Join me as I cook chicken vegetable soup and discuss the book “Our Little Kitchen.” The author Jillian Tamaki includes an open ended recipe in the book that inspired me to cook my own soup at home. I also include a challenge for you in this post, continue reading to find out what the challenge is!
Our Little Kitchen
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The book, “Our Little Kitchen” was written and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. It is a children’s picture book, and I recommend reading it with your little ones!
This story is about a community of people who come together at a soup kitchen to cook and serve a hot meal to those in need. I really enjoy this book because the characters are both resourceful and diverse.
Resourcefulness
The individuals that serve at the soup kitchen must use what is on hand to cook a hot meal. There is a community garden that supplies some of the produce and they also use what they can find in the refrigerator.
Being able to use what you already have at home to cook a good meal is a skill! When we do this we are able to decrease food costs and food waste. We can practice doing this by using what is growing in our gardens, cooking with the ingredients we have in our fridges, and choosing from what is already in our pantries.
Diversity
It is fun to see the diversity of the individuals that serve at the soup kitchen, and also with those that come to the soup kitchen for a hot meal. If you have served at a soup kitchen before, I am sure you could also say that this portrayal is quite accurate! You will see people from different cultures and backgrounds come together and it is a beautiful thing.
Create Discussion With Your Children
If you read this book with your kids, take advantage of the discussion points that come up. Here is a short list of ideas on what you can talk about with your children while reading this book:
- What a soup kitchen is
- Why are soup kitchens (or food pantries) needed in communities?
- What diversity is, what it looks like
- What is food waste and ways to decrease waste
Some activities you can do together after reading this book:
- Serve at a soup kitchen/food pantry together
- Cook soup, or another meal with the ingredients you already have on hand at home
- Challenge yourselves to see how many meals you can cook without needing to purchase new foods/ingredients from the store
My Challenge for You
I like to include challenges in my posts. These challenges are created to inspire joy, growth, and well being for you and others. I also participate in my own challenges!
To go along with this book, I challenge you to volunteer at a soup kitchen or food pantry near you.
I was not able to find a soup kitchen near me that allowed my children to serve alongside me. So we opted to serve at an organization called Feed My Starving Children. We helped pack meals that are sent out to children all around the world to reverse and prevent undernutrition.
Serving as a family helped our kids experience so many important things. They were able to see what coming alongside others to serve looks like. They got to work with people that have different skin colors, backgrounds and cultures than their own. They also learned about undernutrition, and learned some of the hard truths about the difficulties that others live with day in and day out.
And maybe most importantly, my kids were able to see how a small act of service can change someone else’s life significantly. On the day we packed meals, we were able to help prepare enough meals to feed 71 children for a whole year!
If you participate in this challenge, please comment below, or create a post and tag me on Instagram, I’d love to share your post on my stories!
Chicken Vegetable Soup
In the story “Our Little Kitchen“, the characters cook a hot vegetable soup and they also bake an apple crumble.
The recipe for soup in the front cover of Our Little Kitchen is very open ended. There are no exact ingredients or amounts of ingredients. I was inspired by the book, to cook a chicken vegetable soup with ingredients I had on hand.
For the veggies I ended up putting carrots, celery, radish, potato, onion and garlic in my soup. I used leftover chicken from a chicken I had roasted the day before for my protein. My broth was made with bullion and I added some dried thyme for additional flavor.
My chicken vegetable soup turned out really good, it had a lot of flavor and it provided a hot meal for my family for several meals. I really enjoyed adding ingredients I may not typically use in my homemade soups, and it was good practice using what I already had on hand to cook.
Note: I also tried the open ended recipe on the back cover of “Our Little Kitchen” for apple crumble. It did not turn out good but this is not a surprise because baking is more of a science than cooking tends to be. I don’t recommend trying to make a crumble without a tried and true recipe as you may be disappointed!
How to Make a Satisfying and Healthy Soup With What you Have on hand:
- Include vegetables that do well with simmering/boiling. Root vegetables are perfect for this. Add extra veggies to increase your vegetable intake.
- Add a carbohydrate of some kind, this could be potatoes, pasta or rice. Opt for whole grain noodles or brown rice instead of white noodles and white rice to increase nutrients and fiber.
- Include a source of protein such as chicken, lean beef, or vegetarian options such as lentils, beans or dried peas.
- Limit sodium by choosing low sodium stock or broth, or use less bullion than is recommended on the jar. You get to control the amount of sodium each serving of soup has when you make it homemade. Most canned or pre-prepared soups have at least 700 to 1,000 mg of sodium per serving (and don’t forget that most canned soups have more than one serving in them).
- Pair your soup with a whole grain bread for a more satisfying meal.
Homemade Soup
when you start cooking homemade soups, you may never go back to canned or pre-prepared soups. I started making most of my soups homemade about two years ago and now I don’t want to eat it any other way. Homemade soups are superior because you get to choose what ingredients go in there, you can avoid all of the extra additives and preservatives, and you can keep sodium much lower.
One last tip for you, if you do take time to make homemade soup, double the recipe. This way you will have some leftover for a quick lunch or dinner the following day. I will often pair leftover soup with a grilled cheese or I will pack soup in a thermos for my kids’ lunches the next day. You will also have enough soup left to freeze for future use.
Our Little Kitchen
If you want to find your own copy of the book “Our Little Kitchen,” you can find it at your library in the children’s section. It will be filed under last name Tamaki. Or if your library organizes picture books by topic, it will be under activities and food. If you’d like to purchase your own copy of the book, you can find it here on Amazon. If you check out the book, let me know how you like it!
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