The phone call came around noon. It was my daughter. We didn’t have power at home and did I know that? I didn’t.*

The second call came a bit later. Faced with no power, she had decided to start working on dinner. Her first step was to inventory our cupboards.

Did you know, she asked me over the phone, that there are things in our cupboard from 2002? They were boxed products that I rarely use like shake and bake.

She threw the old items out and started grilling me about what she should make for dinner.

That’s right. My oldest child made dinner for the family last night, and it was awesome.

Not only did she cook dinner (chicken breasts, awesome mashed potatoes and salad), she cooked TWO blueberry pies, something my children have been requesting me to do for quite a while.

It was great to come home to food rather than to a hungry family.

And this has become a wonderful habit. You see, the oldest child is on a special schedule at school. She only has classes until around 11:30 a.m. Two days a week, she travels out to the community college for a 4 hour class. The other three days, she is free to put some variety into her schedule.

Some days she decides to stay at school and serves as a student aide for a teacher there. Other days, she comes home and does her laundry and cooks our dinner. Yummy.

On those days, she typically calls me at work and asks various questions about recipes.

I’ve found myself pulling out my cookbooks and finding recipes online. As part of my weight loss journey, I am trying to eat better and smarter. I’m no longer willing to give up taste for convenience. If I can’t eat very much, I want what I eat to taste very good.

The other day, I made taco soup, which was awesome. I found the recipe at allrecipes.com for simple taco soup. Someone else mentioned BLT soup is also good. I’ll have to try it.

Soups seem great for fall/winter days, and I don’t think I made nearly enough before. Do you have a favorite soup recipe? If so, please share it.

*About the no power thing…. As soon as she let me know, I logged into my electric company’s web site. As I thought, I had not forgotten to pay the bill. It was current without anything being past due. I then called and reported the power outage. Power was restored within an hour or so. Isn’t it funny how when the power goes out, the first reaction is “did you pay the bill?”