The best way to make this delicious, chunky soup is to use leftover stock from a good joint of lamb recipe for a more authentic, well seasoned flavour..
This is a simple, cheap recipe and one that my lovely partner and I created when we discovered that there are very few good lamb soup recipes out there. So, we’ve had a go, experimented a little, and discovered that keeping it simple is the best route to take, to allow the subtle flavour of the lamb to come through.
Here’s what we did…
This recipe is one that we used on Easter Sunday and one that I will look forward to using again. It was absolutely delicious and the softest lamb I have ever tasted. It’s the perfect recipe to kick start my cooking ventures and entries!
We’re not at all religious, but love to celebrate any old occasion with family get togethers and enjoy cooking a nice, hearty meal for everyone. A 2kg leg of lamb fed 5 adults with plenty leftovers for a rustic soup to feed the same again. It was a veritable feast and, thanks to Tesco’s half price offer on joints of Lamb – it was an absolute bargain too!
Anyway, on with the recipe!
You may have heard it said, or even said it for yourself, that breastfeeding can drive a mother mad. The trials and tribulations of infant weight loss, latch issues, nipple pain, mastitis, thrush, biting and beyond can push the strongest and most stoic of breastfeeders to their emotional limits.
Many of these women, most in fact, find breastfeeding too hard and find themselves throwing in the proverbial towel at some point – usually before the first month is up. Often they cite the dread they felt every time their baby became hungry and ready to nurse, the lack of a bond they felt with their baby and the fear that it was pushing them into PND (or even that it really did trigger it).
However real those feelings are, the surprising reality is: All of that emotional angst and stress is what creates the magical bond we hear so much about.
Until recently, I haven’t had anywhere to pop my pins and needles other than jabbing them in my poor old leather sofa or, more often, myself which never ends well.
So, I decided to make one for myself… and in the style of a Cupcake, of course.
It was pretty easy to make, though it was quite time consuming and took around an hour. But, it kept my hands busy and I now have somewhere to pop my pins that doesn’t involve me accidentally jabbing myself over and over. Definitely worth it.
What’s more, I made it with scraps of leftover material so it cost nothing which is even more fantastic as I recently spied something similar retailing for £6 on a certain unique gifts site, before postage and packaging! Yikes!
I’m quite a judgmental parent, I’ll be honest. That’s not to say I think I’m better than anyone else, but I do think most parents are better than themselves.
In short, I can’t abide lazy parenting and ignorance. It doesn’t win me many friends and those who stick with me are often likeminded or easy going enough not to be crippled with offence. I think that’s a positive, I’m not the type to be friends with any other kind of person anyway so it’s rather handy when you think about it. I also expect that people will return the favour, because everyone is enitled to an opinion and information sharing and debate is how we learn. Moreover, I can hack it.
That said, parents don’t come much more liberal than me. Authority and strong opinions have their place, but it might surprise some to learn that, for most “Parenting Nazis”, it certainly isn’t in the family home.
A great way to use up your old fabric cut offs and scraps is to make decorative door hangers.
I’ve made a few of these recently and they’re incredibly easy to whip up in just a few minutes, all with the help of the handy running stitch too! I opted for heart shapes to keep it simple and homely and was really pleased with the overall effect.
If you have a spare 10 minutes, some pretty fabrics and ribbon then this is the perfect micro project for you!
Authoritarian rule is everywhere you look, from the more obvious nanny state government to the often overlooked fascism in much of state and private schooling. Indoctrination, however, begins at birth.
We are naturally inclined, as a species, to be out for ourselves. The selfish gene is such that we place our own importance over that of our children – this is nothing new. Even I can concede that looking to our pre-historic ancestors doesn’t always have the answers. Those capable of being more philosophical about life and the world around them are much more inclined to overrule the selfish gene and place love of their children above their own lives, but even then love itself isn’t always enough to mute our inherent sense of self importance.
But those who can, open the door to acceptance and a much more peaceful way of life for both themselves and their children.
I get the impression that, where we live, people are thinking I wear my 15 month old, 24lb toddler
in a sling because I’m too poor to afford a more “normal” method of transportation for Molly.
Not that it matters to me, but it can surely be the only explanation for it. That or I’m a bit on the clingy side. Right? Surely it will make her too dependent upon me? Surely it hurts my back? Surely she’s sick of staring at my face? Surely she can walk?!
The best place to start with this one, is right at the very beginning…
I don’t mean to get ahead of myself, but… I might actually be OK at this craft lark after all!
Well, I’m still not knitting, crocheting or even making anything very big but so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised with my amateur attempts. It’s so therapeutic and has really helped me to de-stress lately, I’m constantly on the go and often find it hard to relax (I even seem to find showering really inconvenient and time consuming) so it’s a good way for me to keep myself busy and really relax at the same time.
My recent efforts include a simple embroidered cupcake cushion (to further indulge my cupcake obsession) and a little fairy cottage cushion which has required most of my imagination so far. A good sign that I might be improving a little. I thought I would share my completed cupcake cushion and how I achieved it with the simple running stitch again.
Unfooding, defooding or food freedom is a parenting philosophy that believes children should be free to decide when to eat, where to do it, what they want to eat and how much of it. It believes children should have the same level of choice as anyone else.
It is something that makes a great deal of sense, biologically speaking, but often raises a few eyebrows. As with all our parenting choices, we make conscious, considered decisions for Molly that often improve upon our own lives as we further educate ourselves. It’s ironic, really, that following a more natural path isn’t as instinctive as it once was and that many find their instincts are actually learned responses and ingrained beliefs handed down from their own upbringing, rather than a truly natural response. I can certainly say that this has been true for me on many occasions, though I am thankful that I can be open minded enough to think twice.
This is our journey to food freedom.
I'm Elle, a twentysomething mother of one and housewife. I'm a freelance writer and activist. I also own and run several parenting websites in my free time.
This is a blog about me, my family and our little adventures together.
