!
One vote matters, every vote counts, your vote is your voice ... Vote Anyway, Manitoba!
Why wouldn't someone vote?
~Dude
VOTE!
You've got plans, have to work or it's your one day off ... Vote Anyway.
Your kid is sick, your laundry is piling up or your favourite show is on ... Vote Anyway.
You have a doctor's appointment, business lunch, errands to run or a class tonight ... Vote Anyway.
Despite the apathy, cynicism, broken promises and disappointments ... Vote Anyway.
So you don't know the parties, platforms or the players ... click here to find out The Who, click here, here or here to see The Big Picture and then ... Vote Anyway!
One vote matters, every vote counts, your vote is your voice ... Vote Anyway, Manitoba!
Why wouldn't someone vote?
~Dude
Monday, October 3, 2011
Small Victories
This morning we had Dude at his specialist's for his quarterly check-up. Every three months Dude goes to see his Pediatrician, one who specializes in working with kids on The Spectrum, and she tracks his growth, blood pressure and general development. For the past year she has been concerned that Dude hasn't put on any weight and hasn't grow a centimeter ... today that changed. For the first time since Spring of 2010 Dude's growth arc took an upturn. He grew!
To most moms this wouldn't be a big deal but for us it is. We have spent a year trying special diets, altering his meds and worrying about his development but today we celebrated this small victory. We try to celebrate every small victory because we've learned that a small victory is often the first step toward a great big triumph, to a new level of success.
For instance, most people who meet Dude think he's funny and interesting and can't really 'see' the Autism in him but that hasn't always been the case. I remember one small victory, a Christmas miracle of sorts, that set him on the path to the witty kid he is now.
He was eight years old and we had been muddling through Asperger's for a little more than a year. Our life was vastly better than it had been a year previously, Dude was more calm and easier to talk to and he was beginning to take an interest in the people around him and how to relate to them. We had spent much of the Fall talking about conversation, anecdotes and humor in an effort to help him understand all the pieces that make up the social puzzle called friendship but we weren't sure if Dude was really getting it.
The night of his school's winter concert we saw another small victory, our Christmas miracle that year. A year earlier our time at the concert had ended abruptly with Dude losing it on stage and threatening to kill us before he bolted from the school, into the winter night. This year, he stood on stage with his class, sang and did the actions to every song, made conversation with his teachers afterwards and walked home with the family to have cookies and hot chocolate.
I was basking in the glow of our successful evening as we sat in our living room, chatting and laughing, with my parents, aunt and sister. About half an hour into the conversation Dude came to sit on my lap and whispered in my ear, "They are telling funny stories, right?"
"Yep, they're talking about when Gran and Auntie were little, about funny things that happened with their brothers and sisters," I said.
"If I want to talk I should think of something funny to share, right?" he asked.
"Can you think of something that would fit the conversation?" I asked.
"Give me a minute to think," he replied.
A few minutes of conversation passed, everyone still laughing and sharing funny family anecdotes when Dude tapped my shoulder and winked. He was ready. After my sister finished her story there was a lull in the conversation so I nudged Dude and he began to tell his story. His anecdote perfectly into the conversation and what's more, it as really funny.
As everyone chuckled and congratulated Dude on telling such a great story I fought the tears that were welling up inside me. This was a small thing, something that millions of other kids do all the time but this was a first for Dude. It was the first time he told a funny story that was in sync with the conversation. Although there's no line in the baby book for this sort of thing, its these moments that are written on the hearts of every parent of a kid on The Spectrum. These glimpses of 'normal' give us hope that our quirky kids will grow up and find their place in this world, after all.
Although our victory today was just an inch and pound it gives us hope, hope that maybe his anxiety is decreasing, that he is feeling more secure and more confident. It gives us a glimpse of a future for him where he embraces his differences and celebrates his unique perspective on life without worry of being bullied or isolated. We see the emerging shape of a strong, self assured guy who is relaxed and comfortable in his own skin and feels in control of himself.
Its only a pound and an inch but still, its a pound and an inch!
Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.
