Yep, you read that right – my Momma came home from the hospital yesterday!  Hannah was already there, and I called to tell her I was on my way to the hospital and she said “I am putting Nana in the car right now to bring her home!”

So happy – as anyone knows who has spent any time in a hospital, you get no rest and it seemed every time my Mom would fall asleep someone needed to wake her up for one reason or another.

I made my Mom a sasuage and spinach lasagna to have later in the week when she has more of an appetite.  What I knew she could have right away though was soup!  I don’t really have recipes for these soups because I make them pretty often and just throw everything in the pool and taste as I go along.

The first soup I made was turkey soup with rice.  I never cook the rice in the soup – I cook it on the side and add it when I take the soup off the heat.  I used a smoked turkey breast for the stock – you could really taste the smokey flavor.  And since my Mom loves onions in her soup, I obliged being the good daughter that I am. šŸ˜€


The  secret to my potato soup is that I start out with 2 tablespoons of butter and flour, cook that together for a minute, then slowly add three cans of chicken stock – the base is super thick that way.  About 10 minutes after I start the base I add the potatoes, carrots and onions, and at the end add 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of cheddar cheese.

My mom ate a bowl of turkey rice soup for lunch and a bowl of potato soup for dinner. šŸ˜€  She also slept for a couple hours.  While Hannah went to pick up her medications, I scanned through my Mom’s cookbooks.  I ended up making chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  Funny thing was that the recipe said it would yield 40 cookies.  Um, I got 16!

So I guess I made mine a bit too big!

I had forgotten that my Mom used to make chocolate covered cherries every year for Christmas.  She’d make them in November and they would sit for a few weeks before they were ready – when they were you would just bite into it and a sugary sweet syrup would burst in your mouth.

And I don’t ever remember my Dad making this recipe, but I was just talking about making short rib lettuce wraps – I may need to make this one!  Seems like it makes a lot too!

So how are my 2011 Holiday Challengers doing?  Did you survive Thanksgiving Day?  I was down 1.8, and revised my goal to lost a total of 20 pounds by December 31, so that’s 5.6 pounds in five weeks – totally doable!

Can’t wait to get back in the gym this week – I actually have to work today and tomorrow is going to be crazy busy, then hopefully things at work will get back to a more normal pace.  It’s cold and icky outside, so I guess it isn’t too bad I’ll be stuck in an office all day.

Hope you have a great Sunday!

a;sldfjsa