Back to School with Home Made Soup

The school Bells are ringing again and it's time to talk about those easy and filling fall soups.  When I went to school, children came home for lunch and then ran back to school just in time for the bell to ring you back into afternoon classes.  Lunch in the winter at our house was always some type of soup and a half sandwich (because it was split with my younger brother for his lunch).

Since so many go to school on buses today and eat their lunches at school, there is nothing wrong with making a pot of soup for when the children return home from school and need a pick-me-up to get ready to do homework.  A cup of soup when you first get home takes the edge off the hunger pains and isn't too much to spoil a good supper.  For those children who play sports and have evening activities, it's just enough to get them going again for whatever needs to be done.

In the past we have talked about some of the soups made with tomato base.  Today I want to start with one of America's favorite soups, Chicken Soup.  First, we are going to talk about Chicken Dumpling Soup.  You can make many varieties of chicken soup, but when you add that little dough ball, your soup takes on a whole different consistency that tantalizes the pallet.

Chicken Dumpling Soup

Basic Chicken Soup can be made and so many other starches can be added to it such as noodles or rice.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup or chicken rice soup start with the basic soup recipe that you have from the Chicken Dumpling Soup, but when the soup has simmered for awhile, you add your noodles or rice and let it simmer a while longer.  If you lose too much broth, you just add a little chicken broth or water.

Bean Soup with Ham

When I was a chat room monitor on a popular bingo site, the subject of Bean Soup with Ham came up.  I offered my recipe in the chat room, line by line and the person who originally asked came back several days later to tell me how good it was.  I make this recipe less often than the others, but my Mom made it after she had  ham for dinner.  One way to stretch a piece of meat into several dinners or lunches.  I found this recipe in my mother-in-law's recipes.  I never really had a recipe from my Mom even though she often made a pot full of one soup or another for the family supper.