~Louis L'Amour
To most moms this wouldn't be a big deal but for us it is. We have spent a year trying special diets, altering his meds and worrying about his development but today we celebrated this small victory. We try to celebrate every small victory because we've learned that a small victory is often the first step toward a great big triumph, to a new level of success.
For instance, most people who meet Dude think he's funny and interesting and can't really 'see' the Autism in him but that hasn't always been the case. I remember one small victory, a Christmas miracle of sorts, that set him on the path to the witty kid he is now.
He was eight years old and we had been muddling through Asperger's for a little more than a year. Our life was vastly better than it had been a year previously, Dude was more calm and easier to talk to and he was beginning to take an interest in the people around him and how to relate to them. We had spent much of the Fall talking about conversation, anecdotes and humor in an effort to help him understand all the pieces that make up the social puzzle called friendship but we weren't sure if Dude was really getting it.
The night of his school's winter concert we saw another small victory, our Christmas miracle that year. A year earlier our time at the concert had ended abruptly with Dude losing it on stage and threatening to kill us before he bolted from the school, into the winter night. This year, he stood on stage with his class, sang and did the actions to every song, made conversation with his teachers afterwards and walked home with the family to have cookies and hot chocolate.
I was basking in the glow of our successful evening as we sat in our living room, chatting and laughing, with my parents, aunt and sister. About half an hour into the conversation Dude came to sit on my lap and whispered in my ear, "They are telling funny stories, right?"
"Yep, they're talking about when Gran and Auntie were little, about funny things that happened with their brothers and sisters," I said.
"If I want to talk I should think of something funny to share, right?" he asked.
"Can you think of something that would fit the conversation?" I asked.
"Give me a minute to think," he replied.
A few minutes of conversation passed, everyone still laughing and sharing funny family anecdotes when Dude tapped my shoulder and winked. He was ready. After my sister finished her story there was a lull in the conversation so I nudged Dude and he began to tell his story. His anecdote perfectly into the conversation and what's more, it as really funny.
As everyone chuckled and congratulated Dude on telling such a great story I fought the tears that were welling up inside me. This was a small thing, something that millions of other kids do all the time but this was a first for Dude. It was the first time he told a funny story that was in sync with the conversation. Although there's no line in the baby book for this sort of thing, its these moments that are written on the hearts of every parent of a kid on The Spectrum. These glimpses of 'normal' give us hope that our quirky kids will grow up and find their place in this world, after all.
Although our victory today was just an inch and pound it gives us hope, hope that maybe his anxiety is decreasing, that he is feeling more secure and more confident. It gives us a glimpse of a future for him where he embraces his differences and celebrates his unique perspective on life without worry of being bullied or isolated. We see the emerging shape of a strong, self assured guy who is relaxed and comfortable in his own skin and feels in control of himself.
Its only a pound and an inch but still, its a pound and an inch!
Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.
~Louis L'Amour
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Foodie Goddess - Lentil Soup
It is officially fall! I thought to mark the occasion I would share with you one of our family’s favourite chilly weather meals. It is actually a vegetarian meal, but my husband who is a meat eater from way back, loves this meal, too. My Dad also makes requests for this every year when the air gets cool – yup, it’s that good!
This is our version of lentil soup with a side of yummy cheesy biscuits. You know the soup is very healthy, so you can enjoy these fantastic biscuits with no guilt…at least that is what we can tell ourselves! I was watching Rachael Ray yesterday and she calls this “girl math”. I subscribe to this train of thought myself.
Now this recipe makes a GIGANTIC pot of this stuff. Which is great because it also freezes most excellently {is that even a word?!}. I made this last weekend and I then froze two smaller batches for meals in the future and one lunch sized bowl for me to take to work one day. A great idea for work lunches on those cold winter days.
Here are the recipes ... Enjoy!
