Last night I went to see 50 Shades of Grey with my sister. What a fun night.  Some of my favourite thoughts/comments:

• “My husband said maybe I’d come home with some new ideas. I have an idea. Maybe he needs a new job [so he can be a billionaire too].”
• “Tell Blair you need $50,000 more in the reno budget so you can make a playroom.”
• As Anastasia walked across the room wearing nothing but a sheet dragging behind her, I thought about how much hair and dust would have been collected in our house.
• How does Christian not lose that key without a key chain?
• “They clearly don’t have kids. Who has that much time for foreplay before someone walks in or one of us falls asleep because we waited too long for them to be asleep?”

What does this have to do with food?

Well, the other day when I was taking some photos to go with this soup recipe, I didn’t get very far before the kids descended on me.

They love helping in the kitchen and would much prefer that I point the camera at them instead of food. No time for hours of foreplay, no time for food photography. But thankfully the soup was well received and the kids are gorgeous.

Squash, Carrot & Curry Soup

Ingredients

• ½ small onion, finely chopped
• Two cloves of garlic chopped, or 1 generous tsp of minced store-bought garlic (in a pinch used dried)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp dried curry powder (optional, also yummy without the spice)
• 1 large carrot, scrubbed and chopped into even pieces
• ½ butternut squash, cut into cubes
• ½ zucchini, cut into even pieces
• 2 vegetable stock cubes*
• Water (approx. 6 cups)

Instructions

1. In large saucepan, sauté the onion and garlic over medium heat in butter until soft.
2. Throw in the chopped veggies and curry powder. Stir to coat everything well.
3. When the veggies starts to stick on the bottom or you get bored, add water to cover the veggies (almost 6 cups in my case). Add stock vegetable stock cubes. Alternatively, you can use your own home made stock or store bought stock. I’d find it overwhelming to use all stock…would probably use 4 cups stock and water for the rest. That said, we don’t eat a lot of salt in our house so you may find this bland and are free to add more stock or salt as your taste dictates.
4. Bring to boil and let simmer for 20-30 minutes until veggies are soft. Blend in batches using a blender. Serve!

*I recently tried and liked McCormick’s All Vegetable Bouillon cubes. No MSG, no artificial colours or flavours, made with sea salt and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Cheap, cheerful and takes up no space in the cupboard. The link is to #Walmart but I bought them at my local #Fortino’s. #McCormick’s doesn’t have anything on their Canadian website about this product.

Serves our family of six with leftovers for 2 adults.