Four-Day Flu & Tomato Soup

Well, it’s been four days since I wrote a blog post, saying that Jeff and Emmie were both sick as of Friday night. I didn’t know it then, but it was out for me too… I woke up Saturday feeling good, feeling determined to be productive around the house, despite the sick family members. Emmie made this little “photo backdrop” and her and Addie pretended to take photos, so I had to get one of her here too.

I worked hard Saturday morning, doing as much as I could. I cleaned Addie’s very messy & cluttered bedroom (this is the after photo), unloaded all the groceries and put everything away, started a load of laundry, and also started some homemade chicken noodle soup in the Instant Pot.

But right as the soup was finishing up and it was time to eat, I was starting to feel terrible and so, so tired. By the time we finished lunch, I was down for the count. I had a headache, fever, chills, body aches, and was so very tired. I ended up laying down for a nap, and slept for over three hours, and still felt terrible even after I woke up. I don’t remember the rest of the night, but I’m pretty sure I basically slept in the living room recliner the rest of the afternoon/evening, and went to bed super early. I never went to the doctor for myself, but I self-diagnosed it as the flu using Google, based on my symptoms.

Sunday, Jeff got the girls up and dressed for church, and apparently they both decided to wear Christmas dresses together. I slept right through all of that, and didn’t wake up till about 10am. Again, I don’t remember much about Sunday, because I pretty much slept the day away again…

Monday rolled around and I was still feeling awful, so obviously I called out of work. Jeff once again got the girls up and ready for the day. Addie went to daycare like usual, but since it’s Thanksgiving week, Emmie’s school is closed, so she went to spend a couple of days with Grandmommie and my parents.

Monday night, Emerson had a sleepover at my parents’ house, and when Jeff picked up Addison from school, she requested pancakes for dinner, so we ordered Cracker Barrel take-out, and the girl ate tons of food that night.

And finally we made it to Tuesday. I was feeling better by this morning that I had been over the last few days, but still not well enough to go to work, so I stayed home one more day, and Jeff took Addie to school.

I made myself a delicious yogurt & granola bowl with tea for breakfast, for some oft he first “real” food I had eaten in a few days, other than a little bit of plain white rice or toast. And this yogurt bowl was delicious.

I still took it really easy all day today, and took a nice morning nap, and managed to find the energy for an afternoon shower. Then I got really wild and decided to make some homemade roasted garlic & tomato soup for dinner. I had wanted to make it this past Saturday when I got sick, so I wanted to go for it tonight instead. I’ve seen lots of videos of this lately, and I just really wanted to try it myself. And it was pretty easy, even for me in my somewhat weakened state!

I put two of the garlic bulbs in the roasting pan with the other veggies, but I roasted the third on it’s own, not quite knowing yet how I wanted to use it.

I wish I had an immersion blender though, because that would have saved me the step of putting everything in my big Ninja blender, before moving it to the Dutch oven to simmer for a while.

Added some tomato paste and a little bit of tomato sauce and some crushed canned plum tomatoes, plus heavy cream and a hefty squirt of basil paste, since I couldn’t get any fresh basil.

I decided to use that third garlic bulb to make a garlic mozzarella aioli, to use as a spread on mine and Jeff’s sandwiches. I sliced up some sharp white cheddar cheese, and made a few small sammies for all of us.

Everything turned out perfect and so yummy! Making the homemade soup wasn’t easier than buying store-bought (there are some really good store-bought ones out there already!) but it was kind of a fun activity, and certainly delicious and exactly to my personal taste. 😉

And the girls both really liked it too! And that’s a big deal, obviously.

And there was plenty of leftovers, which I ladled up and stuck in the freezer to save for another cold night later this winter.

We let the girls run wild and play together for a long time after dinner. They were being so sweet together, and just doing their own thing, so we let them stay up later than usual, before we finally sat down to watch Bluey and calm down. Then, we were mostly back to our somewhat regular bedtime schedule tonight.

Luckily, we have the day off work again tomorrow, for another day of rest and recovery, but I’m gonna try to wash some dishes, and get Jeff to wash a load of laundry, but take it pretty easy other than that…