Lentil Soup

   

   Imagine one of your favorite childhood memories.  What can you smell..hear..taste?  For me, it was the time that I spent with my grandma & grandpa (Nanny & Poppop was what I called them).  My grandmother made the most delicious lentil soup.  This was my all-time favorite of hers.  To this day, no one can quite make it like she did.  Something is always missing, but you can’t put your finger on exactly what it is!  Does it need more salt..more basil? What is it?!  Nanny’s recipe is very vague...to say the least!  It goes like this: “A little bit of this, a little bit of that.”  No measurements.   

    Today, I decided to try to make the famous lentil soup.  As I cooked the lentils, I thought about Nanny, and how much I miss her.  What would she think about me having diabetes?  She was the Italian grandma who gave you many different sweets and flavorful edibles...ranging from cookies, cakes, bagels, & pastas!  What would she do now?  I’m sure she would feel sympathetic because of everything I have to go through.  She’d be the first one trying to make new, low-carb meals for me!

    The spices smell so scrumptious mixed with the lentils as they cook on the stove.  It’s as if I could close my eyes, and be back at Nanny and Poppop’s apartment several years ago.  The smell of the lentil soup brings me back to wonderful times at their place.  Kris is in the other room--I hear referees from the speakers in the living room.  This sound reminds me of Poppop and how he would watch games in the living room while Nanny cooked.  Amazing how such simple smells, sounds, and tastes can bring you back to lovely moments from the past.  

     I’m off to devour my soup....by the way Nanny, you forgot to tell me how many carbs are in lentil soup...