{"id":7994,"date":"2019-11-18T18:46:29","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T18:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/?p=7994"},"modified":"2019-11-18T18:46:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T18:46:29","slug":"single-mom-chronicles-november-13th-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/18\/single-mom-chronicles-november-13th-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Single Mom Chronicles November 13th 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can’t believe it’s November.\u00a0 Life has taken some pleasantly surprising turns the past few months.\u00a0 If you’re a single mom, you know what it means to be flexible.\u00a0 Flexibility is probably the key to single parenting success.\u00a0 And you can’t be flexible without trusting your gut.\u00a0 Relying on your natural instincts is not an easy thing to do.\u00a0 You have to constantly shut out the worry.\u00a0 I guess it was easier for me because when you have nothing, there’s nothing to lose.<\/p>\n

I approach cooking that way a lot.\u00a0 I think to myself, “What’s the worst that could happen?”\u00a0 The problem is, as a single parent, adventures in food become a risk of resources.\u00a0 So you play it safe.\u00a0 I know how it is.\u00a0 There’s comfort in that, though.\u00a0 When the rest of your life is a day to day pendulum of uncertainty, safe food becomes a refuge.\u00a0 At least it was for me.\u00a0 And it kept me sane.\u00a0 Ish.\u00a0 Ha!<\/p>\n

At the chance of sounding a bit mystical, I’m going out on a limb to say follow the signs.\u00a0 It’s been a lifeline to survival that I’ve taken with me now that I’m no longer a single parent.\u00a0 “What the heck is she blathering about now?” you might ask.\u00a0 Well, I’m not even sure how to describe it.\u00a0 I know….super helpful.<\/p>\n

I’m just saying…if you know how to sew and people keep asking you to make stuff, then maybe you have the potential for a healthy money making side gig.\u00a0 If you keep going after a certain kind of job and aren’t getting anywhere, maybe you should try something else.\u00a0 If you get lots of compliments on your style, maybe you should think about being a stylist.\u00a0 The examples are endless.\u00a0 The point is….signs people!\u00a0 Follow them!<\/p>\n

Phew.\u00a0 That was hard to get off my chest.\u00a0 Lately, the signs have been pointing to soup.\u00a0 Have you seen prices at the grocery stores recently?\u00a0 As if eating couldn’t get any harder as a single parent.\u00a0 Soup weather is here to save the day.\u00a0 What I love about soups is that you can stretch them a mile and still get some protein in without busting your wallet open.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of my kid’s favorite soups was Italian wedding soup.\u00a0 It was super easy, super cheap, and loaded with protein.\u00a0 In a pinch, the whole thing could be made from cans and a wee bit of bouillon.\u00a0 If you don’t have time to transform ground pork into meatballs, you could just brown it and throw it in as is.\u00a0 I’ve done that and trust me, it was fine.\u00a0 It wasn’t glamorous, but really, who gives a crap?!<\/p>\n

This soup is a great way to sneak some greens in, so you don’t need a veggie side dish.\u00a0 If you don’t have access to fresh spinach, or frankly the time to deal with the washing of it, frozen spinach works just fine.\u00a0 In a pinch, canned spinach drained with a little rinse also works.\u00a0 I have to confess to using canned spinach as a punishment for the one time my kid refused to eat dinner.\u00a0 Worked like a charm.<\/p>\n

No time for pasta?\u00a0 Open a can of garbanzos.\u00a0 Got a cup of rice instead?\u00a0 Perfect.\u00a0 I’ve had none of those things so I used two heels of white bread, lightly buttered (or oiled because that’s happened, too) sprinkled with a little garlic salt and fried in the skillet or toasted in the oven.\u00a0 Chop them up and voila!\u00a0 Croutons!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Italian Wedding Soup<\/p>\n

1 gallon chicken broth
\n2 lbs ground pork
\n2 eggs
\n1- 1 1\/2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
\n2-3 lbs fresh spinach or 4 boxes frozen chopped
\n1 box acini di pepe pasta or orzo
\nShredded parmesan for garnish
\nSalt and pepper to taste<\/p>\n

For the meatballs:
\nCombine the pork, eggs, breadcrumbs, and some salt and pepper all together and form into small~ish meatballs.\u00a0 Place on a baking sheet and bake until browned on 350, about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Drop the meatballs into the chicken broth in a large stock pot.\u00a0 Add the spinach and the pasta.\u00a0 Cook on medium high heat until the spinach is cooked.<\/p>\n

Serve immediately and garnish with parmesan.\u00a0 Enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can’t believe it’s November.\u00a0 Life has taken some pleasantly surprising turns the past few months.\u00a0 If you’re a single mom, you know what it means to be flexible.\u00a0 Flexibility is probably the key to single parenting success.\u00a0 And you can’t be flexible without trusting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":[],"wprm-recipe-roundup-description":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_20180421_170324301_HDR.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pagICo-24W","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7994"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8023,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994\/revisions\/8023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}