Easy Bacon Lentil Soup, Post Baby

Alright, somehow it ended up that I didn’t have to cook for a whole month. Freezer meals, combined with meals brought in to me, combined with a little bit of eating out has made it so I have not had to cook. Until yesterday. Oh yesterday. Not a good day.

So I sat down to make a week’s worth of meal plans (including lunch and dinner and one or two snack or dessert recipes), along with the grocery list. Like I did back in the day before baby #3 came along. We went to the grocery store. Fabulous, did great. Brought in the groceries and started chopping up the Mirepoix for the lentil soup. That’s when everything fell apart.

That night I was in charge of the Relief Society activity (It is my job at my church. There is one activity each month.) and the emails were popping through on my phone from different people telling me they couldn’t help.  This was slowly stressing me out. Then, you know, of course the baby was screaming, kids were whining that they are not playing with friends, I was taking care of all the dogs’ potty breaks and I had tons of phone calls to help someone find bloggers for a project. I mean…just too much…not ready to get back on the horse. It made me think I just am really not ready for life to be back and in full swing again.

So I sent Abby and Cameron outside to play. Of course they found the only mud puddle and completely rolled in it. Wanting to look nice for later that night, I decided right THEN would be the time to try on some pre-baby jeans. Of course they didn’t fit. Well, they wouldn’t zip up so I was trying to find an elastic band to make them work and find a long enough shirt to cover that problem. Oh, and the soup. My first day back to cooking was being neglected on the stove.

I was about to cry because I felt like this was my first REAL DAY back to real life and that having a baby that is now four weeks old, I really should be able to do all of this. Then I was seriously considering pulling a Marie Osmond and leaving the kids with someone else and just driving away. Miraculously, my sister came to save my life and took the older girls for a sleepover. When she came to the door to pick them up I shoved that baby at her so fast I almost knocked her over. I yanked those almost-clean, muddy girls from the shower and threw some clothes on them as fast as I could and honestly did not even give them a hug goodbye.

And then I sat down and ate a bowl of my Easy Lentil Soup by myself instead of in a perfectly clean house with perfectly clean kids, looking like a beautiful wife with jeans that could zip up and a baby perched perfectly in the swing, listening to the water sound option that we all love so much.

Nope I was by myself, in a trashed house with only one kid left who was screaming while I dropped a few lentils on her head.

Hey, but it was good soup. Here is the recipe:

P.S. Today has been better. But really, how do you people do it and do it so well?!

Easy Lentil Soup, Post Baby

Ingredients:

2 onions, minced

4 carrots, minced

4 stalks of celery, minced

Stick of butter

Lots of, maybe even too much garlic, minced

4 stalks of thyme

Half a package of bacon, cut up into chunks

Bag of green lentils

6 cups of chicken stock

Salt & Pepper

Cheddar Cheese, shredded

Directions:

1. Melt a stick of butter in a pot and throw in the celery, onion, carrot AND bacon. Don’t cook TOO high but cook for a good 15 minutes, until tender.

2. Then throw in the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and let cook for a couple of more minutes.

3. Put in the lentils and stir everything around. Let the lentils soak up some of that goodness before you put in the chicken stock.

4. Bring to a boil and then let simmer with the pot cover ALMOST all the way on for 30-40 minutes until the lentils are to your liking (I like them a BIT underdone).

4. Then top with cheddar cheese (I know, a bit odd, but it is really good) and serve.

If you have questions just email me. I am doing this from my head and I just threw the recipe together. I didn’t have it written down. So let me know if you have any questions! It was quite yummy. The kids and hubby loved it too.

Tags: lentil soup, motherhood

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