This morning I had a meeting at Ava’s homeschooled school. That’s right, my homeschooled kid will be going to school. Just once a week for 3 hours with a bunch of other homeschoolers, but still – we call it school.

Aunt Ellen stayed with the girls while I went to the meeting. I snacked on an apple on the drive there.

And ate a Larabar mid meeting.

Home and more than ready to eat, I went with fast. Just your run of the mill everything-but-the-kitchen-sink gigantic tossed salad.

Topping with homemade Italian dressing post-photo shoot. And then enjoyed my favorite date and almond butter treats, all in a row.

The afternoon was lazy and low key, until snack time that is. I was delighted to find Organic Popcorn the other day!

The snack that keeps on giving. It’s entertaining to pop – and fun to try and count as it’s coming out too.

It’s high in fiber, low in calories (even topped with a little melted butter!)

And what do you know? Ants like it too!

We had an impromptu homeschooling adventure when we spotted some ants coming up between a crack in the sidewalk and Ava put down a couple pieces of popcorn. We watched in amused amazement as these ants went crazy for these white puffs of popped corn. They actually rocked the popcorn around while the worked to dismember it.

I left them on the porch while I went into to get some peppers for additional snack-age. They took it upon themselves to get right in the middle of the action while I was inside for a few minutes.

They went from ant observers to ant trappers.

I’m afraid I can’t promise that no ants were harmed here.

But enough with blood and ant carnage, tonight was one of those I-don’t-know-WHAT-to-make-for-dinner-what-can-I-come-up-with-from-what-we-have-in-the-house nights. You know the kind.

Veggies abound and there was no avoiding a produce drawer full of carrots. I came up with my very own recipe, Curried Carrot and Cauliflower Lentil Soup. That’s quite a mouthful. In more ways than one.

I shredded about 5 to 6 large carrots in the food processor and shredded one large red onion as well. I usually shred veggies by hand but if I’m doing a lot at once then I use the food processor shredder piece. I threw the whole shredded bundle into the pot with some garlic and sauteed it all in until extra virgin olive oil until soft. Once everything had softened up I added about 8oz of rinsed and drained red lentils and a couple cups of low-sodium vegetable broth and a few good shakes of curry powder.

I added about a cup of water and brought it all to a boil. Reduced heat to low and then simmered until the lentils were cooked. Probably 20 minutes or so?

I ladled out about half and put it into the food processor to make a a thicker base.

I poured the pureed soup back in with the unpureed half and added a few chunks of cauliflower and cooked on low for another 15 minutes or so until the cauliflower softened up.

Mean while, back at the other side of the stove, I decided it was a Soup-er Sandwich night and made something I haven’t had in ages – grilled cheese and tomato!

Sprayed the pan with EVOO with my favorite olive oil sprayer and laid two slices of sesame Ezekiel bread into the pan with a little shredded Colby Jack cheese and tomato slices.

Gettin’ hot and melty in there!

Mmmm… melty!

Soup and Sandwich. Go together like a horse and carriage?

The soup was good but that grilled cheese sandwich? Now that was super!