SISTER WISDOM

I’m linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday. You should be,too.

Sometimes, when it comes to food, the simplest is the best.

Let’s talk about soup.

I love soup. Soup is my friend, except in summer when I’m in a state of perpetual sweatiness. Then the only soup I’m into is gazpacho, ice-cold, but during the other three blessed seasons of the year, me and soup, we’re tight. We’re buds. We’re close.

I could happily eat soup every night, but I don’t because 1) sometimes I’m lazy and I like just throwing chicken breasts in the baking dish and voila! dinner; and 2) my husband likes soup, but not quite as much as I do, so I try to be nice and make stuff besides soup too; and 3) a 3 1/2 year old and a 2 year old eating soup every night is too hard on my kitchen, and the cleanliness thereof. I don’t like wiping soup off the floor every evening. (Did you catch that “sometimes I’m lazy” bit, above? That comes into play again here.)

That said (why, I don’t know, I just felt compelled to give you a little discourse on the soup-eating habits at my house),
I decided to make French Onion soup the other night for dinner. I love French Onion soup, but I’ve only made it a couple of times, and the last time was just a flop. I don’t know what went wrong, but it was just kind of blech. I decided to try again.

I started with some well-seasoned chicken broth I had leftover from cooking chicken. It was that yummy thick kind of broth, with a healthy dose of garlic salt and pepper. I got that reheating in the slow cooker while I started the olive oil heating in my big saute pan.

And now we interrupt this program for a word about olive oil. Confession: I don’t really like olive oil. For a person who collects cookbooks, reads M.F.K. Fisher, and spends inordinate amounts of time thinking about, talking about, and dreaming about good food, not liking olive oil is akin to sacrilege. But there, I’ve said it. Something about olive oil is just very heavy and a little too much. Maybe I’m buying the wrong kind (on the cheaper end, okay, we’re a family of five on a budget), maybe I’m using it the wrong way. Don’t know.

But I’m trying to get more of the “good fats” (omega-3) and fewer of the “not-so-good fats” (omega-6) in our regular cooking and eating habits. Hence, I put the butter back in the refrigerator, with a sigh and a tearful gaze, and I glugged in some olive oil instead. In go the thinly sliced onions (2, large) and the finely chopped garlic (2 whole heads) and then I doused the whole mess thoroughly with Worcestershire sauce (lots of glugs) and pepper and garlic salt (I like garlic).

And it smelled like heaven in a saute pan.

Meanwhile, my broth had gotten all soupy and delicious-smelling again. I added about half three-quarters of a carton of Swanson’s organic chicken broth (bought on sale at the little discount food store down the road, oooh yeah!). I let the onion-garlic-olive oil montage simmer on low for twenty minutes or so, then dumped it into the broth, popped on the lid, and kept it on low till dinner time. Four hours later,

it smelled like heaven in a slow cooker.

Joe ladled ours onto slices of provolone, and the cheese was all melty and stringy, and we devoured the bubbly, garlicky, cheese-laden French Onion soup alongside leftover beef fajitas,

and it was like heaven in a soup bowl.

I don’t know how I’m going to top that this week. Oh wait, yes I do. This week I’m going to attempt a recreation of one of my favorite soups: the broccoli cheese from Bread Co (St. Louis, Panera, Atlanta…). Mmmm. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Anyway, here’s my menu, and if you’re looking for another dish for yours this week, I recommend French Onion Soup.

Menu:

• Chicken, carrots, and corn in the slowcooker (that’s tonight; Joe made this yesterday and it cooked all night and it smells delicious and now I don’t have to cook dinner! Yes, my husband is awesome, thank you very much. By the way, this bring me to a question I’ve been pondering: does anyone have a regular “husband’s night to cook” or “mom’s-night-off-so-we-eat-out” time in the week? I’d like to institute something like that but not sure exactly how to work it… advice?)
• Breaded tilapia (carry over from last week), salad with marinated cucumbers, some kind of veggie side.
• Fried rice, sweet and sour veggie stir fry
• Turkey filets… have to do something with those turkey filets in the freezer. What do you do with turkey filets?
• Artichoke pasta (carry over) with some kind of amazing pasta sauce. Alfredo? Cajun cream sauce? Tomato basil? Jury’s out. Anyone have other ideas? Not sure what sauce goes best with artichoke pasta since I’ve never had artichoke pasta before.
• Tuna Salad Lettuce Wraps. This will be our quick meal for Wednesday night, when we have worship practice and then cell group.
• Broccoli Cheddar Soup! I can’t wait, but I need to go buy broccoli… and maybe cheddar.

I just realized I’ve got (potentially) 3 vegetarian meals planned! And 2 with fish (tuna and tilapia). I think I’m getting better at not planning meals around a big hunk of meat.
Here’s to happy meal planning!