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Chicken Gnocchi Soup

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At first I was totally overwhelmed by the whole process of homeschooling my kids. They had asked to come home for their education, and that was completely not part of my master plan. I was looking forward to some alone time while they were away at school. So, when they asked to come home I was totally unprepared. I presented my arguments for public schooling. They outlined their plan for a home based education. In the end, I had to concede. They had a great plan, an infallible argument, and they were just too darn cute. Truthfully, their cuteness factor can persuade me to do things I never thought I’d do.

This is my fourth year homeschooling, and I have found that homeschooling has a number of “hidden” benefits. One of my personal favorites is how it allows me the time to prepare homemade meals for the kids. We recently discovered a soup that the whole family loves, and I just thought I would share it with you. I ended up making this soup two days ago, at 6:00 am because we had a busy day planned.  I figured I would get the soup made, check that off my to-do-list, and serve it for lunch.

Apparently, this soup smells good enough to wake sleeping children. They stumbled out of their rooms with nests of bedhead hair balanced atop their heads, barely open eyes, and tummies ready to have soup for breakfast. And this is where most of us would say, “What?!? Soup for breakfast. That is just wrong.” And that is actually what I said out loud. And then protested their soupy breakfast by having a bowl of Cheerios, because that is what normal people eat for breakfast.

You obviously don’t need to make this before the sun comes up to enjoy it, but I must say–my home smelled amazing all day.

2 TBS butter

1 Cup finely diced onion

½ Cup of finely diced celery

2 garlic cloves minced

¼ Cup of flour

1 quart half-and-half (I use the fat free one)

2 (14 ounce) cans of chicken broth

¾ tsp dried thyme

½ tsp dried parsley flakes

½ tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup shredded carrots

2 cups chopped fresh spinach leaves

1 ½ cups chopped cooked chicken

1 package ready-to-use gnocchi

 

Melt butter over medium heat and add onion, celery, and garlic. Cook these until onion is translucent. Whisk in flour and cook about a minute (this helps to thicken the soup). Whisk in half-and-half. Simmer until thickened. Add the chicken broth, thyme, parsley, nutmeg, carrots, spinach, chicken, and gnocchi. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Homemade Granola

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One of the many amazing aspects of homeschooling my little ones is the fact that I can make three homemade meals, and often times more, a day. My children are notorious for needing first, second and third breakfast. They don’t eat a lot in one sitting, so I have had to find ways to make healthy “mini-meals”. One of the favorites in our home is granola. I have gotten a few requests for this particular recipe. So, here it is…

6 cups rolled oats

1 ½ cups lightly salted sunflower seeds

1 ½ cups sliced almonds

1 ½ cups (sweetened) shredded coconut

½ cup toasted wheat germ (optional)

½ cup milled flax seed (optional)

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 cup honey

¼ cup brown sugar

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, add wet ingredients and stir until evenly coated. Spread the mixture on two greased cookie sheets, as evenly as possible, and bake at 220 degrees for 90 minutes. Allow the granola to cool completely before removing from the cookie sheets. I store mine in a large Zip Lock freezer bag in the fridge. It usually lasts about two weeks in our house. This is great as cereal with milk or sprinkled on Greek yogurt.