Thermos 3-Tier Bento #46

Half a sandwich made from Green Slice mixed garden deli slices and Violife cheddar, original flavor Sunchips, and some homemade alphabet soup.

Yes! I cooked! Even if I did serve my soup with a sandwich and chips (ah, the parade of sandwiches...), I had started cooking something again and it was good. Also, I would note that I tried a new kind of chicken substitute (new to me, anyway--it isn't new), Wegman's Don't Be Chicken. It held up well in soup. I may yet survive when my Beyond Chicken freezer stash is depleted.

I mean, it's no Beyond Chicken but is anything? No. I just have to accept that.

In terms of this soup, I had bought the alphabet noodles on sale a while ago, and I made a chicken noodle soup out of those with a mirepoix (onions, celery, carrots), some frozen spinach, a cut up Don't Be Chicken cutlet, Better than Bouillon chicken-free broth, and a bay leaf. Sometimes simple things are good, and my body thanked me for giving it something homemade. (Sounds weird to say that, as many already-prepped products as I used, but hey. I started with some raw vegetables and they ended up cooked. This is a big deal sometimes.)

I don't know what mystical properties soup possesses, but I always feel like I'm being taken care of, somehow, if I have a hot bowl of soup. There was a gentleness to this soup that I needed at the time.