monday is soup day

On Mondays, since I am home with a tribe of gorgeous children all day, I usually make a big pot of chicken and vege soup. I make a stock using a couple of chicken pieces with salt, pepper and onion. After simmering the chicken pieces until the meat is almost falling off the bone, I take them out and cut the meat off the bones, discarding the bones and skin. I return the chicken to the pot and gradually add a variety of different vegetables, allowing appropriate cooking time for each. Of course any vegetables are great, but I think that pumpkin, capsicum and spinach are absolute musts – they just add such a lovely flavour and sweetness to the soup. At the end, once everything is cooked I add a big bunch of chopped fresh parsley and some noodles – the children absolutely love the noodles! I usually have at least one or two children pottering around with me helping to put the chopped vegetables into the soup pot. After our diligent morning of chopping and simmering we all sit down together to a delicious, steaming bowl of chicken, vege and noodle soup. It is so satisfying to watch all the children enjoying the soup and feeling that they helped to produce it!