Foodie’s Favourite Lentil Soup
1 – 2 teaspoons of oil {canola, olive or heck even some good old butter}
1 cup of chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 cartons of chicken or vegetable broth {'no salt' added varieties work really well}
1 big can of diced tomatoes {28 fl oz}
1 cup of tomato sauce or even a can of tomato soup will work
2 cups of lentils {any colour of your choice}
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups diced sweet potatoes {I have used regular potatoes in the past and it good too}
1 tsp of oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp of ground coriander
¼ - ½ tsp of ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of fresh chopped spinach
First you will need a giant pot! Now saute the onions, celery and garlic in the oil or butter for 3 or 4 minutes, until they start getting soft. Now you will add everything else into the pot, except for the spinach. Bring your soup to a nice boil. Once boiling, cover and reduce to a simmer. Let it simmer for 30 minutes. Then add in the spinach and let it cook for another 15 minutes. We love to sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top – yum!
Now for the delicious side…
Ever so Yummy Biscuits
2 cups of flour {any kind works well}
4 tsp of baking powder
2 tbsp of sugar
1 ½ cups of grated cheddar {strong flavour works the best}
2 – 3 chopped green onions
1/3 of oil or melted butter
¾ cup of milk
Preheat the oven to 400 F
Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the cheese and onions and stir. Add oil/butter and milk, stir to mix. You will need to get your hands in here at this point. Gently kneed until you have your dough formed. Now, most civilized recipes will tell you at this point to roll out your dough and cut it with pretty round cutters. But I like the shortcut version myself. I just take the dough, form it with my hands and place it on the cookie sheet. Works great! I have also in the past used the wooden spoon and just dropped the dough onto the cookie sheet – this too makes fabulous biscuits. What an easy recipe you say! Yes I know!
Bake for 15 minutes until just starting to become golden.
Enjoy!
The way to any man or woman's heart or any other part of their anatomy, is through their stomach
~Rachael Ray
This is our version of lentil soup with a side of yummy cheesy biscuits. You know the soup is very healthy, so you can enjoy these fantastic biscuits with no guilt…at least that is what we can tell ourselves! I was watching Rachael Ray yesterday and she calls this “girl math”. I subscribe to this train of thought myself.
Now this recipe makes a GIGANTIC pot of this stuff. Which is great because it also freezes most excellently {is that even a word?!}. I made this last weekend and I then froze two smaller batches for meals in the future and one lunch sized bowl for me to take to work one day. A great idea for work lunches on those cold winter days.
Here are the recipes ... Enjoy!
Foodie’s Favourite Lentil Soup
1 – 2 teaspoons of oil {canola, olive or heck even some good old butter}
1 cup of chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 cartons of chicken or vegetable broth {'no salt' added varieties work really well}
1 big can of diced tomatoes {28 fl oz}
1 cup of tomato sauce or even a can of tomato soup will work
2 cups of lentils {any colour of your choice}
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups diced sweet potatoes {I have used regular potatoes in the past and it good too}
1 tsp of oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp of ground coriander
¼ - ½ tsp of ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of fresh chopped spinach
First you will need a giant pot! Now saute the onions, celery and garlic in the oil or butter for 3 or 4 minutes, until they start getting soft. Now you will add everything else into the pot, except for the spinach. Bring your soup to a nice boil. Once boiling, cover and reduce to a simmer. Let it simmer for 30 minutes. Then add in the spinach and let it cook for another 15 minutes. We love to sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top – yum!
Now for the delicious side…
Ever so Yummy Biscuits
2 cups of flour {any kind works well}
4 tsp of baking powder
2 tbsp of sugar
1 ½ cups of grated cheddar {strong flavour works the best}
2 – 3 chopped green onions
1/3 of oil or melted butter
¾ cup of milk
Preheat the oven to 400 F
Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the cheese and onions and stir. Add oil/butter and milk, stir to mix. You will need to get your hands in here at this point. Gently kneed until you have your dough formed. Now, most civilized recipes will tell you at this point to roll out your dough and cut it with pretty round cutters. But I like the shortcut version myself. I just take the dough, form it with my hands and place it on the cookie sheet. Works great! I have also in the past used the wooden spoon and just dropped the dough onto the cookie sheet – this too makes fabulous biscuits. What an easy recipe you say! Yes I know!
Bake for 15 minutes until just starting to become golden.
Enjoy!
The way to any man or woman's heart or any other part of their anatomy, is through their stomach
~Rachael Ray
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