Ship Full o' Pirates

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Split Pea and Barley Soup.

This stuff is SO good for you, ya just have no idea.  And the children love it.  You think I’m kidding don’t ya?  I am not.  They love all peas and beans and any other legumes you may serve them.  Why?  How’d I get ‘em to like such cheap, plain food?

Well, it’s simple really.  God gave me 5 Pirates in 7 years.  I knew they’d all aspire to eat like teenagers someday.  The thought had me shakin’ in my boots. Have you seen teenaged boys eat?  I had no desire to spend ALL of our money at the grocery store.

So when they were all still quite small I decided I better teach ‘em to eat beans.  I figured that was just about the most inexpensive, nutrient dense food goin’.  I knew that if I served beans regularly they’d enjoy them as the comfort food of their early years.  Sneaky, huh?  And it worked!  They all enjoy them.  And I can feed our large family for very little money by serving beans.

Another wonderful benefit to this habit is, when we all wake up with a head cold, maybe there will be a bag of split peas lurking in the pantry waiting to become our lunch.

It’s so easy to make, I hesitate to call it a recipe, but here’s how.

You’ll need:

• 1 pound of dry split peas
• 2 handfuls of barley (in my grocery store it’s on the soup aisle)
• 8 cups water
• 4 bouillon cubes (I use Herb Ox, it doesn’t have MSG)

Rinse the peas in your colander.  Dump rinsed peas into a big pot.  Throw in the barley.  Pour in the water.  Toss in the bouillon cubes.  Give it a stir.  Turn your burner on high.  Begin wondering if the water is supposed to be all cloudy like that.  Think kind thoughts about me for warning you about the scary cloudy water.  Give it another stir.  Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium-low and put the lid on.  Go hang out some laundry and read a book to the children.  Check the soup, give it a stir.  It takes about an hour to an hour and a half.  Once the peas seem all mushy get out your stick blender and whiz the soup right in the pot.  (I know you shouldn’t use the words whiz and pot in the same sentence when you are really talking about food, but gimme a break, I have a head cold and I’m lucky I can remember where the letters are on the keyboard.) If you don’t have a stick blender you can use your regular blender and only put some of the soup in there, like about 2 cups.  Once it’s all creamy-like, pour it back into the pot with the rest of the soup and give it a stir.  If you don’t have any kind of blender, just eat it like it is.  I never even heard of blending pea soup until a few years ago.

At our house, any time the food is too hot to eat right away we do a MadLib or two while we wait for the molten lava that is our soup to cool.  The MadLibs and some reading may be all the academics we are up to today since my head is so clogged I can barely speak.  Ugh!

Be sure and check out all the cheap eats links at $5 Dinners.

Now it’s your turn.  Share your helpful hints and practical tips for raising a large family.  Write your Help for Growing Families post and link here with my Mister Linky.  For more details click here.

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