Tex Mex Veggie Soup and a Little Soul Talk

Reminiscing today about our little Indians, Thanksgiving 2014:

Levi with his Great Grandma Thomas

(Check out the crayons jar and white butcher block paper. Our little ones colored, creating pumpkins and turkeys, while the adults lingered over the Thanksgiving meal. Actually, the big people got into drawing as well!)

Owen with his Mama and Uncle Jack~

I delight in cooking Thanksgiving dinner for family. There’s just something about getting up before sunrise and the rest of the family to begin preparing our meal. I love the quiet with coffee and time to reflect and rejoice.

I find it a bit sad that thankfulness and gratitude have been popularized to the point of best-sellers and study guides. According to Webster, gratitude is a feeling. What happened that people have to work at feeling thankful? Can we truly cultivate it with a six week program that promises a new attitude?

Today I discovered an organization , Greater Good, The Science of Meaning and Life, that guarantees school teachers that once they implement its gratitude curriculum, their students will manifest thankfulness for at least the next five months. Alrighty then! At Greater Good, you can participate in a variety of initiatives to produce thankfulness.

Certainly carving out intentional time for thankfulness activities is a wonderful and important activity. Making thanksgiving explicit is good for a number of reasons. I just wonder if we’re missing out on doing a little inner exploration at why thankfulness is natural for some and a struggle for others.

Straight up, when I am in a controlling or perfectionistic mode, gratitude goes out the window. I know that I need transformation.

And that isn’t from a book, a program, or the latest TED video. It’s between me and Jesus. Perhaps that’s another reason to love Thanksgiving. It points me in the right direction, becoming more like Him.

Well, if you were looking for a recipe and not a devotional, here you go.

And Happy Thanksgiving!

Food-wise we’ll be “turkeyed out” in no time, so moving forward with some new meals.

With my recent pantry and fridge purge, I was able to put together eight dishes. Some were directed by foodie bloggers,  others I basically made up as I went along, including this Tex-Mex soup recipe.

                                                              

Love the turkey stock for the base. It gives great flavor to a soup. Go here if you have not tried making homemade stock before and want to learn more. I think you’ll be pleased with the taste.

I could eat this soup at every meal. Add a piece of  bread such as sourdough, Einkorn, or Ezekial 4:9 with almond butter and you have a nutritious, (low carb if needed), offering.

Tex Mex Veggie Soup

Ingredients:

2 tbsps. butter

1 minced garlic clove

1/2 cup of diced celery

1/2 cup of diced onions

4 cups of turkey stock

2 ounces of diced mild green chiles

13 ounce can of diced tomatoes

pinch of red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

2 cups of pre-cooked black beans

1/2 cup of frozen corn

1/2 cup of julienned carrots

dollop of sour cream or shredded cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Melt butter in a stock pot. I only have an 8 quart size, so that’s what I always use for soup. Add garlic, onions, and celery. Saute on medium heat until vegetables are softened.
2. Add all the rest of the ingredients except the sour cream or shredded cheese.
3. Bring to boil. Turn down heat to simmer until tomatoes are broken down a bit, about 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Put a few cups in a bowl and top with sour cream or shredded cheese if you’d like. Season with pepper and salt as needed. (I love pepper, so I almost always add it to my dishes. Jim can’t tolerate it because it makes his ears ring, so I have to make sure I only sprinkle it on my own servings.)

Okay . . .  just one more picture of my grandson, post Thanksgiving 2014 meal. Owen loves to create!

 

 

See you next year, backyard friends~

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