The continuing saga and a soup recipe....

I haven't posted a menu this week because... well, I haven't had to cook much! We had revival this week and were fed Sun-Wed by the church! Yay! So, last night I made the White Bean and Ham Soup and corn bread. We'll have leftovers tonight and tomorrow night we're going out to eat for my birthday. The white bean soup was so yummy. I'll post the recipe at the bottom. My mom gave it to me and I'm not really sure where she got it from. I also roasted some butternut squash yesterday and froze the puree. Until my son decides to eat veggies I will just have to hide them in muffins and pancakes! My mom gave me the book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. A lot of the recipes look great, I only have one problem... Luke won't even eat the 'bad/no veggie' version of the foods.. so there is no way he would eat the hidden veggie version. For instance, there is a recipe for mac and cheese w/ pureed butternut squash. Well, Luke won't even eat regular mac and cheese. I can't hide veggies in meatballs for spaghetti because Luke won't eat spaghetti!! Oh well! I did try her french toast w/ hidden pumpkin puree and it was really good (to me). Luke ate about 3 bites and then started spitting it out. I actually think he liked it. And he might have actually eaten it if I wouldn't have been staring at him. I think he knows I want him to eat it.. so he doesn't. He's smarter than you think! I think the recipes for muffins and breads will work well for us though since Luke will eat anything in bread or muffin form. He definitely loves carbs like his mom! We did have one small step forward yesterday and that was that he ate celery.... raw! I was amazed. I was chopping some for the soup and he was begging for whatever I had. Usually (if it's something he can eat) I will offer him some and he will make a face and say 'no'. Well this time he took it.. and ate it... and kept coming back for more! And, although celery isn't very nutrient dense, at least it's a vegetable! I honestly never know what he's actually going to eat or refuse to eat. It's a guessing game everyday.

Here is the recipe for the soup. I made it a little different than my mom told me so this is my version and it was very good.

White Bean and Ham Soup

2 cans Great Northern Beans
1 c chicken broth (low sodium)
1 1/4 c water
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 c smoked ham, chopped
1/4 tsp ground thyme
1 dried bay leaf
2 Tbs olive oil
black pepper

Over med. heat saute carrots, onions, and celery in olive oil for 5-10 min. While veggies are cooking drain one can of beans and pour into soup pot. Open the other can of beans and pour into a bowl, mash beans w/ fork or potato masher; pour into soup pot. Add broth, water, bay leaf, thyme and ham to pot and stir. Add veggies and season w/ black pepper to taste. Bring soup to a boil then reduce heat to low and let cook for 30 min to an hour. I think mine cooked for about 45 minutes covered; uncovered only for the last 10 minutes or so.

**My notes** My mom didn't drain her beans at all. I didn't want to add all of the sodium so I drained one can. My mom also used all water and no chicken broth. I had some left over from my chicken noodle soup, so I used that. Mom also didn't add thyme but I did a search online and lots of bean and ham soups added ground thyme so I added some to mine. I would recommend not adding any salt until the very end because the ham is going to give off a lot of salt. I didn't have to add any salt because of the salt in the beans and ham. I always use low sodium broth because you can always add more salt if you need to. Next time I may add some chopped garlic to the veggies. I made buttermilk cornbread to go with it. I added chopped green onions and shredded cheese to the cornbread batter and it was yummy! I can't for the life of me figure out why R doesn't like cornbread! It's crazy to me....